Fresh bodycam video has captured the awkward exchange in which Dianna Russini appears to invoke Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell while speaking with a police officer in an apparent attempt to avoid a traffic citation.
But contrary to what the former NFL insider suggested on a podcast earlier this year, the footage does not seem to show O’Connell joining the interaction via FaceTime with the officer.
The clip, running a little more than seven minutes, begins with the officer walking up to Russini’s vehicle during snowy conditions.
Russini tells him: “I’m an NFL reporter, and I just broke that Sean McDermott got fired from the Bills. And that I what I was just sending to send [sic], a tweet. I was gonna pull over, because I have to make calls. I know you don’t care, but I just wanted you to know my reason why.”
The officer replies: “Obviously you were on your phone for a while. . . . I understand you’ve got a job.”
Russini then cuts in, saying she had been speaking with former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll, before asking whether the officer supports the Giants or the Jets.
Bodycam video shows Dianna Russini mentioning Kevin O’Connell during a traffic stop
Russini appears to display messages with O’Connell to the officer, though the footage shows no FaceTime call
That is when the officer tells her he is a Vikings fan, which prompts Russini to show what looks like a text exchange with O’Connell before telling the officer that Minnesota’s quarterback, J.J. McCarthy, ‘sucks’.
After going to his vehicle to check over Russini’s documentation, the officer returns and says to her: ‘I’m gonna cut you a break on the cellphone. I understand your job requires you to be on the phone a lot. Just try to wait ’til you get home, OK?’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Minnesota Vikings for comment.
Back in February, Russini revealed on ‘Stugotz and Company’ that she was pulled over by police weeks before for texting while driving with her two young sons in the car.
She claimed she told the officer she was using her phone because the Buffalo Bills had just fired head coach Sean McDermott and she was trying to report the news.
But, she added, she managed to prevent a ticket by getting the head coach of the police officer’s favorite team to speak with him on FaceTime.
It is another desperately embarrassing episode for the former NFL insider, whose world was turned upside down by her affair scandal with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
An investigation into Russini and Vrabel’s alleged relationship was published by the New York Times on June 24.
Russini left her job as an NFL reporter after intimate pictures emerged of her and Mike Vrabel
Not only did it detail how Russini was paid close to $800,000-a-year by the New York Times-owned Athletic before her career collapsed, but it also included comments from her that she wanted to remain private.
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However, it also told the story of how bosses at The Athletic were unhappy with her for sharing the story of her allegedly using her relationship with O’Connell to get out of a driving ticket.
‘So he names the team [that he is a fan of] and I go, “Oh, I love that team. Do you want to talk to the coach? You should talk to the coach”,’ Russini claimed on the podcast.
She said she immediately FaceTimed the coach, who ‘played all into it’ and told the officer ‘you should let her go, she’s a good citizen.’
Russini admitted she was ‘desperate’ in the moment because ‘I don’t want to get a ticket. My husband is going to kill me.’
She continued: ‘I’m texting and driving. I shouldn’t be doing that I know that… I [called] a coach to get out of a ticket. Like what a nasty play but it worked.’
Danielle Rhoades Ha, a Times Company spokeswoman, called it ‘unacceptable conduct’, while it later emerged that Russini also never asked or received permission to go on that podcast, which was required.
Russini left her job at The Athletic, where she was one of the highest-paid journalists, just days after bombshell pictures emerged in early April of her appearing intimate with Vrabel at an adults-only resort in Arizona. Both are married with children.
The New York Times piece also revealed that, when the scandal first exploded, The Athletic and Russini were in talks over renewing her contract, which was set to expire at the end of June.
Russini has vehemently denied all suggestions of an affair with Vrabel, insisting in a statement announcing her resignation that she stands by every story she has published.
Russini and husband Kevin Goldschmidt were married in New Jersey in September 2020
Vrabel has been married to his wife, Jen, for over two decades and they have two children
The Patriots coach denied it too, initially, alongside Russini’s claim that they were at the resort with friends. But subsequently, Vrabel said he had started counseling in order ‘to be the best husband, father and coach that I possibly can be’.
He even missed the third day of the NFL Draft with the Patriots as a result of his move.
The New York Times piece also revealed that, a day after the intimate photos were taken in Sedona, Russini and Vrabel spent time together at the NFL’s annual meeting in Phoenix.
It’s claimed Russini was bringing drinks to and from a small group of people that included Vrabel and other NFL coaches on the patio of the Arizona Biltmore hotel, while she would ‘periodically stop to sit on the arm of the sofa next to where Vrabel sat’.
When asked if she would be willing to give an interview for the New York Times piece, Russini responded via text message and highlighted the ‘intense scrutiny and personal attacks’ she had faced in the aftermath of the scandal.
She added: ‘This has had a significant impact on my life, both professionally and personally.’
Russini asked the reporter not to quote from the text exchange but, because no agreement had been made to keep it off the record, the quotes were included.
When informed that parts of her messages would be included, Russini is said to have objected in an email to David Perpich, the publisher of The Athletic, and two senior New York Times editors.
