Days after announcing her resignation from The Athletic, veteran journalist Dianna Russini has once again made the headlines. Russini had to step down after pictures of her with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, taken at a resort in Arizona, were published by the Post. While Russini faces investigation by The Athletic for those pictures, the reporter is once again in the news for her actions, but this time, on a positive note.

“After resigning from the New York Times amid a blistering scandal and a resulting media circus, Page Six hears that top NFL journalist Dianna Russini mounted a daring rescue of an elderly man and his dog from an overturned Jeep,” Page Six’s Oli Coleman reported. “Local news site Patch reported that around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, a 17-year-old driving a Honda Civic turned onto a street in suburban Wyckoff, New Jersey, and collided with the Jeep, flipping the 4×4 onto its side.”

The crash occurred around 5 p.m. Wednesday, when a 17-year-old Wyckoff resident in a Honda Civic turned left from Sicomac Avenue onto Cedar Hill Avenue before colliding with the Jeep. The report by Page Six further revealed Russini was driving behind the Jeep and saw the entire accident ahead of her. Hence, when she stopped to help, the former ESPN correspondent “had a tall man put her on top of the Jeep to open the door,” before they helped the driver and his dog get out of the wreck.

The Jeep driver was taken to a local hospital for head and shoulder pain, while the dog was unharmed in the crash and was subsequently turned over to a friend of the Jeep driver, as per the Wyckoff Patch. Furthermore, the Honda driver was uninjured and hasn’t faced any traffic citations, as the investigation continues.

This accident adds another significant incident to the whirlwind of a week Dianna Russini has found herself in. On April 7, Page Six first reported that Russini and Vrabel were seen together at the luxury Ambiente resort in Sedona, Arizona, more than two hours from the venue of the NFL’s Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.

Responding to these pictures, Russini and Vrabel claimed they had been at the hotel with other friends and denied a relationship, per Page Six. But since then, the veteran reporter faced an investigation from The Athletic, with executive editor Steven Ginsberg sending an email to the staff that Russini had stepped from her role, and the company continues to review her work.

While the controversy continues, a new report from ESPN has delved deeper into how the Patriots’ head coach and the former The Athletic correspondent “coordinated” their response regarding the pictures.

Dianna Russini, Mike Vrabel “coordinated” for responding to the New York Post report: ESPN

While the leaked pictures of Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel continue to be one of the biggest news stories in the NFL over the last ten days, a new report by ESPN’s Ben Strauss reveals a much more serious issue, involving The Athletic. Strauss reports that Russini “coordinated with Vrabel about how to respond” to the initial story from the New York Post.

That alone can be considered a potential violation of the conflict of interest policy of The Athletic and its parent, The New York Times. Asking a source, who is also a subject of ongoing coverage, for assistance in navigating a sensitive employment issue can arguably appear to create a conflict of interest.

As Strauss reported, the companies’ ethics policy states that “[r]elationships with sources require sound judgment to prevent the fact or appearance of partiality. . . . It is essential we preserve a detachment, free of any whiff of bias.”

But again, there is no concrete evidence on the same, and all these can just be rumors. For now, only time will tell what happens next for Dianna Russini and Vrabel.

 

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR