Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jun 24

Dianna Russini Used NFL Coach to Dodge 1 Traffic Ticket After 2nd Stop in a Month

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Jun 24

Dianna Russini Used NFL Coach to Dodge 1 Traffic Ticket After 2nd Stop in a Month

Q: Did an NFL reporter's affair with a head coach also help her get out of a traffic ticket?

There is no confirmed evidence that an affair specifically helped Dianna Russini avoid the traffic ticket, but there is clear reporting that a head coach intervened and that she was let go. Russini herself said on a podcast that, after being stopped for texting while driving, she FaceTimed an unnamed NFL head coach from the roadside. According to her account, the coach told the officer, “You should let her go, she’s a good citizen,” and she was released without a citation. That much is directly tied to the traffic-stop incident. What is not established is whether that coach was Mike Vrabel or whether any romantic relationship was the reason the intervention worked. Later reporting and photos published in 2026 raised allegations of an affair between Russini and Vrabel and prompted an ethics investigation at The Athletic and The New York Times. But the available reporting does not definitively connect Vrabel to the traffic stop, nor does it prove that an affair, rather than simple access to a powerful source, was what got her out of the ticket. So the supported answer is narrower: a head coach’s intervention appears to have helped her avoid a citation; the claim that an affair did so remains unproven based on the public record.

2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 24

January’s stop in New York ended without a ticket after Dianna Russini said she FaceTimed an unnamed NFL head coach, who urged the officer to let her go.
Russini said she had been pulled over for texting and driving with her two young sons in the car, and called the coach after telling the officer she was trying to break news.
The officer initially refused to excuse her, saying he supported a different team, before Russini offered to connect him live with his favorite team’s coach.
The episode, recounted by Russini on the “Stugotz and Company” show, is the focus of a New York Times report questioning whether the former Athletic NFL insider crossed professional lines.