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All eyes will be on Dianna Russini during the debut of her new show Wednesday.
However, Linda Cohn said those eyes on “The Russini Report” will only mean so much if the former NFL insider doesn’t lean into the allegations that she and Patriots coach Mike Vrabel had an affair that lasted as long as six years.
“There were a lot of people who didn’t even know who Dianna Russini was before that scandal with Mike Vrabel. Now that she has gotten the curiousity seekers involved, people now know who she is for all the wrong reasons,” the former “Sportscenter” host pointed out on Tuesday’s episode of “The Linda Cohn Show.”
“How is she going to keep them after the first show? Because they are going to want to hear her talk about what her spring was when those pictures came out last April, and what did she learn from that,” she went on. “If she is smart — she doesn’t want my advice. But if she is smart, she would share the human side of her. That people make mistakes. That she made a big one and that she admit the wrongdoing.”
In April, Page Six published photos taken in March of Russini and Vrabel holding hands while at an intimate resort in Arizona.
The outlet later followed with more photos of the pair kissing inside Tribeca Tavern on March 11, 2020 — six years before the resort photos were taken.
Russini did not address the allegations nor name Vrabel in her interview with People this week to promote the new show that will stream on BetUS TV’s website and X account.
A since-deleted X post by the account for “The Russini Report” suggested that the 43-year-old will not be addressing the incident on the show.
Who is going to watch The Russini Report if Dianna Russini is NOT open with her potential listeners? She needs to come clean if she wants a shot at regaining trust. pic.twitter.com/0FDoKm3BDj
— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) November 10, 2026
To Cohn, it would be a big mistake for Russini not to “humanize” herself.
“Everybody makes mistakes. Maybe they don’t make that kind of mistake but people make mistakes,” the fellow former ESPNer continued. “If she can look in the mirror and talk like that to her new viewers, and admit fault and admit mistakes, just maybe she will keep those people around each and every Wednesday on her new show.”
In her recent interview, Russini instead addressed the matter as “this situation.”
She described it as a “nightmare,” yet Russini didn’t give a reason why things went into a downward spiral.
She resigned from The Athletic on April 14 and hasn’t been in the public eye since.
Five months later, The Athletic published its findings from its investigation into Russini’s relationship with Vrabel, which stated she was “noncompliant” with the company’s standards.
In accompaniment of the new one-hour weekly show, Russini will write a column.
She is also set to be a featured contributor to Jon “Stugotz” Weiner’s “Nobody’s Safe” podcast.
“In a time when it was easy to pile on, and I think people were enjoying watching my career fall apart, Jon was really bold and loyal, and he was a friend to me,” Russini said in the interview.
