The Sedona Files

Update, April 14, 2026: Russini has resigned from The Athletic, effective immediately.

It's been one week since Page Six released the photos of Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and NFL insider Dianna Russini clasping hands on a rooftop in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. Immediately, the pictures became a sort of Rorschach test: some saw romance; others saw classic Italian affection.[1] While some saw it as the warm embrace of two star-crossed lovers, the pair both claimed it was Much Ado About Nothing. With the aid of clips from the Pardon My Take Database going back nine years, it is clear to me that this might actually be a tragedy befitting Antony and Cleopatra.

Let's take it back to the start.

The Bet

Coach Vrabel first became a recurring PMT guest in February 2017, during Super Bowl week. The interview was mostly uneventful. Big Cat asked whose Range Rover was parked out front, Vrabel explained it was his wife's, and the conversation moved on. Russini's first mention in the archive came a few months later, when PFT declared, "I'm a Russini guy," during an interview with Adam Schefter. 23:42[2]

For two years, nothing much else happened.

Then, in July 2019, Vrabel went on Bussin' with the Boys and said he would cut off his penis[3] if it meant winning a Super Bowl. His wife of twenty years, he added, would probably be psyched.

PMT brought it up on the 2019 Takies the following week:

Big Cat: Mike Vrabel said that if he wins the Super Bowl, he'll cut off his dick.

PFT: And his response was, well, I've been married for 20 years. My wife would probably be psyched. So yeah, I do it. I don't need my dick anymore.

Chekhov's penis enters the chat.

A normal show lets that bit shrivel die. PMT did not. When Vrabel came on the show the following spring, PFT opened the interview by asking, "So, do you still have your penis?" 38:42 During the Titans' divisional round run that same January, Big Cat observed that "Mike Vrabel might not have a penis after this." 22:01 The Fastest 2 Minutes kept returning to the topic throughout the 2019 season and beyond.[4]

For six and a half years, the show would not let the penis bet die.

The Body

Russini's national reporting on Vrabel began, specifically, with his body.[5]

The Titans fired him in January 2024. A month later, Russini filed a piece on why he wasn't getting hired anywhere. Ownership groups, she reported, found him physically intimidating. Big Cat seized on it the next week:

Big Cat: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Diana Russini, who only reports facts, said she had a GM mention Vrabel's physical build — that he's a very large human being and can be very intimidating.

A few weeks later, Russini made her PMT debut at the NFL Combine. Vrabel was also at the Combine. She expanded on the reporting.

Russini: He's a physically big human being. It's a little startling at first. His hands are the size of your head. Right?

Big Cat: He hit me on the back at the Combine a few years ago. I almost coughed up a lung.

Russini: He didn't call me after the piece on why he got fired. But the piece on him calling him a little fat, he wasn't too happy.

His hands are the size of your head.

The "too big to coach" report became a PMT bit. Every time they brought it up, they cited her.[6]

By summer, Vrabel was in on it.

Vrabel: It's a big man's game, boys.

In January 2025, days before the Patriots hired him, Russini was back on the show. Big Cat, unknowingly, was writing cologne ads.

Russini: Somebody from the Jets said, damn, he's really big.

Big Cat: Vrabel is not that intimidating once you get to know him. He's just a big guy. A strong guy. A strong masculine man. A leader of men.

Bob Kraft was the only NFL owner unintimidated by Vrabel's size. He hired him that week. One has to imagine Mr. Kraft is struggling with all of this now. He runs a tight ship, and any form of sexually deviant behavior is simply not The Patriot Way™.

Dianna had spent two years reminding an audience of millions that Mike Vrabel was a very large man. Fifteen months later, his hands would be interlocked with hers on a rooftop in Sedona.

Kevin

His name is Kevin Goldschmidt. He is an executive at Shake Shack.

He has been married to Dianna Russini since 2020. By all available reports, he is a lovely person. His name is Kevin and he makes cheeseburgers for a living. For the purposes of this story, he is a saint.

On October 16, 2025, he became a recurring PMT character.

Max was annoyed that Russini had reported something unflattering about the Eagles, so the guys called her live.

Big Cat: Should we call Diana right now and see if her husband's there?

She picked up. And then she did a six-minute bit about her marriage.

Russini: Kev has lost attraction to me since I put out a report. Like, I think he thought I was cute at one point. I can just tell by the way he passes me in the house. He's like, you're disgusting.

Kev has lost attraction to me.

At the time, this was funny. A married woman joking that her job made her unbearable at home. Domestic grievance as a bit.

Then she did this:

Russini: Kevin can see who I'm talking to and I don't think it's appropriate or professional for me to show him the texts from the players or the staff members or whomever it is that I'm talking to. But he wants to see it. So most husbands are looking in wives' phones to see if there's dudes they're talking to. My husband's just looking for Eagles intel.

My husband's just looking for Eagles intel.

Later in the same segment, she floated, as a hypothetical in the event of an Eagles win, whether she'd be allowed to "have sex with Kev." We are choosing to believe this was a joke.

And right before she hung up, with the conversation over, she did this:

Russini: Hey Hank. Wait, real quick. How about them Patriots? This Sunday's gonna be good against the Titans. Revenge game.

Nobody prompted it. She just turned toward New England like her browser had an autofill setting.

Four months later, at the February 2026 Combine, Russini returned to the show and told three more stories. The first was about a pool.

Russini: I was in the pool on vacation and my husband went and got me a drink and the guy next to me was like, "Hey, is that Kevin from Pardon My Take?" I go — wait, no, no. Like, do you mean Max? He's like, "No, Kevin, that's your husband, right?" I'm like, yeah.

Pool with Kevin, February. Pool with Vrabel, April.

The second was about her relationship with beat reporters and the teams they cover:

Russini: It's like a marriage for these people.

And the third was about her own sourcing:

Russini: You wind up talking to so many people because you have a great relationship with them and there are some relationships where you're talking so often and you're sharing life stuff as well. Like family. And you get to know each other.

PFT, in the same episode, joked that Vrabel was probably feeding Russini "rat poison." 1:30:51 Big Cat, asked to rank last year's best coaching hires, quietly removed Vrabel from the question before she could answer. 1:32:53 Nobody thought anything of it at the time.

The Only Theory That Explains Everything

In January 2026, the Patriots went 14-3 and reached the Super Bowl. PMT remembered the bet.

Big Cat: Does Mike Vrabel have to cut off his dick if the Patriots win the Super Bowl?

Hank: I don't know.

PFT: I think you should volunteer.

Consider the available data.

1. In 2019, Vrabel publicly committed to castration in exchange for a Super Bowl. His wife, he specified, would be psyched.
2. In January 2026, his Patriots reached the Super Bowl after the third-easiest schedule of all time 35:33 and beating Jarrett Stidham in a game Big Cat called "the worst a team has ever looked on their way to the Super Bowl." 24:42
3. The Patriots were three-point underdogs, a spot in which Vrabel was 2-0 on the year and above .500 for his career. PFT called it a "quintessential Mike Vrabel game." 10:03
4. They scored 13 points and looked even worse.
5. Six weeks later, Vrabel was photographed holding hands with Dianna Russini on a rooftop in Sedona.

Vrabel's wife was on the record as pro-amputation.

Vrabel kept his penis.

I am not accusing Mike Vrabel of intentionally losing Super Bowl LX to save his penis for Dianna Russini.

I am saying it is the only theory that explains all the available data.

The Reaction

The episode right after the news broke was tame. Russini and Vrabel are both friends of the program; PFT was visibly conflicted:

PFT: Diana's a very good friend. I'm friends with her family. I have been around her before when she has been accused of doing bad stuff that I have known to not be true.

To be fair, they did record an emergency segment instead of pretending the news cycle wasn't happening. They just weren't going to lead the dunking. That part they outsourced. Memes was turned loose with one theory: Russini had leaked the photos herself to publicly declare her hatred for the Jets. 25:03 The kind of twist this story had earned.

Friday's show came with backup. Jerry O'Connell, freshly appointed "PMT Ombudsman," had spent Tuesday night texting them about everything they hadn't said and was on the show specifically to make sure they said it.

Big Cat went first, citing personal credentials. He and his coworker Kate had once been photographed interlocking fingers themselves.

Big Cat: It's hard to do [the interlocking fingers thing] — it has to either be sensual or it's awkward.

PFT: That's not a first-time handhold.

Hank volunteered some workplace analysis.

Win

Take Slip·Apr 10, 2026

#30217#PMT-2026-0410-30217

Hank

Russini will feel this way more than Vrabel

As bad as it is, I don't think it's gonna affect his job the way it's gonna affect Diana's job.

1:13:52PredictionFootballHot

Said on April 11, 2026 in response to the Page Six photos. Russini resigned from The Athletic three days later, on April 14, 2026. Vrabel is still head coach of the Patriots.

Jerry: That's fucked up, Hank.

Jerry brought it home.

Jerry: Hey Diana, we love you. You too, coach Vrabel. We're human, shit happens.

He's right. They do.