Ian Rapoport has had about enough of the conversation that has followed the Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel situation.<\/p>\n
On the Between the Tackles<\/a> podcast with former New York Jets beat writer Manish Mehta, the NFL Network insider weighed in on the criticism that has surrounded insider reporting<\/a> since Russini resigned from The Athletic<\/a> last month. The resignation came after Page Six published photos of her with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel<\/a> at an adults-only Arizona resort, triggering an investigation at The Athletic<\/a> and a very public debate<\/a> about whether the access game at the heart of insider reporting compromises the journalism it produces.<\/p>\n \u201cI have been for sure frustrated at a lot of people talking about what they think the job of insider is without actually knowing,\u201d Rapoport said. \u201cThat\u2019s been frustrating to me over the last month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83c\udf99\ufe0f@RapSheet<\/a> on criticism of NFL Insiders after Russini-Vrabel story:<\/p>\n \u201cI have been for sure frustrated at a lot of people talking about what they think the job of Insider is without actually knowing. That\u2019s been frustrating to me over the last month or so.\u201d<\/p>\n Download\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/44FzUGvBdv<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Manish Mehta (@MMehtaSports) May 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThe job is still the same,\u201d Rapoport continued. \u201cIt\u2019s finding out news. It\u2019s touching base and talking to all parties, as many as you can. It\u2019s confirming it, making sure that it comes out in the most accurate and truthful way possible, while also doing it as fast as possible and giving the reader or viewer as much information as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Rapoport right that a lot of the criticism has come from people who don\u2019t fully understand how insider reporting works? Probably, but the overall criticism of the insider model didn\u2019t come from people who stumbled onto the story through Page Six.<\/p>\n A year prior to the Russini-Vrabel scandal,\u00a0Mike Florio had already written<\/a> at length about insiders functioning as external PR reps for agents, trading favorable coverage \u2014 reporting inflated contract numbers, crediting agents by name, leaving teams out of their own transaction stories \u2014 in exchange for access to the group texts that drive the entire ecosystem. Nick Wright had called out the biggest platform insiders<\/a> for publishing team and agency PR instead of actual news.<\/p>\n None of that is the same as accusing Russini of what she\u2019s actually accused of, and Rapoport is right that a lot of the discourse has conflated the general access-journalism critique with the specific allegations against her, which isn\u2019t fair to her or particularly useful as media criticism. But the Russini situation gave the public a closer look at how the insider ecosystem actually operates than it has ever had before, and that conversation isn\u2019t going away just because one of its most prominent practitioners finds it frustrating.<\/p>\n \t\n