Why The Athletic's Dianna Russini Review Was Set Up To Be Flawed From The Start
The Athletic's internal review focused on Dianna Russini's work after she joined the outlet in August 2023. Austin Stanley explains why the more consequential questions may involve her previous ESPN reporting on Mike Vrabel's Tennessee Titans, including major stories surrounding Tom Brady, Julio Jones, A.J. Brown and the 2023 NFL Draft.
Video Transcript
There were a lot of conspiracy theories, Austin, and just because it's a conspiracy theory doesn't mean it's untrue.
Yeah.
Conspiracy theories are true when there is, in fact, a conspiracy, and in this case it appears that there was one, even though The Athletic comes out and says, "No, no, no.
No untoward conspiracy on our end."
Your point is, though, that the timing is more ESPN related.
Yeah, very convenient for The Athletic, 'cause The, The Athletic got off very easy because in Dianna's three years with The Athletic, it was Mike Vrabel's last year with the Titans where he gets fired, and then she writes a glowing report about him, which is fine.
He was a former Coach of the Year, and they got fired because of a bad circumstance, and you can make fun of the Titans ownership all you want for firing people every year, which has been happening, and it, it doesn't raise any red flags.
But then there was the gap year for Vrabel, and then his first year in New England for Vrabel, where he goes to the Super Bowl, everything's rosy and positive.
So there's no, like, red flags, "Oh my gosh, Dianna's just carrying water for Mike Vrabel," because they've had this, what we now know as six-plus year romantic relationship that we're alleging here and seeing all these videos, and it goes very, very vast and deep through these things.
So let's look at the four off-seasons before Dianna joined The Athletic with ESPN, which The Athletic is never going to investigate ESPN's, former employees, just like they don't investigate their former employees' personal lives.
So just, just to let everybody know, in the four off-seasons of 2020, 2021, '22, and '23 with ESPN, Dianna Russini was the sole reporting voice on the biggest off-season storyline for the Tennessee Titans during that timeframe.
And mind you, this is a Tennessee Titans team that was fresh off an AFC championship game, back-to-back division titles, and then in '23, an ultimate collapse at the end of the season, losing out on a chance to win the division in the last game of the regular season.
So I'm gonna start from the beginning.
March of 2020, Dianna Russini reports the Titans are not interested in Tom Brady, and that they wanted to extend Ryan Tannehill, the quarterback who helped them get to the AFC title game.
That was roughly three days after they were photographed at the bar in New York, very, very tight quarters, closed, with interlocked limbs.
We've seen the pictures, right?
So one thing followed the next.
In 2021, Russini was reporting the Falcons had a first-round offer for Julio Jones on the table, only for the Titans to execute a trade for a second-round pick, which is less than a first-round offer, for Julio Jones with the Falcons, and that was weeks before.
It, the same month of the boat situation, where they rented a boat in- Tennessee, just an hour east of Nashville.
Right after that, Julio Jones' trade went down.
Ironically, Jon Robinson, the Titans GM at the time, made that trade for Julio Jones while on a different lake, in the area.
April 2022, Dianna broke the news of the A.J.
Brown trade, and then the contract negotiation inside information that she had was trying to make the Titans sound like they were dealing with a diva wide receiver who stopped and cut off all communication, and this is the best move for the franchise, right?
The right move for the franchise.
That was the, the sales pitch that Dianna was sharing from her sources, Mike Vrabel, inside the Titans facility.
And then in April 2023, this is the one that I think created the most domino effect that imp- impacted the rest of the league in a conspiracy, yet it lines up faction, fashion.
Dianna Russini reported the Titans had a trade interest in moving up for C.J.
Stroud in the draft at third overall.
The Titans were picking, 11th overall in that draft.
The Texans ended up picking C.J.
Stroud second overall in that draft, and didn't l- allow the Titans to make this happen.
The trade was going to be made with, Arizona at three, where the Texans ended up doing a lot of maneuvering around and got that third pick from Arizona.
But here's why this is weird, right?
Because a week before the draft, Dianna's on one of her podcasts or an appearance while at ESPN, she mentions that she is going to be in Indianapolis with the Colts on draft day.
The Colts picked fourth.
That's where they took Anthony Richardson.
And then all of a sudden she ends up in Nashville, who was picking 11th.
Now, why would somebody, why would ESPN send Dianna Russini to the 11th overall pick in the draft instead of the fourth pick in the draft?
And then before the draft she says the Titans are wanting to move up for Stroud at three.
The Texans were going to maneuver that situation for Stroud, and a lot of fallout happens.
The Titans don't get Stroud.
They take Skowronski.
They get Will Levis in the second round on day two.
So that's four years in a row during the beginning and the heated part of this relationship that she had her hands all over Mike Vrabel's team and reporting and messaging and some moves there- Crazy allegedly.
And I, again, this is why it's flawed.
It has no teeth.
Because ESPN will never investigate this because she left because The Athletic offered her a higher salary and a better offer than ESPN had at the point, and she made a career decision.
Fine.
But ESPN's not gonna look back at it.
They're not going to, unless- No Pablo Torre does exactly what he did with the NBA and the Clippers, and that just came out the day before Russini's Athletic investigation came out, and Pablo Torre found out and then made the league do the real investigation.
So that's, that's why this thing has no teeth from The Athletic, and it, they were chasing the wrong thing from the begi- to begin with
