There’s a new rule of thumb in sports media. When you’ve landed on the radar screen of Pablo Torre, it’s rarely good.
Torre’s latest episode focuses on the never-ending scandal that first emerged 17 days ago — the photos of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel and reporter Dianna Russini, formerly of ESPN and The Athletic.
If it took a while for Torre to get there, it’s understandable. His relationship with Meadowlark Media and The Athletic makes it delicate, to say the least. Dan LeBatard of Meadowlark Media has openly said he doesn’t want to talk about the situation because Russini is a friend. And The Athletic is neck deep in this pit of quicksand, especially since it voiced clear and unequivocal support for Russini in the first comments on the matter. (Torre at one point includes a disclaimer explaining that the opinions expressed are his alone.)
Torre adds an interesting fact to the story. As Jay Glazer of Fox was hosting the annual, poolside “day-drinking day” at the Biltmore resort in Arizona, where the league meetings were conducted, Russini was trying to organize a competing event — with Vrabel.
“Two sources with direct knowledge of this have confirmed it to me,” Torre said. “So that pool, where Jay Glazer was hosting all of those NFL head coaches and others. Across the way of that same pool was Diana Russini and Mike Vrabel. And what she was doing, I am told, was effectively trying to host a rival Office Christmas party. . . . It was Diane Russini. It was Mike Vrabel, among the cabanas, and a few other head coaches.”
The situation raised plenty of eyebrows.
“All of these head coaches across the pool and their wives, I am told, started talking about Vrabel and Russini. And this was before — days before the photos broke in the New York Post,” Torre said, “which is to say also, a thing I found out, is that their friendship was not breaking news to the people at the NFL owners meetings. They all knew that, in fact, they were out front together at this other competing, aspirational party.”
Given the various other developments that have emerged in recent days, this news won’t have the same impact as, say, Thursday’s March 2020 photos from the New York Post. But it’s another new snippet of facts for a story that has generated plenty since the original posting of photos and the strong denials from all involved.
