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Oh man are you missing out.
Quick rundown: Russini is a sports reporter, national profile but Philly football focused. Mike Vrabel is an NFL head coach, formerly of the Tennessee Titans currently of the New England Patriots. They were photographed together at a romantic resort in Arizona, and as a result evidence has emerged of a long running affair. When Vrabels team was on a losing streak she made a Spotify playlist called "keep your head up" or something like that, and shared it with someone named Mike on Spotify, it contains songs that Vrabel is known from interviews to love. They've been seen together all over, the joke is if everyone checks their camera roll they might find them in the background. They rented a boat together while she was pregnant.
And the kicker: her son is named Michael, and she was covering Vrabels game on site nine months before the birth.
Russini hasn't spoken publicly on the topic to my knowledge, while Vrabel has soft-confessed by publicly skipping day 3 of the NFL draft (arguably the most important day between March and August for an NFL head coach) to go to marriage counseling with his wife.
This is the gamergate of sports, because while it's mostly sordid gossip, but there's an inescapable element of journalism ethics here. Was Russini planting stories to help Vrabel? ((In Philly this is about Russini reporting on wide receiver AJ Brown being dissatisfied, possibly reducing his trade cost for Vrabels Patriots)) Was Mike leaking inside team information to Russini? If she was sucking dick for stories, is her career more or less ethical than Stephen A Smiths?
Sounds like an interesting rabbit hole, thanks.
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