Vrabel's Fables: A Source Spot For Sports Reporting

Who doesn’t like a little salacious story to spice up the NFL offseason? Last week the New York Post printed photos of New England coach Mike Vrabel and NFL reporter Dianna Russini holding hands, hugging and spending time together in the pool at a "luxurious" Arizona hotel.

The reports and photos sparked speculation of whether the Super Bowl losing coach and the glamorous reporter, who are both married, were involved in a relationship, spending time together one-on-one. The pair quickly issued replies that said the get-together was innocent, there were others around at the time and whatcha’ gunna do? Vrabel": “These photos show a completely innocent interaction, and any suggestion otherwise is laughable. This doesn’t deserve any further response.”

For an innocent “interview” opportunity it certainly drew the interest of Vrabel’s owner Robert Kraft, who had his own little crisis in 2019 over his preference for happy-endings massage with immigrant Asian women in Florida. According to In Touch , Kraft “had his honchos pressure The Post before they published and tried to kill the story,”

“The Post gave Vrabel a longer time to respond than what is considered industry norms, and Kraft took advantage of that extended timeframe to put pressure on the reporter and the newspaper. A notorious crisis strategist made the call but was unsuccessful in neutering the story.” Seems like a lot over nothing, no?

Maybe not. Veteran loudmouth Skip Bayless claims that some female reporters cross the ethical and professional boundaries with athletes and big names in the sport. He calls it “the game within the game.” That insults the many pros like Doris Burke, Pam Oliver, Hannah Storm, Erin Andrews, Andrea Kramer, Judy Battista, Kate Beirness, Laura Diakun and Stacey Dales— among many others. 

But it appears that The Athletic, Russini’s employer, thought otherwise, suspending Russini before the writer offered her resignation. For the truth we here at Not The Public Broadcaster recommend finding out the size of the diamond Mrs. Vrabel gets for her birthday this year. (Hey, it worked for the late Kobe Bryant )

Laughing at all this from his corner of hell, Harold Ballard is saying “I told you so” about women covering men’s sports. We remember the day in 1987 where the Maple Leafs owner refused to let a woman reporter into his team’s dressing room at the Gardens because, in his estimation, they wanted to window shop, and had we seen the size of certain players’ paraphernalia? 

While it does offer a titillating angle to the mostly routine business of chasing a story the Vrabel/ Russini relationship shouldn’t condemn the practice of women reporters covering male sports. (Although we do recall a now-famous baseball reporter jumping into the arms of a head football coach during a scrum.) 

Having said that it seems that major media outlets have gone Warp Five speed toward integrating women into their coverage of men’s sports. The more Woke the network (ESPN, Disney) the more likely the chance of having eye candy hosting or standing on a sideline or doing whiteboard on panels. 

It’s not unlike morning radio shows with their formula of guys named Dave and a woman named Dusty yukking it up. The difference is that the audience for FM radio shows skews heavily female while the audience for men’s sports is predominantly male.  (Flash quiz: Why did CBC/ Rogers have women on the panels for mens’ Olympic hockey but only women on the panels for womens’ hockey?)

But DEI has had its way, and many on-air women are consigned to window dressing. Just as blacks, gays and women are over-represented in commercial TV production (relative to their POP). Which leaves the truly talented group mentioned above feeling like their achievements are somehow tainted by the lack of merit-based hires among them. 

Sexual politics aside the Vrabel/ Russini story also speaks to the issue of how stories are got by an number of women and men. We see the Elliotte Friedmans,  Ian Rappaports, Adam Schefters and Brian Windhorsts breaking stories all the time but few others seem to get their beak wet.

How’s is it that a small coterie of reporters dominate the scoops? As we noted in May of 2024   “In today’s sports journalism, where social media has replaced newspapers, scoops are governed by a protocol. There are the heralds— in the NHL it’s currently Johnston and Dreger— and then there are the disseminators. The days of a rabble of reporters all scrambling to get a story bigger than who-will-play-in-tonight’s-game are gone. Today, it’s a very narrow funnel for scoops.

It’s the same in the NFL where Ian Rappaport (NFL Network) and Adam Schefter (ESPN) monopolize the tasty scoops on behalf of their employers, who also happen to be NFL rights holders. In the NBA, Brian Windhorst (ESPN) has the inside rail when it comes to the LeBron James/ Steph Curry scoops. In MLB it’s probably Ken Rosenthal  (The Athletic) but no one cares about that much about baseball anymore, do they?

The leagues like it this way, doling out stories to guys they can trust. None of this is criticism of Johnston or Dreger, who have deftly maneuvered themselves into the coveted “from their lips to your ears” spots. From our own experience we can remember the exhilaration of having the best source or sources on the really big stories. Like Johnston/ Dreger, we worked hard for a long time to develop those sources and only very reluctantly let anyone else horn in on our stories.”

But now there are the Diana Russinis caught in a lingering kiss with a man who was NFL coach of the year. The power dynamic seems clear. Russini has a direct line to an influential coach who can spin her or reward her. Others need not apply. 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his 2023 book Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, was voted a Top 20 greatest professional hockey books of all time by bookauthority.org . https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1770415300?linkCode=gs2&tag=uuid0a1-20 His previous book with his son Evan, Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. His new poetry collection In Other Words is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca and on Kindle books at https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1069802700