Sixteen days after the story first surfaced, it has become a full-blown media feeding frenzy.
After reportedly passing on the initial photos of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini, TMZ is in on the action.
It has posted a photo of Vrabel and Russini at a Mississippi casino in January 2024, in the weeks after his firing by the Titans.
The photo itself is objectively innocuous. But TMZ adds some reporting to the image.
“A witness tells us they snapped the pic when they recognized Vrabel … and assumed at the time that the woman by his side was his wife based on their body language,” TMZ reports. “They didn’t realize until the recent bombshell news that the lady was actually Russini.”
TMZ adds that the source “didn’t see any PDA,” but explains that “the two were quite comfortable together, drinking and chatting with other gamblers … and when Vrabel left the roulette table to play some blackjack, Russini followed … but sat across from him.”
The broader point is that, currently, anyone and everyone with old photos of Vrabel and Russini will be potentially tracking them down and making them available to outlets like TMZ and the New York Post. Which could lead to more and more photos being published, for as long as the story continues to have legs.
Who knows how long that will be? Already, 16 days in the current climate feels like an eternity.
