The Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini story does not appear to be going away anytime soon. Russini, an NFL reporter, and Vrabel, the head coach of the New England Patriots, were seen together at an adults-only hotel in photos published by Page Six over two weeks ago.

Since then, more photos have been published, Russini has resigned from The Athletic, and Vrabel has announced that he will seek counseling. More photos were published on Thursday afternoon, showing the two together in what has been alleged as a New York City bar in 2020.

Shae Cornett, the host of ESPN’s First Take, was not happy about having to cover the story on Thursday’s episode.

“We didn’t want to talk about it on this show,” Cornett said.

“Not at all,” Stephen A. Smith added.

“We have to sit here and talk about it now because he told us that he’s gonna go to counseling on Saturday, Day 3 of the draft,” Cornett said.

“Why can’t you be away on Monday?” she wondered of Vrabel, who will be missing day three of the NFL draft. “Why does this have to become my business? I don’t want this to be my business. I didn’t want any of this to be my business, quite frankly.”

“We didn’t want to talk about it on this show. We have to sit here and talk about it now because he told us that he’s gonna go to counseling on Saturday, Day 3 of the draft.” – Shae Cornette on Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini pic.twitter.com/M5OYw4X2zo

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 23, 2026

That’s the job

Sports fans don’t neccesarily emphathize for First Take, considering this is a major story at the moment.

“If it was a player they would talk about it immediately…double standard,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

“What the heck are we doing? You both get paid a lot of money. You have to talk about it. Some in the media have been embarrassing by the way they’ve handled this situation. First take is above talking about this? lol come on!” another added.

“So a coach’s personal business is no one’s business. But a player’s personal business is hot topic content for ESPN?” one fan added.

There’s definitely something to what the fans are pointing out. First Take is a show that debates the biggest stories in sports, and this is certainly one of those.