New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini may have denied they engaged in an extramarital affair, but incriminating evidence that suggests otherwise continues to emerge.
The latest turn in what Megyn has called a “diabolical” scandal involves a video TMZ unearthed of the pair on a boat in 2021 while Russini is very pregnant with her first child whom she named… Michael. Both she and Vrabel were married to their respective spouses at the time.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Maureen Callahan, host of MK Media’s The Nerve, to discuss the latest revelations and the “humiliation” it has caused their families.
The History
In case you managed to avoid this story when it exploded last month, the controversy surrounding Vrabel, 50, and Russini, 43, began on April 7 when The New York Post’s Page Six published photos of the pair appearing to get cozy while at a tony resort in Sedona, Arizona, in late March.
Vrabel was believed to be in Arizona for a scouting event in Tempe on Friday, March 27, and a meeting of the NFL Competition Committee in Phoenix the following week. He and Russini reportedly met up the weekend in between because she was also in town to cover the meeting. She later shared a byline on a piece for The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, about the gathering.
Vrabel, a former Patriots player who was the head coach of the Tennessee Titans before returning to his former team, and Russini, who has been covering the NFL for over a decade at ESPN and The Athletic, initially tried to throw cold water on suggestions they behaved inappropriately.
Vrabel, a married father or two, told Page Six the pictures were “laughable” and did not “deserve any further response.” Russini, a married mother of two, claimed the photos misrepresented the situation. “The photos don’t represent the group of six people who were hanging out during the day,” she told Page Six. “Like most journalists in the NFL, reporters interact with sources away from stadiums and other venues.”
A week later, Russini announced she was resigning from her job amid an internal investigation. Vrabel, meanwhile, had remained quiet and the controversy mostly quieted down. But his statements at the NFL Draft about having “had some difficult conversations with people I care about”coupled with another damning photo dump of the pair all over each other at a Manhattan bar in March 2020 and at a casino in Mississippi in January 2024 put the story back in the spotlight.
The New Video
And now there is another eyebrow-raising interaction between Vrabel and Russini to add to the timeline. According to Page Six, the photos of the duo at Tribeca Tavern were taken six months before Russini married her husband, Kevin Goldschmidt, in September 2020. The new video and photos from TMZ of the pair renting a boat together came less than a year after said nuptials, in June 2021.
TMZ reported Vrabel and Russini rented a private boat together for a day on the water in Putnam County, Tennessee. Vrabel would have been coaching the Titans at the time. The outlet said the outing was for “just the two of them” and were the only people onboard for their two- to three-hour rental.
Documents obtained by TMZ Sports showed both Russini, who was visibly pregnant at the time, and Vrabel signed the company waiver before heading out on a lake. A source said there was no visible PDA before they departed, but they seemed to be “cautious about photos being taken.” Russini apparently declined to be photographed with staff, while Vrabel agreed to one picture but asked for it not to be posted publicly.
A week after the boat outing, TMZ noted that Russini posted a photo on Instagram seemingly of her husband on a beach in New Jersey with the caption, “Lucky to have great people to spend this holiday with this July.” She gave birth to her first child later that summer.
More Savagery
The Daily Mail, meanwhile, dug up yet another video of Russini talking disparagingly about her husband. In the unearthed footage that was posted on social media, Russini and Vrabel were playing a Family Feud-style game with a number of Barstool Sports personalities.
It is believed to have been filmed in April 2020, and both appeared to be on the Zoom call from separate locations. When Russini was asked to name “something you close your eyes to do,” she bizarrely responded, “When you have sex with your husband or wife.”
While the others on the call laughed uncomfortably, Vrabel appeared to shake his head at the answer.
Why Stay?
Vrabel and Russini deny they engaged in a yearslong affair, but Megyn wondered how Russini’s husband has dealt with her “humiliating him” for years just with her comments about him and their relationship.
“If you found out your spouse was having an affair, allegedly, for six years, and also that she had your baby together at a time when she was having the affair, and your son is named after the affair partner – now, she’s claiming her brother is named Mike too… [and] she named him after her brother, not her affair partner – what man would stay,” Megyn wondered. “She has been actively humiliating him for years.”
In Callahan’s view, Russini has seemingly always been pining for Vrabel. “It seems to me that she has always wanted Coach Mike, but she had to settle,” she noted. “She says, ‘Oh, my husband’s average.’ He is an executive at Shake Shack. He is not a bad looking guy. He seems like he is a great father. And she’s out here like she’s getting off on humiliating him.”
And it’s not just Russini’s husband. “You [also] wonder why Mike’s wife hasn’t just put his clothes out on the lawn in like a funeral pyre,” Callahan added.
While Megyn said Vrabel and Russini’s spouses might choose to forgive them for whatever transpired, she thinks their children – particularly, Russini’s sons – will have a harder time. “The husband may forgive this behavior… but the kids are going to hate her,” she said. “They’re going to hate her for humiliating their dad over and over and over. You emasculate and humiliate a boy’s father over and over and over, and he will loathe you.”
“You have a lot to answer for if one word of this is true, Dianna,” Megyn added. “They both deny it, but it’s an awful lot of photographic evidence suggesting they’ve been in love – she and her alleged affair partner – for some time.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Callahan by tuning in to episode 1,313 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.