New England Patriots’ Mike Vrabel and top NY Times NFL reporter Dianna Russini hold hands and hug at luxury hotel
Exclusive photos obtained by Page Six appear to show the New England Patriots‘ head coach Mike Vrabel and the New York Times’ top NFL reporter holding hands and hugging at a luxurious hotel.
Vrabel and Dianna Russini — a former anchor on ESPN’s flagship “SportsCenter” who now holds the official title of the Gray Lady’s “senior NFL insider” — were spotted two weekends ago at the Ambiente in Sedona, Arizona, a boutique resort set against the breathtaking Brins Mesa mountain range.
Top New York Times NFL reporter Dianna Russini and New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel were snapped on what appears to be the roof of a private bungalow at the Ambiente resort in Sedona, Arizona. © Page Six
The pair embraced as they took in the sunset views of the Brins Mesa mountain range. © Page Six
Spies said that Vrabel and Russini appeared to be visiting the hotel without anyone else in their group. © New York Post
A Page Six spy tells us that the pair — both married to other people — had breakfast on the patio of the hotel restaurant around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 28, before spending a leisurely hour or so together at the pool and lounging side-by-side in a hot tub.
Our spy spotted Vrabel and Russini again that evening on the private rooftop of one of the hotel’s bungalows, which feature glass walls offering panoramic views of the state’s famed Red Rock formations.
Roofs are only accessible from the two-person bungalows, which cost up to $2,160 a night.
Photos show the two hugging at sunset, and weaving their fingers together as they stand face-to-face. The spy said they saw the pair briefly dance together.
Russini and Vrabel relaxed in the boutique hotel’s pool and hot tub after breakfast. © Page Six
They spent about an hour and a half around the pool on Saturday morning, we’re told.
We’re told Russinni, here by the hotel pool, and Vrabel left the area separately. © Page Six
Vrabel seemed in an easygoing mood, according to fellow guests. © Page Six
Both Russini and Vrabel insist they were there with friends and say they simply weren’t visible in the pictures. A source close to Russini says she was staying at the hotel during a hiking trip with two female pals. One of Vrabel’s friends told Page Six that he and the coach drove up to Sedona for the day with another pal and that they all drove back to their own hotel after hanging out with Russini and her gang.
But three other eyewitnesses told us that they did not see anyone else with Vrabel, 50, and Russini, 43. Asked if the Pats coach visited the hotel with a group of friends, one eyewitness said: “No, he was with a girl.” And our sequence of photographs taken at various during the day only show Vrabel and Russini,
Vrabel attended a scouting event at Arizona State University in Tempe on Friday, March 27, before traveling 125 miles to the Ambiente. One of his friends told Page Six that he and the coach drove up to Sedona for the day with another pal and back to their own hotel, some two hours away, after the impromptu hang with Russini and her gang.
The adults-only Ambiente prides itself on being a romantic getaway, boasting on its website about 158 proposals and thousands of anniversaries and honeymoons that have happened at the hotel.
After being seen with Russini, Vrabel headed to the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix for a meeting of the NFL Competition Committee, a group of owners and coaches who oversee the game’s rulebook.
Russini has been married to Shake Shack exec Kevin Goldschmidt since 2020. Dianna Russini/Instagram
The former linebacker has been married to Jennifer Vrabel, seen here with her husband and Pats owner Robert Kraft and his wife Dr. Dana Blumberg, since 1999. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation
Russini was among many NFL reporters at the Biltmore on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of last week when media had access to owners, executives and coaches.
On Thursday, the Athletic published a dispatch about the Biltmore meetings written by Russini and Jacob Robinson.
Russini has been one of the more prominent football reporters in the country for more than a decade and routinely covers the Patriots as part of the gig.
She joined “SportsCenter” in 2015 and has appeared on ESPN’s popular “NFL Countdown” and “NFL Live” shows.
Russini, here at the Fantics Super Bowl party in February, is the host of the “Scoop City: Inside The NFL” podcast. Getty Images for Fanatics
She was born in the Bronx and now lives in New Jersey.
In 2023, she joined the Athletic, the once-independent site that was acquired by the Times and now provides the paper’s sports coverage. Russini hosts its “Scoop City: Inside The NFL” podcast.
Vrabel, who played eight seasons as a linebacker for the Patriots, took over as the team’s top coach in January 2025 and stunned the league by taking the team to the Super Bowl this year.
The six-time Super Bowl-winning Patriots are ranked by Forbes as the fourth most valuable team in the NFL, worth around $9 billion with an annual revenue of $762 million. Vrabel is believed to earn around $15 million a year.
He and Russini go way back.
Covering the Tennessee Titans was Russini’s first NFL beat at ESPN, and she was the network’s boots on the ground in Nashville by the time Vrabel came in as head coach in 2018.
Russini began covering Vrabel’s career closely in 2018 when she was ESPN’s Tennessee Titans beat reporter and he was the head coach. Dianna Russini/Instagram
“They went from being [a team] nobody thought about to Mike got them playing really well,” she said of that year’s team on the “Patriots Unfiltered” podcast in February. “And then, of course, they went to the AFC Championship Game in 2019.”
In 2015, Russini weathered a controversy when the wife of the Washington Redskins (now the Washington Commanders) GM Scot McCloughlan publicly accused them of having an affair.
After the reporter broke a story about Kirk Cousins replacing Robert Griffin III as the Redskins’ starting quarterback, Jessica McCloughlan reportedly wrote on Twitter, “I’m pretty sure this info is coming from my husband to his new side chick, Dianna.”
Russini, above at the 2019 Espy Awards, has said that leaving ESPN was a difficult decision. WireImage
Jessica deleted the tweet and her account and apologized to Russini.
“I deeply apologize for the disparaging remarks about an ESPN reporter on my personal Twitter account. The comment was unfounded and inappropriate, and I have the utmost respect for both the reporter and ESPN,” she wrote at the time.
“I regret that my actions have brought undeserved negative attention to the Redskins organization and its leadership. My comments in no way reflect the opinions or attitudes of the organization and I regret that my behavior has in any way negatively impacted the team and its loyal fan base.”
ESPN also defended its reporter in a statement, saying, “Dianna is an excellent reporter who should never have to be subjected to such vulgar comments. We are obviously extremely disappointed by today’s developments.”
It appears that after leaving their trip, Vrabel traveled to Phoenix for the NFL annual meeting, where he spoke with reporters. AP
Vrabel was back at work this week at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. AP
The expectations on Russini have been sky-high since she joined the Atlantic.
“To think Dianna Russini will almost certainly make more money than Maggie Haberman or David Brooks—Times legends—and, crazily, might earn more than them combined, is a sign of the strange sports journalism times we live in,” NBC’s Peter King wrote on her signing. “Stars who cover the NFL make crazy salaries compared to the money people make covering news that truly matters.”
Russini has talked about the pressure to lead the highly respected outlet’s football coverage, especially the need to get close with the top figures in the game.
“I had so many people in football reach out and say, ‘You’re gonna drown unless you do this, this and this,’” she said right before this year’s Super Bowl. “I actually had a head coach reach out to me in my first three months and say, ‘How come you don’t call me?’… His point was, ‘Your competitors are calling me, so if you want to stay in this and do this at a high level, you’re going to have to be more aggressive.’ And I think I’ve got a little more aggressive since.”
Russini married Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt in 2020. They have two children.
She marked their 2022 anniversary on Instagram, writing: “2 years today was the best day of my life — when I married Kev in front of our family and dozens of friends over zoom! It’s you and only you, for me, forever.”
Vrabel and wife Jennifer reportedly met as student athletes at Ohio State University and celebrated 25 years of marriage in 2024. They have two sons, one of whom, Tyler, briefly played for the Atlanta Falcons.
The coach told Page Six Tuesday, “These photos show a completely innocent interaction and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.”
And Russini told us, “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day. Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”
Steven Ginsberg, executive editor of the Athletic, said: “These photos are misleading and lack essential context. These were public interactions in front of many people. Dianna is a premier journalist covering the NFL and we’re proud to have her at the Athletic.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Sheehan and Ben Brown
