Mike Vrabel’s alleged relationship with NFL insider Dianna Russini is big news to just about everyone except longtime Boston sportswriter Greg Bedard.
Like most media outlets, 98.5 The Sports Hub afternoon hosts Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti have covered every piece of this story since Page Six published photos of Vrabel and Russini appearing very comfortable with each other while poolside at an adults-only hotel earlier this month. But Bedard, who owns Boston Sports Journal, believes he has a better sense of the story and disagrees that it is newsworthy.
“If it was my job to cover extramarital affairs about owners, executives, players, coaches, I’d never cover the games,” Bedard said.
Vrabel and Russini both issued strong denials of any romantic relationship existing between them after Page Six published the photos in question. But since those denials, Russini has resigned from her position as senior NFL insider with The Athletic amid their ongoing internal investigation into her relationship with Vrabel. And Vrabel has now admitted to having “difficult” conversations with his family in the wake of those photos, albeit in a largely empty statement to reporters.
It probably wouldn’t have been as big a story if Vrabel or Russini were photographed with nameless partners who were not their spouses at an adults-only hotel. But Vrabel and Russini being together saw two worlds collide in sports and media, making this a big story.
Even with minimal evidence and no accountability accepted, the story has continued to be a needle mover at every step, which is why Felger and Massarotti have covered it as such. But according to Bedard, this story is just a product of the slow news cycle in sports.
“You’re saying it’s big news. No, it’s big news because you need something to talk about,” Bedard argued. “There’s no juice in this draft. There’s nothing going on in the NFL. Francisco Mendoza [Sic], nobody cares about him, he’s boring, he’s going to the Raiders, it’s a terrible draft. This has been going on for weeks, where there’s nothing in the NFL, so this has given people something to talk about. If this happened in the middle of the season, it would not be nearly as big a story as it is.”
The story may not have lasted as long if it had occurred in the middle of the season, because it ultimately would have been on to the next game or headline. But it equally may have blown up even larger if this story had happened in the middle of the season, because it would have been harder for Vrabel and Russini to hide from it.
Felger pulled up their recent YouTube numbers to show Bedard that the Vrabel-Russini topic is generating significantly more clicks and views than anything else they’ve discussed in recent weeks. And while Bedard still didn’t seem interested, it’s inarguable that this is a story the general public has been interested in, and not one being manufactured just to fill space during a slow sports news cycle.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com