A resurfaced video of Dianna Russini, in which she lightheartedly critiques her marital intimacy, has emerged amid the ongoing controversy surrounding her alleged affair with Mike Vrabel.
The clip, which has gained traction on social media, features NFL insider Russini and Mike Vrabel, head coach of the New England Patriots, engaging in a ‘Family Feud’-style game alongside personalities from Barstool Sports. The game appears to have been recorded in April 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with both Russini and Vrabel participating via a Zoom call from separate locations.
During the game, Russini was prompted with the question, “Name something you close your eyes to do?” Her unexpected reply, “When you have sex with your husband or wife,” elicited laughter and some discomfort among the other participants. In a moment caught on camera, Vrabel, seemingly multitasking with a laptop, pauses briefly and shakes his head in response to Russini’s candid answer.
Russini was asked to name ‘something you close your eyes to do?’
The NFL insider then bizarrely responded: ‘When you have sex with your husband or wife.’
The rest of the guests burst out laughing while some squirmed awkwardly. It appears Vrabel is using a laptop to the side of his camera shot and briefly pauses what he’s doing and shakes his head at Russini’s answer.
Dianna Russini mocked her sex life with her husband in front of Mike Vrabel back in 2020
Russini was asked to name ‘something you close your eyes to do?’ and responded: ‘When you have sex with your husband or wife.’
Barstool chief Dave Portnoy, an avid Patriots fan, replied to the video on Thursday night: ‘What the f*** is this clip!!! I disavow! There is no way this can be real. Can we just play some football! Hut hut! Blue 42! Blue 42!!! Hut! Hut!’.
It is not the first time Russini has been caught saying something disparaging about her husband, Shake Shack executive Goldschmidt.
A clip from a 2021 episode of ESPN’s Get Up was recently unearthed, during which Russini discussed her marriage.
‘I’m married to someone average,’ she said at the time. ‘I don’t post a lot about him. If I was married to someone beautiful, I’d over-post too.’
Her ESPN co-hosts later gave Russini a chance to correct herself, to which she explained: ‘We’re average together.’
‘And you know what the worst part is,’ she continued. ‘He sent me a text during that segment – not watching ’cause he actually works for a living — and he said, “Good luck today. Be great on Get Up.”
‘So the guy’s got a heart of gold, and here I am on national TV killing him,’ she laughed. ‘Look, we’re average together, but he makes me above average because he married me. I am so sorry, I need to really stop killing my husband on television. I’m going to be divorced by Christmas!’
In another clip, Russini joked about having cold feet the night before her wedding while doing a phone interview with quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who was once voted the NFL’s ‘sexiest’ player.
Russini and husband Kevin Goldschmidt were married in New Jersey in September of 2020
The Barstool clip was not the first time Russini has been caught disparaging her husband
‘The night before my wedding, I’m making calls and I had a phone interview set up with Jimmy Garoppolo,’ Russini told the Dan Le Batard show. ‘Jimmy was great. He made a funny joke, like: “Hey, night before your wedding, you sure you want to do this?”
‘I’m thinking, of all the people in my life that I would talk to the night before my wedding, the one guy… my mom wanted me to marry was Jimmy Garoppolo,’ she laughed.
Even Russini’s own mother has joked that her marriage is ‘falling apart,’ as the reporter told the ‘Stugotz and Company’ podcast in February.
The clue, according to Russini, was that Goldschmidt was taking better care of himself.
‘I go, “Yeah [Kevin] doesn’t seem as stressed this year,”‘ Dianna remembered saying to her mother. ‘And she goes, “You know I’m starting to think he’s got a girlfriend, and you know what? Good for him. He looks good, he’s successful, his wife’s never around. You love this football thing. That’s why he looks good.”
‘I go, “Why would you say that to me right now while I’m on a trip? That my husband has a girlfriend?”‘ Russini continued. ‘And she goes, “Ah, just keeping you on your toes, you know?”‘
The scandal took a fresh twist on Thursday when video footage emerged of Vrabel and Russini arriving for their romantic boat trip that allegedly took place just months before she gave birth to her first son.
Russini and Vrabel reportedly hired a vessel for two or three hours in June 2021, when he was still coaching the Tennessee Titans and she was reporting on him for ESPN.
Russini and Vrabel’s affair scandal has exploded since they were pictured together at a hotel
A source with knowledge of the rental said Vrabel and Russini were the only people on board, and that claim was supported by a signed company waiver reviewed by TMZ.
Then, The Daily Mail obtained video footage of the couple walking along the dock of a private rental company near a lake in Putnam County, Tennessee. Russini could be seen strolling a few steps ahead of Vrabel.
But it’s clear that Russini is pregnant at the time of the video when she turns around to speak to Vrabel. The pair were dressed for a day on the water, wearing T-shirts and shorts.
Vrabel and Russini were said to be hesitant to have their pictures taken with fans that day. It was also alleged by TMZ that she declined to have a photo taken with fans, while he agreed on the condition that it not be posted online.
Russini went on to give birth to her first of two sons, named Mike, in August 2021. TMZ reported that Russini named him after her brother, Michael Russini, not the now-Patriots coach.
Rumors of an affair between the two began in March when the New York Post published photos of the NFL insider and coach hugging and hanging out poolside at an adults-only Arizona resort.
Although both initially denied cheating on their respective spouses, Vrabel has since apologized for his ‘actions,’ while stopping short of specifically admitting to an affair.
Vrabel has been married to his wife, Jen, for over two decades and they have two children
The married father of two adult sons briefly stepped away from the Patriots during April’s NFL Draft to go through counseling with his family.
The Post has since published photos of Vrabel and Russini enjoying breakfast together at the aforementioned Arizona resort and other pictures showing the two kissing at a New York bar, reportedly, in March of 2020.
Russini and her husband, Shake Shack executive Kevin Goldschmidt, were married in September 2020. Vrabel has been married to his wife, Jen, since 1999.
Furthermore, the Daily Mail has also published photos of Vrabel with Russini at a Biloxi, Mississippi, casino in January of 2024.
In April, Vrabel addressed the media and announced he would miss the third day of the NFL Draft to attend a counseling session with his family while she resigned from her job at The Athletic.
