On today’s episode, Jason discusses Dianna Russini's abrupt resignation from The Athletic in the wake of her alleged affair with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, what on earth would compel Russini to resign in the middle of a very public investigation into her reporting, and whether or not Russini will be able to land on her feet at another major sports media outlet sometime in the future. Later, J-Mac explains why it's so hard to trust LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets even after their thrilling play-in tournament win over the Miami Heat.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, trick Fire, plaam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight for Wednesday, April the fifteenth. Quick programming note. Suddenly
I will be hosting The Hurd on Thursday with Rachel
Nichols cow Herd. You know, this is what the big
guy does. It's practically summer, so he takes off, So
I'll be hosting. I am cooking up some hot takes.
(00:34):
Not gonna fire any of them here yet because they're
not totally finished. In Oh, by the way, there was
a massive neutron bomb dropped in sports media on Tuesday afternoon.
We'll get to it a second. We do have a
really good interview coming up tomorrow with the author of
a Yankees book. You're gonna love that. And obviously we've
got NBA play in action. We had some last night.
(00:55):
We'll get too shortly, and then we have some tomorrow night.
Playoffs start in earnest Saturday. But I don't know, like
you know, the best laid plans are, oh, we'll talk
about this, that and the other, and then all of
a sudden, the athletic announces, Hey, Diana Russini has resigned
from the Athletic and it's like, oh my gosh, wow,
(01:16):
Oh well, she must have admitted to a fault. So
within an hour after that, Diana Russini posts her resignation letter. Okay,
and just if you want backstory, who's Diana Rousini? Why
the hell are you talking about? She's a prominent NFL reporter.
She's not chefter, she's not rappaport, she's not breer. She
had like the second tier, but you know, she was
(01:37):
starting to have a good run. There was talk that
she was going to be headed to ESPN when her
contract was up later this summer, and she was photographed
at an expensive Arizona resort holding hands hugging in the
hot tub with Mike Rabol, the coach of the Patriots.
The photo speak for themselves. Initially, Russini and Rabel both
brushed it off, the Athletic defended her, and then for
(02:00):
the bombing continued on social media. I was on spring break,
so I didn't see much of it or partake. I
did get texts about it, and then a few days
after that, the athletics says we're going to look into
all this. Fast forward a few days after that and
she's resigning. This is the statement, if you haven't seen
it from Diana Roussini resigning due to an internal investigation
(02:23):
into her conduct and conflicts of interests or potential conflicts
of interests. I've covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication
throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I
have ever published. Okay, when the page six item first appeared,
the Athletics supported me unequivocally expressed confidence in my work
and pride to my journalism. For that, I am grateful.
(02:44):
This is where it goes sideways, folks. In the days
that followed, unfortunately, commenters in various media have engaged in
self feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts.
Well that's a that's a word salad. What commentors in
various media? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Social media? TV?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Radio, podcast?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What we're talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Moreover, this media frenzy is hurtling forward without regard for
the review process the Athletic is trying to complete. So
what we can't Nobody can speculate and chime in until
the review process is done. What if that takes a month?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It continues to escalate, fuel by repeated leaks Now that
sounds like a shot at the athletic, and I have
no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has
already caused far more damage than I'm willing to accept.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Rather than allowing this to continue, I've decided to step
aside now before my contract aspires June thirtieth. I do
so not because I accept the narrative that has been
constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend
it for auction, oxygen, or let it to find me
or my career.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So when I saw this, I was like, all right,
hold hold up. So I'm trying to think of a
good analogy. Shoot, my son's not gonna like this. So, uh,
my kid is. My son started high school. He's very smart,
ap classes, all that stuff, and he crushed it for
(04:26):
semester blown away. You know, we're like, all right, man,
hey man, you're on the track, Standford, wherever you want
to go. The world is your oyster dog. You study habits,
all this that you're crushing it. And then of course
he comes into the second semester cocky, and he's you know,
puberty and all that, and he started a loaf a
little bit and then and then not straight a's when
(04:51):
you when we look at the grades and we're like,
what's going on? And he starts blaming outside forces. Well,
you know, I had this, and there was this, and
this happened and that and all this sudden and I'm like, bro,
it's about you. You don't have the study habits you
had last semester. You got to have those, You got
to continue them. It's hard, you gotta continue them.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And so he's okay, I'm diving back in.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
But he tried to blame outside forces for his problem.
And this is not news. Okay, everybody knows friendships, relationships, family.
You can try to blame other people, but ultimately it
comes down to you. It's about you. And when you
start nitpicking these sentences, blaming commenters, speculating, Hello, you're a
(05:41):
sports reporter. What do sports fans do all the time?
They speculate on more from the facts. I don't know, Diana,
why don't you tell us what the facts are? You
said there were friends there. I mean, don't you kind
of have to. Hey, here's a picture of me and
my friends. We're out to dinner. We're doing this. If
that's the case, as you said a girl's weekend. I
(06:03):
don't know, just show the proof. Well I don't have
to show the proof. Okay, Well, we're gonna let the
pictures speak for themselves, right and again, I'm not burying
her here, but I think you know, when you're caught,
you kind of got to own up to it. And
then for wanting everybody to take a deep breath to
just wait for the review process to be completed, Like, okay,
(06:28):
good luck with that. On what planet is that ever
gonna work? There's no waiting social media, this engagement farming
another stuff waits. Would that be the right thing to do? Yeah,
little said, I didn't chime in instantly on this dinner
Rosini stuff. I could have interrupted my vacation when I
saw all this stuff coming in and been firing away.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Why would I do that? I don't give it some time.
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I have no interest in submitting to a public inquiry
that has cars far more damage than I'm willing to accept.
I mean, when you put yourself out there and you
do podcasts and the radio and TV, you're a public figure.
You're out there. I mean, listen, I don't wish this
kind of situation on my worst enemy.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You know, well, maybe one or two guys. No, that's
not right.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It just I don't envy this. But ultimately she got
herself in this pickle. Now it does make me want
to take a deep breath and say, well, wait a sec.
My initial speculation was, oh, this was probably just some
rando at at the Pool hotel. But the more you
talk to people and examine stuff, they're like, h, this
(07:40):
was professional work. This was somebody set up, a private
investigator knew one of them or both of them were
going to be there and got photos. Do we think
it's Rabel's wife or Russini's husband. I mean that's fair
to speculate, right, No, nobody knows what that photographer was doing.
(08:01):
There are why they were there, but they got the evidence.
And to now say I've decided to step aside, not
to accept the narrative, and it's not a narrative. The
photos are facts. But because I refuse to lend it
further oxygen, do you think all of a sudden, rob
that because she's stepping aside, now, we're not gonna get
(08:23):
any more speculation or anything. I think all you're gonna
do is get more, at least in.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The enter in the short term.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So I don't get this at all. And now does
the athletics stop their investigation?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Do they continue? Are they gonna then.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Provide the information to the public. Well, I don't know.
You started an investigation into her reporting, you kind of
have to. You can't just stop it because she's no
longer there, right, So is it gonna only get worse
in a month if they say, well, we got some
bad news for you, Diana. This is what are this
is what we turned up. I mean, is that the
(09:00):
goal to try to get I don't think they once
you start an investigation, I don't think it stops just
because she resigned. And so my thought is, well, okay,
let's say she wanted to go to ESPN or CBS
or wherever. Well, what were the results of that investigation? Well,
we can't hire you not knowing. I mean, I don't
(09:24):
understand this at all. Now It's possible that I'm missing something. Hey,
maybe she wanted to jump ship because she knows what's
coming down the pike and she wanted to beat the rush. So,
not to get too political, but the whole Milania Trump
coming out and saying I'm not part of the Epstein files.
It's like, what, what, where's that coming from? Why are
(09:45):
you doing that? And instantly people want to speculate, Oh,
something's coming, that's why she's trying to head it off
and get ahead of the story. And so again is
this fair?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Of course not.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
None of this is fair, speculating on people's social life.
What was the I guess someone did a report that
the pictures were initially pedaled to TMZ, and TMZ is like, man,
we're not the bedroom police. TMZ is now reporting on
every aspect of this case because they've seen the numbers. Clearly,
(10:17):
I don't know the answers. Again, I feel bad for
Russini's family, obviously her husband, Drabel's wife. It's a tough
situation for anyone. But I don't know who is advising Mussini.
I full disclosure. My agent works at the same company
(10:37):
as Russini's agent. I know her agent. I have not
spoken to him. I just want to put that out
there and p case people like you're defending one of
your own, like I saw that with Dan Orlovsky. People
went after him because he's a CAA client and Fernandoman
dose as a CIA rep by CIA. But there's just
so many layers to this, none of it regreat. I
(11:03):
just I don't see what Rushini was trying to accomplish
with this. Unless there's something more that's not really good.
It's about to come out, rob.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
On its face, it does not look good at all,
and before we started recording it, even while as you
were doing your your opening segment there, I'm trying to
rack my brain and figure out, like, what is the
rationale to doing this now and not just you know, resigning,
but resigning in such a matter of fact aggressive tone,
and whether or not these are good reasons. These are
(11:47):
the two that came to mind during your conference during
your segment there. Number One, you resign normally because you
don't want to be fired. So Doc rivers right going
out and saying I am stepping down as the head
coach of the Milwaukee Bucks before they can fire me.
Is you know usually pr one oh one right? And
(12:09):
you know what's funny is even with quick tangent on
the Doc Rivers thing is ESPN has reported that they
are still planning on paying his salary for next season.
So in my wait, really yes, So in my experience,
when you step down, you void whatever your salary contract
stipulation is like you are quitting. Therefore we are not
(12:31):
beholden to the remainder of your deal. So that tells
me that no, they did fire him, and his way
of public spinning it is to get out in front
of it and saying I am stepping down, or I
am you know, being repurposed into another department, so on
and so forth. So that was my first inclination is
maybe she's read the tea leaves and she saw that
(12:53):
as soon as they decided we're going to start investigating
not just this incident, we're going to investigate all of
your previous reporting. That kind of leads itself down a
very slippery slope, a very deep rabbit hole. And she's like,
I'd rather get ahead of this now, quit and they
don't have to worry about the public shaming that could
come from a firing. That's number one. Number two, And
(13:14):
this is where I guess I would disagree with you,
Is I think that if and when she resigns, there's
no longer a need for an investigation because this is
not like an outside entity where it's like, hey, we
are paying Joe Public PI firm to go in and
investigate this kind of thing and you can just figure
(13:34):
out from there what's going on. This to me, in
my experience, again, I've only ever worked at really two companies,
and one of them, only one of them was like
a multi billion dollar company. The way the athletic is
is when that employee is no longer there, the case
file is closed. We have no interest in digging up
anything and wasting our money and our manpower to look
(13:56):
up something for someone who is not involved in our
company any longer. So if this is her way of
again getting ahead of this and saying whatever you find again,
she could be on the truth of avaiable thing. It
could just be bad photo ops and it looks bad.
And you know, unlike the rest of America, she doesn't
believe in taking group photos at every dinner she's at,
(14:17):
you know what I mean, Like, Hey, I'm just there
with people and we didn't take photos together. Blah blah blah.
It is what it is. But at the same time,
I am not going to allow a decade plus or however,
Lung she met the I know she's been in media
for fifteen years, she said, However, Laungn she mede the Athletic.
I don't want my entire reputation to be sullied based
(14:38):
off of this one incident. So if I get ahead
of it, leave now. You're not gonna bother to dig
into all the other stuff I did in the past.
And this will help me six nine months from now
when I'm trying to get a job at ESPN, CBS, Fox.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Okay, that's fair. But let's say, you know, Page six
and Front Office Sports, they start writing to the Athletic. Hi,
I was wondering, what are you gonna publish those results
of the die In Rassini investigation. Well, actually we stopped
the investigation because she left. Oh really, so we don't
(15:12):
know if her work was compromised at the Athletic over
the last oh she wasn't there fifteen years. The last
few years, we don't know if a lot of those
stories were total nonsense or they were all coming from
Mike Vrabel, who was the source on everything, and it
was because I don't know she was compromised. So we
just are not gonna know, and football fans are I
gonna have no idea. Now Russini maybe hopes that happens,
(15:35):
and then she becomes an independent journalist. I mean, we see,
what's the guy who started golong, the Buffalo reporter Tyler Dunn,
Tyler dun Ty Dunn. Yeah, so he didn't have any scandal.
He just said I can make more money doing this.
Maybe she starts a substack and you know, maybe all
the coaches that talked to her that you know she
wasn't being photographed with, they continue to give scoops and
(15:55):
agents want to work with her, and as a result,
she makes money as an independent journal Now she's going
to have that until she addresses this in a real manner,
she's still going to have that, staying well, how'd you
get the scoops? You know, how did where did you
get that from?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's how you got it? And I saw I don't
know if you saw this, Rob. So there's this columnist
at USA today, Nancy Armor. She's been around forever. I
think she was an AP reporter back in the day.
She wrote kind of a hard takedown. Roussini made it
harder for every single woman in sports, regardless of what
we do to do our jobs. By risking her own credibility,
(16:31):
she's put ours in jeopardy too. And she kind of
went into it like, Listen, women are sports enters and
columnists throughout the country. We're sideline reporters, we call games,
and it's it's just not fair to all of us,
you know. And we are still asked the suspicions, sometimes
obvious why we got into sports journalisten. The answer is simple,
(16:53):
for the same reason as male colleagues did. And Rassini
has kind of upended that. And I I think some
people are pissed there. Usay, Today's one of the biggest
papers in the country. Nancy Armour, longtime respected. I mean,
I don't know, do you think we're gonna see anyone
come out and defend her. I don't think you can,
can you?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And for all the reasons we talked about yesterday, and
Nancy armor is totally justified in what she wrote there.
Everything she said is makes one hundred percent sense, It
is reasonable, it is calculated. I cannot disagree with her
premise on what she wrote there, but what I will
say is what we talked about yesterday. The same standard
(17:33):
is not being held to the male counterparts. Not talking
about Mike Rabel, but just male reporters. Buster only did
a radio interview on Tuesday, and they clipped it and
shared it went virals a little bit, you know, to
the extent that post.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Will go viral.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
And they asked them about this situation, and without addressing
it directly, he pointed out that the current day and
age that we are in sports media, the flow of
information is so bastardized, and it is all you do
a favor from me, I'll do a favor for you.
I'm not gonna report this. I am going to report this.
I'm gonna report it from this slat because you're giving
me information so on and so forth, and you are
(18:11):
seeing this play out. We talked about it yesterday. I
don't want to get bogged down again. But you know,
two of the most prominent NFL insiders I have both
brazenly been caught or nas can be caught being upfront
about the relationships they have with front office and coaching
people in the NFL. Sham Sharanya is starting a war
(18:32):
on doc rivers. Any time who's on an interview with
Pat McAfee or wherever he goes. He's like, hey, well,
if Doc Rivers was really that worried about my reporting,
you'd been worried about, you know, having a job. And
it's like, that is not It's funny and I enjoy
it and I think it's entertaining. That is not the
role of the media. The role of the media is
not to have a personal war or personal battle or
(18:54):
a vendetta with the subject you're supposed to be covering.
But because he is beholden to x Y agent, x
Y executive. There are other reporters who are no longer
in the business who are famous and notorious for putting
out hit pieces for sources who did not either gave
them information or people did not get them information, like
you knew what side of the aisle they were on.
(19:16):
And Diana Russini, because she is a woman, is going
to have this follower in a way that it would
not have followed. You know another reporter who was with
a female executive.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Well, I think so that's that last sentence you said,
with a female executive is the key. We just haven't
seen that or U r really heard. I mean, like,
there are some female executives in sports, but what would
be the equivalent, like a columnist hooking up with like
I don't know the owner of the culture. I mean,
(19:48):
like it's almost there's just not a lot of examples.
I mean there's there's no women. How many women GM
do we have in the NFL?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Like I think zero?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Zero? Right, head coaches zero. Like, it's just it's almost
impossible to construct a similar situation. Now. You could come
up with, Hey, that at beat writer is hooking up
with I don't know the assistant to the owner. You
could come up with something, but there's no we just
have we don't have anything like this. And a lot
(20:18):
of the ethical stuff on the journalism side, like you
had mentioned, the schefter responds with sending it to an agent. Unfortunately,
fans don't really care about that. They don't now if
if this was just a report with no photos, there
would be no juice to it. But the photos, Rob,
I mean, come on, I don't you know to say
they're undeniable.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, but like I just know, photo and videos change everything.
You'd stay in the NFL. If before the Rave Rise
video came out, I think he was suspended for like
a week or two and then it was no, his
whole career is over. Basically, you know, tyreek Hill reportedly
(20:56):
and police blotter says that he assaulted his pregnant girlfriend.
But as soon as there is a video evidence of
Kareem Hunt, you know, pushing a woman in an elevator
or in a hotel hallway to an elevator, that is
seen as more heinous than anything tyreek Kill did because
there's no video or photographic evidence of what tyreek Kill did.
So Diana Rusini, again, if this was just speculation that
(21:19):
you know, her and Mike Raebo have a romantic relationship
and he's been the sourcing for however many years this
has been going on, then that's a different conversation than
just hey, they were photographed together and now our imagination
is going to run wild and we can assume the
worst of everything because of it.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I don't this is this is a tough one.
But if you were advising Russini, would you say, listen,
I think you instantly start a substack. Yes, I think
you start an independent thing and you just go to town. Now,
the problem is getting back to a credible outlet at
some point, Rob You're gonna probably have to restless. Right,
(22:01):
You could duck it for so long, but if you
want to be in the spotlight doing TV radio podcast like,
you're gonna have to address it. You can't duck this forever, right, Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
And the thing is that we've seen similar things, not
with the media member. I think this is where it's
very unique.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
But hey, hey, the Rory McElroy situation, do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Vaguely?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So he I guess his wife would wear this this
big ring and then she stopped wearing it, and there
were a lot of rumors about them, and then Rory
was supposedly getting separated. I think he even filed for divorce,
and there were a lot of reporters about him and
a female golf reporter.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You guys can google it if you want.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And then he rescinded the divorce or the divorce filing,
and you know, she was with him in augusta this
past year or whatever, but he went through that, and
this just I'm fairly certain that this golf reporter is
still working. Hell, I think she worked at the Masters pastor.
But they were just rumors and I don't know that
(23:04):
he ever addressed it. I probably shouldn't have brought that
up without fully looking into it. I do remember, like.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Who is this person? What? Rory what?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right? So it does happen in sports. Uh, but this
this is like a sideline reporter. This is not like
someone who's who's breaking golf news.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
You know, well, my comparison was going to be and
again it's Apple's orange a little bit. But Udoka, what
he did is actually you know, illegal, right, Like what
what what Diana Russini is doing is just an ethical question.
May Udoka was with a subordinate, you know, Cheron Moore,
what he did with in Michigan was a subordinate that
is illegal in the workplace period. And he was able
(23:45):
to get a new job relatively what a year or
two afterwards because he's very good as an NBA head coach.
Diana Russini is very good as an NFL reporter. We assume,
you know, again, if it turns out this investigation that
every one of her sourcing was compromised, then then that
changes things. But as far as we know they've been
for the dow, she's very good at her job excluding this,
you know, allegedly inappropriate relationship with Mike Rabel. I think
(24:09):
especially with the way that the dot com and the
podcasting and you know, there's so many different outlets nowadays,
maybe her next step is not the Big four NBC, CBS,
USPN Fox. But who would have thought, you know, the
Athletic was going to be a powerhouse when they first launched.
You know, they came in and bullied their way to
the top. So maybe there's another situation where you know,
(24:29):
who knows, you know, Kyle, she develops an insiding you
know thing or DraftKings buys up another situation they need
an NFL insider reporter type of thing. Like, it's totally
on the table for her because she is still, as
far as we know, very good at her profession. Very good.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Okay, So I did just look up the Rory thing
and he filed for divorce. He then pulled the divorce
papers like months later. But when he filed for divorce,
so did a golf reporter at CBS named Amanda bill
Out Balainois.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I don't know if I got her name right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
She also at the same time that Rory filed for divorce,
she filed for divorce and she changed her last name
on social media. It sounds like she went through with it,
it's unclear. She's never addressed the Rory rumors. There were
never photos of them together, right, and Rory never addressed
why he filed for divorce. But again, the photos are everything,
(25:27):
And I think, you know, it's fair to say, like, hey,
one of the gambling companies could come after her and
be like, hey, we'll have you as our insider. But
I mean, I don't know. At some point do people
get sick of doing the putting memes in the responses
to every single post. Because somebody showed me while I
was out last week on spring break, she did one
(25:47):
post about some referees somebody else's story, and if you
click on it, the replies are just endless stream of
I mean, it's pretty rough, and I assume that's going
to be the case for a while. But does that
dry up eventually? We move on to the next subject.
Not we, but the unwashed masses. They just move on
(26:07):
to a different target. Like, I don't know the answer
to that. We haven't seen a lot of these that
I can recall in sports media, have we?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
No?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I mean, again, the chefter thing blew over. Obviously people
forget about it now. I don even remember it unless
you bring it up and there's no photos.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You know, you could just throw the photos on there
all the time, and what could she It's it's like
a mic drop, right.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And the one thing that she does have going for
her is unlike other females in the sports media space
who have been, you know, alleged or involved to inappropriate
dealings of maybe not this exact nature is from my
understanding and my following of her social media handle, she
doesn't present herself in that kind of a way like hey,
(26:51):
I'm willing to show skin or do x y and
Z for the right information, for the right kind of attention.
She carries herself like a very professional reporter. She accounts
it is a professional porter, say for this incident and
the only time she's gotten herself in trouble, or even
then it wasn't in trouble. It was funny at the time.
Now it's kind of frowned upon. Is the little side
joke should make about her husband and all these different interviews.
(27:12):
But it could be that she was just friendly with
all of these different outlets or these four or five
that they save the video and post it. You know,
maybe now you learn your lesson, like hey, it's This
is not something to joke around about anymore. And now
I gotta play on the straight and narrow.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Damn dude, that's a rough one. I can't believe you
just did twenty five minutes on our NFL Reporter resigning.
But that's the kind of time and errow word.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
All right, real quick, I just want to talk about
the thrilling Hornet's heat play in game. I hope you
watch this one. Twenty seven Hornets winning on a lamello
ball layup with four seconds left, and then Davion Mitchell
tried to go to length of the court and his
shot was blocked off the glass at the buzzer, setting
(28:10):
off a crazy celebration. Folks, I know you don't like
the NBA tanking. Blah blah blah. Oh jback too many threes,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Again.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I know you guys like to think that that's like
such a black mark against the NBA. Oh no, it's unwatchable.
NBA is so bad because everybody's tanking, and eight teams
had fifty five or more losses, worst in the history
of the NBA. It's just terrible. Well, I got some
bad news for you guys, and you can hate all
you want.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Hating is certainly a path that you can choose, and
it's great for engagement on social media. The reality is
total time spent viewing the NBA this season was up
twenty two percent across the national partners. According to Michael Mulvahill,
who does work at Fox he is Insights and Analytics
Fox Sports and metemi's been on the herd before. NBA
(29:03):
on broadcast networks was up one hundred and twenty eight percent. Now, yes,
some of it is going from ABC to NBC, t
Rico and company. Saturday nights they had a lot of games.
I think there were more games on broadcast on NBC,
more than double the amount of games. And I'll just
(29:26):
say NBC made it more of an event. They made
the games seem to matter more. And I will just
add even I thought the Amazon Prime game last night
was amazing. Of course, Amazon Prime craps out in overtime
with like twenty five seconds left during some kind of
time out there were like technical difficulties. Some people were
(29:49):
under the assumption, and I'm recording this about halfway through
the Sun's game that because the Amazon game went overtime,
they had a certain amount of time a lot before
they had to go to the next game, and so
hence that was the technical difficulties. I don't totally know
the answer. I haven't read that yet. It was kind
of embarrassing Amazon Prime's first playoff game, and that's what happens.
(30:12):
I will just add this, so the Heat could have
won the game in regulation. They could have won the
game in overtime, and they did. The Hornets Kobe White
had an amazing shot with eleven seconds left to force overtime.
I didn't like what the Heat drew up Tyler hero
hero ball ha haa ha miss three. And then at
the end of regulation they actually led before LaMelo scored
(30:36):
the game winning layup and they had a shot. I'll
just say the bam out of bio situation makes this
interesting because afterward, Eric Spolster came out pretty pissed off,
and he was honest, He's like, listen, I get it.
They played great, blah blah blah. We had a chance
but LaMelo tripping Bam out of bio. He said, it's
(30:57):
a stupid play, it's a dangerous play. He should be
penalty lot penalized. He should have been thrown out of
the game for that. If you look at it, LaMelo attacks,
falls backward on a miss, goes down and as he's
going down, Bam is trying to collect the ball with
and save it from going out and LaMelo kind of
yanks his legout from under him. Now, I'm sure LaMelo
(31:18):
will be like, I didn't do it intentionally. Anybody who's
played basketball, No, those are the heat of the moment,
bang bang things. You're doing whatever you can to keep
the ball and you're and it's pretty clear that he
not swept the leg, but kind of enough of a
tug that it should have been reviewed. According to the broadcast,
because there was no stoppage, it was not reviewable. I
think that's what they said, Stan Van Gundy. Everybody was wondering,
(31:41):
why are we reviewing this? This looked like I mean,
I don't know if you would eject him, certainly there
would have been some some sort of technical or flagrant
I don't know what it would have been. But Bam
and Abayo didn't return. He's their best player, he's rim protection.
And the Hornets, you know, if you hadn't watched them
this season, they basically do two things. They shoot threes
(32:01):
and they go for layups. They don't do the mid range.
They shot fifty six to three pointers. The heat shot
forty one. So that is the see my Matt says,
ninety seven three point attempts. That's too many for some people. Well,
LaMelo himself shot sixteen. He was two of sixteen, and.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Late in the game he.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Got smart when the threes weren't falling. I mean, at
one point he's like two. I think he was two
of fifteen. He takes another horrible three. You're like, bro,
what are you even doing? And then he starts driving
an allube to Brandon Miller. I'll say this, Aboulamelo, he
is an unbelievable speed that people cannot hang with. Nobody
could stay in front of him on the heat. They've
tried Davion Mitchell, obviously, Tyler Hero had no chance. Jime
(32:45):
Hawkes got beat on the final play like they had
no nobody to slow him down. He's just too fast
and so he gets by you and it's either a
layup or somebody comes over to help and you give
up an Alube dunk, or he makes the right pass
to somebody open for three. Like that's when he's at
his best. Again, LaMelo will get credit. Hey, you had
thirty points at the game winner. In tennisis the guy
(33:07):
was twelve to thirty one shooting like bro thirty one shots.
He shot sixteen threes, And I get it, that's in
their DNA, that's what they do. But like Brandon Miller
was way better shooting than three, five to ten, Miles
Bridges five to ten, Kobe White five of eight, and
then there's Conk Nipple. I don't know if all Rookie
of the Year ballots are in. I mean, listen, he
(33:28):
was great this year, made a lot of threes. Regular
season basketball is a different product than playoff basketball.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
We know this.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Anybody who watches the sport knows this. Conk Nipple. And
I said it on the Herd on on Tuesday. I'm like, listen,
Eric Spolster is not gonna let a twenty year old
rookie beat him. I would bet Conk Nipple, understand, And
I said it. I haven't bet them. I gotta look
into it. Well, life gets in the way. I had
to go to the gym. I did recorded an interview
(33:55):
that we're gonna use tomorrow. Like I had stuff going on.
I didn't get a chance to bet the others. Conkniple
thirty four minutes, two of twelve, shooting zero for six
from deep six points. It was clear he got so
confused defensively late in the fourth quarter. It left Tyler
Hero wide open for a three. And essentially then there
(34:16):
was a break in the action. They pulled Cakinnipple and
he didn't go back in. He was not in for
the final I think ninety seconds or two minutes, whatever
it was, and then he didn't play an overtime. And
that's not a knock. He's a young guy. But the
reality is, guys, like regular season NBA is totally different
than the playoffs. And you could see they were getting
physical with him. He's not getting to his spots, he's
not getting as many open looks, and you know, I
(34:38):
don't want to say he was forcing a lot of stuff,
but he's a young guy. You trust your veterans. They
went with Kobe White down the stretch. He was great.
There's some Grant Williams action. He took not a great
shot late in the game. But this is an interesting team.
They're fun, that's for sure. I mean, you shoot fifty
six threes, your fun Ca nipple will bounce. He's gonna
(35:00):
be fine. But the LaMelo ball, if he could, if
you could stamp out some of those crazy threes. And
the problem is you let you give him free reign
in the regular season. So he just jacks all these
terrible shots and at that point you're like, all right,
it's not a big deal. It's regular season whatever. And
he makes enough. You know, he scores a lot, blah
blah blah. That crap isn't gonna work in the playoffs.
(35:22):
He's got to consistently attack and he's got to distribute.
And I know that's not in his DNA because he
wants to drive and he wants to shoot and fake
the drive. But I'm just he isn't what a talented
player when he gets his head right. He had a
brutal turnover at the end of regular I mean they're
(35:42):
up five and uh, Tyler hero it's crazy three their
full court pressure, LaMelo turns it over, then fouls Tyler
Hero on a three and they go from up five
to down one in like seven seconds because of LaMelo Ball.
He's a liability defensively. They were hunting him if he
ever gets locked in.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Oh man, that guy.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That guy's dangerous. So tough one for the Heat losing
Bam out of Bayo. He only played eleven minutes scored
six points. I saw a report that the Heat want
to go big game hunting for a star.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
I mean, there's really one on the market. His name
is Yanis.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
What do you what's Yannis gooling there for? Is that
a lateral move from the Bucks to the Heat. It's
not like the Heater missing anybody.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I just none of that makes sense to me. Like
Yannis and Tyler Hero.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I mean, Yanni's Bam and Tyler Hero? But what are
you giving up to get him? Many teams can put
up better packages. I'm not. I'm just not buying that
so thrilling stuff. I Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able
to stay up for Portland Sun second half, mostly because
we were on spring break in a different time zone
and I'm exhausted, and I do have to host the
Herd as I said earlier on Thursday, so I need
(36:53):
to kind of get to bed early and lock in,
but we'll be back Manyana. Good interview and hopefully not
the end of Steph Curry's season with Golden State.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, trick Fire, plaam, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight for Wednesday, April the fifteenth. Quick programming note. Suddenly
I will be hosting The Hurd on Thursday with Rachel
Nichols cow Herd. You know, this is what the big
guy does. It's practically summer, so he takes off, So
I'll be hosting. I am cooking up some hot takes.
(00:34):
Not gonna fire any of them here yet because they're
not totally finished. In Oh, by the way, there was
a massive neutron bomb dropped in sports media on Tuesday afternoon.
We'll get to it a second. We do have a
really good interview coming up tomorrow with the author of
a Yankees book. You're gonna love that. And obviously we've
got NBA play in action. We had some last night.
(00:55):
We'll get too shortly, and then we have some tomorrow night.
Playoffs start in earnest Saturday. But I don't know, like
you know, the best laid plans are, oh, we'll talk
about this, that and the other, and then all of
a sudden, the athletic announces, Hey, Diana Russini has resigned
from the Athletic and it's like, oh my gosh, wow,
(01:16):
Oh well, she must have admitted to a fault. So
within an hour after that, Diana Russini posts her resignation letter. Okay,
and just if you want backstory, who's Diana Rousini? Why
the hell are you talking about? She's a prominent NFL reporter.
She's not chefter, she's not rappaport, she's not breer. She
had like the second tier, but you know, she was
(01:37):
starting to have a good run. There was talk that
she was going to be headed to ESPN when her
contract was up later this summer, and she was photographed
at an expensive Arizona resort holding hands hugging in the
hot tub with Mike Rabol, the coach of the Patriots.
The photo speak for themselves. Initially, Russini and Rabel both
brushed it off, the Athletic defended her, and then for
(02:00):
the bombing continued on social media. I was on spring break,
so I didn't see much of it or partake. I
did get texts about it, and then a few days
after that, the athletics says we're going to look into
all this. Fast forward a few days after that and
she's resigning. This is the statement, if you haven't seen
it from Diana Roussini resigning due to an internal investigation
(02:23):
into her conduct and conflicts of interests or potential conflicts
of interests. I've covered the NFL with professionalism and dedication
throughout my career, and I stand behind every story I
have ever published. Okay, when the page six item first appeared,
the Athletics supported me unequivocally expressed confidence in my work
and pride to my journalism. For that, I am grateful.
(02:44):
This is where it goes sideways, folks. In the days
that followed, unfortunately, commenters in various media have engaged in
self feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts.
Well that's a that's a word salad. What commentors in
various media? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Social media? TV?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Radio, podcast?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
What we're talking about?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Moreover, this media frenzy is hurtling forward without regard for
the review process the Athletic is trying to complete. So
what we can't Nobody can speculate and chime in until
the review process is done. What if that takes a month?
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (03:31):
It continues to escalate, fuel by repeated leaks Now that
sounds like a shot at the athletic, and I have
no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has
already caused far more damage than I'm willing to accept.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Oh boy.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Rather than allowing this to continue, I've decided to step
aside now before my contract aspires June thirtieth. I do
so not because I accept the narrative that has been
constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend
it for auction, oxygen, or let it to find me
or my career.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
So when I saw this, I was like, all right,
hold hold up. So I'm trying to think of a
good analogy. Shoot, my son's not gonna like this. So, uh,
my kid is. My son started high school. He's very smart,
ap classes, all that stuff, and he crushed it for
(04:26):
semester blown away. You know, we're like, all right, man,
hey man, you're on the track, Standford, wherever you want
to go. The world is your oyster dog. You study habits,
all this that you're crushing it. And then of course
he comes into the second semester cocky, and he's you know,
puberty and all that, and he started a loaf a
little bit and then and then not straight a's when
(04:51):
you when we look at the grades and we're like,
what's going on? And he starts blaming outside forces. Well,
you know, I had this, and there was this, and
this happened and that and all this sudden and I'm like, bro,
it's about you. You don't have the study habits you
had last semester. You got to have those, You got
to continue them. It's hard, you gotta continue them.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And so he's okay, I'm diving back in.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
But he tried to blame outside forces for his problem.
And this is not news. Okay, everybody knows friendships, relationships, family.
You can try to blame other people, but ultimately it
comes down to you. It's about you. And when you
start nitpicking these sentences, blaming commenters, speculating, Hello, you're a
(05:41):
sports reporter. What do sports fans do all the time?
They speculate on more from the facts. I don't know, Diana,
why don't you tell us what the facts are? You
said there were friends there. I mean, don't you kind
of have to. Hey, here's a picture of me and
my friends. We're out to dinner. We're doing this. If
that's the case, as you said a girl's weekend. I
(06:03):
don't know, just show the proof. Well I don't have
to show the proof. Okay, Well, we're gonna let the
pictures speak for themselves, right and again, I'm not burying
her here, but I think you know, when you're caught,
you kind of got to own up to it. And
then for wanting everybody to take a deep breath to
just wait for the review process to be completed, Like, okay,
(06:28):
good luck with that. On what planet is that ever
gonna work? There's no waiting social media, this engagement farming
another stuff waits. Would that be the right thing to do? Yeah,
little said, I didn't chime in instantly on this dinner
Rosini stuff. I could have interrupted my vacation when I
saw all this stuff coming in and been firing away.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Why would I do that? I don't give it some time.
Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I have no interest in submitting to a public inquiry
that has cars far more damage than I'm willing to accept.
I mean, when you put yourself out there and you
do podcasts and the radio and TV, you're a public figure.
You're out there. I mean, listen, I don't wish this
kind of situation on my worst enemy.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You know, well, maybe one or two guys. No, that's
not right.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It just I don't envy this. But ultimately she got
herself in this pickle. Now it does make me want
to take a deep breath and say, well, wait a sec.
My initial speculation was, oh, this was probably just some
rando at at the Pool hotel. But the more you
talk to people and examine stuff, they're like, h, this
(07:40):
was professional work. This was somebody set up, a private
investigator knew one of them or both of them were
going to be there and got photos. Do we think
it's Rabel's wife or Russini's husband. I mean that's fair
to speculate, right, No, nobody knows what that photographer was doing.
(08:01):
There are why they were there, but they got the evidence.
And to now say I've decided to step aside, not
to accept the narrative, and it's not a narrative. The
photos are facts. But because I refuse to lend it
further oxygen, do you think all of a sudden, rob
that because she's stepping aside, now, we're not gonna get
(08:23):
any more speculation or anything. I think all you're gonna
do is get more, at least in.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
The enter in the short term.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So I don't get this at all. And now does
the athletics stop their investigation?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Do they continue? Are they gonna then.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Provide the information to the public. Well, I don't know.
You started an investigation into her reporting, you kind of
have to. You can't just stop it because she's no
longer there, right, So is it gonna only get worse
in a month if they say, well, we got some
bad news for you, Diana. This is what are this
is what we turned up. I mean, is that the
(09:00):
goal to try to get I don't think they once
you start an investigation, I don't think it stops just
because she resigned. And so my thought is, well, okay,
let's say she wanted to go to ESPN or CBS
or wherever. Well, what were the results of that investigation? Well,
we can't hire you not knowing. I mean, I don't
(09:24):
understand this at all. Now It's possible that I'm missing something. Hey,
maybe she wanted to jump ship because she knows what's
coming down the pike and she wanted to beat the rush. So,
not to get too political, but the whole Milania Trump
coming out and saying I'm not part of the Epstein files.
It's like, what, what, where's that coming from? Why are
(09:45):
you doing that? And instantly people want to speculate, Oh,
something's coming, that's why she's trying to head it off
and get ahead of the story. And so again is
this fair?
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Of course not.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
None of this is fair, speculating on people's social life.
What was the I guess someone did a report that
the pictures were initially pedaled to TMZ, and TMZ is like, man,
we're not the bedroom police. TMZ is now reporting on
every aspect of this case because they've seen the numbers. Clearly,
(10:17):
I don't know the answers. Again, I feel bad for
Russini's family, obviously her husband, Drabel's wife. It's a tough
situation for anyone. But I don't know who is advising Mussini.
I full disclosure. My agent works at the same company
(10:37):
as Russini's agent. I know her agent. I have not
spoken to him. I just want to put that out
there and p case people like you're defending one of
your own, like I saw that with Dan Orlovsky. People
went after him because he's a CAA client and Fernandoman
dose as a CIA rep by CIA. But there's just
so many layers to this, none of it regreat. I
(11:03):
just I don't see what Rushini was trying to accomplish
with this. Unless there's something more that's not really good.
It's about to come out, rob.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
On its face, it does not look good at all,
and before we started recording it, even while as you
were doing your your opening segment there, I'm trying to
rack my brain and figure out, like, what is the
rationale to doing this now and not just you know, resigning,
but resigning in such a matter of fact aggressive tone,
and whether or not these are good reasons. These are
(11:47):
the two that came to mind during your conference during
your segment there. Number One, you resign normally because you
don't want to be fired. So Doc rivers right going
out and saying I am stepping down as the head
coach of the Milwaukee Bucks before they can fire me.
Is you know usually pr one oh one right? And
(12:09):
you know what's funny is even with quick tangent on
the Doc Rivers thing is ESPN has reported that they
are still planning on paying his salary for next season.
So in my wait, really yes, So in my experience,
when you step down, you void whatever your salary contract
stipulation is like you are quitting. Therefore we are not
(12:31):
beholden to the remainder of your deal. So that tells
me that no, they did fire him, and his way
of public spinning it is to get out in front
of it and saying I am stepping down, or I
am you know, being repurposed into another department, so on
and so forth. So that was my first inclination is
maybe she's read the tea leaves and she saw that
(12:53):
as soon as they decided we're going to start investigating
not just this incident, we're going to investigate all of
your previous reporting. That kind of leads itself down a
very slippery slope, a very deep rabbit hole. And she's like,
I'd rather get ahead of this now, quit and they
don't have to worry about the public shaming that could
come from a firing. That's number one. Number two, And
(13:14):
this is where I guess I would disagree with you,
Is I think that if and when she resigns, there's
no longer a need for an investigation because this is
not like an outside entity where it's like, hey, we
are paying Joe Public PI firm to go in and
investigate this kind of thing and you can just figure
(13:34):
out from there what's going on. This to me, in
my experience, again, I've only ever worked at really two companies,
and one of them, only one of them was like
a multi billion dollar company. The way the athletic is
is when that employee is no longer there, the case
file is closed. We have no interest in digging up
anything and wasting our money and our manpower to look
(13:56):
up something for someone who is not involved in our
company any longer. So if this is her way of
again getting ahead of this and saying whatever you find again,
she could be on the truth of avaiable thing. It
could just be bad photo ops and it looks bad.
And you know, unlike the rest of America, she doesn't
believe in taking group photos at every dinner she's at,
(14:17):
you know what I mean, Like, Hey, I'm just there
with people and we didn't take photos together. Blah blah blah.
It is what it is. But at the same time,
I am not going to allow a decade plus or however,
Lung she met the I know she's been in media
for fifteen years, she said, However, Laungn she mede the Athletic.
I don't want my entire reputation to be sullied based
(14:38):
off of this one incident. So if I get ahead
of it, leave now. You're not gonna bother to dig
into all the other stuff I did in the past.
And this will help me six nine months from now
when I'm trying to get a job at ESPN, CBS, Fox.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Okay, that's fair. But let's say, you know, Page six
and Front Office Sports, they start writing to the Athletic. Hi,
I was wondering, what are you gonna publish those results
of the die In Rassini investigation. Well, actually we stopped
the investigation because she left. Oh really, so we don't
(15:12):
know if her work was compromised at the Athletic over
the last oh she wasn't there fifteen years. The last
few years, we don't know if a lot of those
stories were total nonsense or they were all coming from
Mike Vrabel, who was the source on everything, and it
was because I don't know she was compromised. So we
just are not gonna know, and football fans are I
gonna have no idea. Now Russini maybe hopes that happens,
(15:35):
and then she becomes an independent journalist. I mean, we see,
what's the guy who started golong, the Buffalo reporter Tyler Dunn,
Tyler dun Ty Dunn. Yeah, so he didn't have any scandal.
He just said I can make more money doing this.
Maybe she starts a substack and you know, maybe all
the coaches that talked to her that you know she
wasn't being photographed with, they continue to give scoops and
(15:55):
agents want to work with her, and as a result,
she makes money as an independent journal Now she's going
to have that until she addresses this in a real manner,
she's still going to have that, staying well, how'd you
get the scoops? You know, how did where did you
get that from?
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
That's how you got it? And I saw I don't
know if you saw this, Rob. So there's this columnist
at USA today, Nancy Armor. She's been around forever. I
think she was an AP reporter back in the day.
She wrote kind of a hard takedown. Roussini made it
harder for every single woman in sports, regardless of what
we do to do our jobs. By risking her own credibility,
(16:31):
she's put ours in jeopardy too. And she kind of
went into it like, Listen, women are sports enters and
columnists throughout the country. We're sideline reporters, we call games,
and it's it's just not fair to all of us,
you know. And we are still asked the suspicions, sometimes
obvious why we got into sports journalisten. The answer is simple,
(16:53):
for the same reason as male colleagues did. And Rassini
has kind of upended that. And I I think some
people are pissed there. Usay, Today's one of the biggest
papers in the country. Nancy Armour, longtime respected. I mean,
I don't know, do you think we're gonna see anyone
come out and defend her. I don't think you can,
can you?
Speaker 1 (17:13):
No?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And for all the reasons we talked about yesterday, and
Nancy armor is totally justified in what she wrote there.
Everything she said is makes one hundred percent sense, It
is reasonable, it is calculated. I cannot disagree with her
premise on what she wrote there, but what I will
say is what we talked about yesterday. The same standard
(17:33):
is not being held to the male counterparts. Not talking
about Mike Rabel, but just male reporters. Buster only did
a radio interview on Tuesday, and they clipped it and
shared it went virals a little bit, you know, to
the extent that post.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Will go viral.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
And they asked them about this situation, and without addressing
it directly, he pointed out that the current day and
age that we are in sports media, the flow of
information is so bastardized, and it is all you do
a favor from me, I'll do a favor for you.
I'm not gonna report this. I am going to report this.
I'm gonna report it from this slat because you're giving
me information so on and so forth, and you are
(18:11):
seeing this play out. We talked about it yesterday. I
don't want to get bogged down again. But you know,
two of the most prominent NFL insiders I have both
brazenly been caught or nas can be caught being upfront
about the relationships they have with front office and coaching
people in the NFL. Sham Sharanya is starting a war
(18:32):
on doc rivers. Any time who's on an interview with
Pat McAfee or wherever he goes. He's like, hey, well,
if Doc Rivers was really that worried about my reporting,
you'd been worried about, you know, having a job. And
it's like, that is not It's funny and I enjoy
it and I think it's entertaining. That is not the
role of the media. The role of the media is
not to have a personal war or personal battle or
(18:54):
a vendetta with the subject you're supposed to be covering.
But because he is beholden to x Y agent, x
Y executive. There are other reporters who are no longer
in the business who are famous and notorious for putting
out hit pieces for sources who did not either gave
them information or people did not get them information, like
you knew what side of the aisle they were on.
(19:16):
And Diana Russini, because she is a woman, is going
to have this follower in a way that it would
not have followed. You know another reporter who was with
a female executive.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Well, I think so that's that last sentence you said,
with a female executive is the key. We just haven't
seen that or U r really heard. I mean, like,
there are some female executives in sports, but what would
be the equivalent, like a columnist hooking up with like
I don't know the owner of the culture. I mean,
(19:48):
like it's almost there's just not a lot of examples.
I mean there's there's no women. How many women GM
do we have in the NFL?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Like I think zero?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Zero? Right, head coaches zero. Like, it's just it's almost
impossible to construct a similar situation. Now. You could come
up with, Hey, that at beat writer is hooking up
with I don't know the assistant to the owner. You
could come up with something, but there's no we just
have we don't have anything like this. And a lot
(20:18):
of the ethical stuff on the journalism side, like you
had mentioned, the schefter responds with sending it to an agent. Unfortunately,
fans don't really care about that. They don't now if
if this was just a report with no photos, there
would be no juice to it. But the photos, Rob,
I mean, come on, I don't you know to say
they're undeniable.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Yeah, but like I just know, photo and videos change everything.
You'd stay in the NFL. If before the Rave Rise
video came out, I think he was suspended for like
a week or two and then it was no, his
whole career is over. Basically, you know, tyreek Hill reportedly
(20:56):
and police blotter says that he assaulted his pregnant girlfriend.
But as soon as there is a video evidence of
Kareem Hunt, you know, pushing a woman in an elevator
or in a hotel hallway to an elevator, that is
seen as more heinous than anything tyreek Kill did because
there's no video or photographic evidence of what tyreek Kill did.
So Diana Rusini, again, if this was just speculation that
(21:19):
you know, her and Mike Raebo have a romantic relationship
and he's been the sourcing for however many years this
has been going on, then that's a different conversation than
just hey, they were photographed together and now our imagination
is going to run wild and we can assume the
worst of everything because of it.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, I don't this is this is a tough one.
But if you were advising Russini, would you say, listen,
I think you instantly start a substack. Yes, I think
you start an independent thing and you just go to town. Now,
the problem is getting back to a credible outlet at
some point, Rob You're gonna probably have to restless. Right,
(22:01):
You could duck it for so long, but if you
want to be in the spotlight doing TV radio podcast like,
you're gonna have to address it. You can't duck this forever, right, Yes.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
And the thing is that we've seen similar things, not
with the media member. I think this is where it's
very unique.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
But hey, hey, the Rory McElroy situation, do you remember that?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Vaguely?
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So he I guess his wife would wear this this
big ring and then she stopped wearing it, and there
were a lot of rumors about them, and then Rory
was supposedly getting separated. I think he even filed for divorce,
and there were a lot of reporters about him and
a female golf reporter.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
You guys can google it if you want.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And then he rescinded the divorce or the divorce filing,
and you know, she was with him in augusta this
past year or whatever, but he went through that, and
this just I'm fairly certain that this golf reporter is
still working. Hell, I think she worked at the Masters pastor.
But they were just rumors and I don't know that
(23:04):
he ever addressed it. I probably shouldn't have brought that
up without fully looking into it. I do remember, like.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
Who is this person? What? Rory what?
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Right? So it does happen in sports. Uh, but this
this is like a sideline reporter. This is not like
someone who's who's breaking golf news.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
You know, well, my comparison was going to be and
again it's Apple's orange a little bit. But Udoka, what
he did is actually you know, illegal, right, Like what
what what Diana Russini is doing is just an ethical question.
May Udoka was with a subordinate, you know, Cheron Moore,
what he did with in Michigan was a subordinate that
is illegal in the workplace period. And he was able
(23:45):
to get a new job relatively what a year or
two afterwards because he's very good as an NBA head coach.
Diana Russini is very good as an NFL reporter. We assume,
you know, again, if it turns out this investigation that
every one of her sourcing was compromised, then then that
changes things. But as far as we know they've been
for the dow, she's very good at her job excluding this,
you know, allegedly inappropriate relationship with Mike Rabel. I think
(24:09):
especially with the way that the dot com and the
podcasting and you know, there's so many different outlets nowadays,
maybe her next step is not the Big four NBC, CBS,
USPN Fox. But who would have thought, you know, the
Athletic was going to be a powerhouse when they first launched.
You know, they came in and bullied their way to
the top. So maybe there's another situation where you know,
(24:29):
who knows, you know, Kyle, she develops an insiding you
know thing or DraftKings buys up another situation they need
an NFL insider reporter type of thing. Like, it's totally
on the table for her because she is still, as
far as we know, very good at her profession. Very good.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Okay, So I did just look up the Rory thing
and he filed for divorce. He then pulled the divorce
papers like months later. But when he filed for divorce,
so did a golf reporter at CBS named Amanda bill
Out Balainois.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
I don't know if I got her name right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
She also at the same time that Rory filed for divorce,
she filed for divorce and she changed her last name
on social media. It sounds like she went through with it,
it's unclear. She's never addressed the Rory rumors. There were
never photos of them together, right, and Rory never addressed
why he filed for divorce. But again, the photos are everything,
(25:27):
And I think, you know, it's fair to say, like, hey,
one of the gambling companies could come after her and
be like, hey, we'll have you as our insider. But
I mean, I don't know. At some point do people
get sick of doing the putting memes in the responses
to every single post. Because somebody showed me while I
was out last week on spring break, she did one
(25:47):
post about some referees somebody else's story, and if you
click on it, the replies are just endless stream of
I mean, it's pretty rough, and I assume that's going
to be the case for a while. But does that
dry up eventually? We move on to the next subject.
Not we, but the unwashed masses. They just move on
(26:07):
to a different target. Like, I don't know the answer
to that. We haven't seen a lot of these that
I can recall in sports media, have we?
Speaker 1 (26:16):
No?
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I mean, again, the chefter thing blew over. Obviously people
forget about it now. I don even remember it unless
you bring it up and there's no photos.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
You know, you could just throw the photos on there
all the time, and what could she It's it's like
a mic drop, right.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
And the one thing that she does have going for
her is unlike other females in the sports media space
who have been, you know, alleged or involved to inappropriate
dealings of maybe not this exact nature is from my
understanding and my following of her social media handle, she
doesn't present herself in that kind of a way like hey,
(26:51):
I'm willing to show skin or do x y and
Z for the right information, for the right kind of attention.
She carries herself like a very professional reporter. She accounts
it is a professional porter, say for this incident and
the only time she's gotten herself in trouble, or even
then it wasn't in trouble. It was funny at the time.
Now it's kind of frowned upon. Is the little side
joke should make about her husband and all these different interviews.
(27:12):
But it could be that she was just friendly with
all of these different outlets or these four or five
that they save the video and post it. You know,
maybe now you learn your lesson, like hey, it's This
is not something to joke around about anymore. And now
I gotta play on the straight and narrow.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Damn dude, that's a rough one. I can't believe you
just did twenty five minutes on our NFL Reporter resigning.
But that's the kind of time and errow word.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
All right, real quick, I just want to talk about
the thrilling Hornet's heat play in game. I hope you
watch this one. Twenty seven Hornets winning on a lamello
ball layup with four seconds left, and then Davion Mitchell
tried to go to length of the court and his
shot was blocked off the glass at the buzzer, setting
(28:10):
off a crazy celebration. Folks, I know you don't like
the NBA tanking. Blah blah blah. Oh jback too many threes,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Again.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I know you guys like to think that that's like
such a black mark against the NBA. Oh no, it's unwatchable.
NBA is so bad because everybody's tanking, and eight teams
had fifty five or more losses, worst in the history
of the NBA. It's just terrible. Well, I got some
bad news for you guys, and you can hate all
you want.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Hating is certainly a path that you can choose, and
it's great for engagement on social media. The reality is
total time spent viewing the NBA this season was up
twenty two percent across the national partners. According to Michael Mulvahill,
who does work at Fox he is Insights and Analytics
Fox Sports and metemi's been on the herd before. NBA
(29:03):
on broadcast networks was up one hundred and twenty eight percent. Now, yes,
some of it is going from ABC to NBC, t
Rico and company. Saturday nights they had a lot of games.
I think there were more games on broadcast on NBC,
more than double the amount of games. And I'll just
(29:26):
say NBC made it more of an event. They made
the games seem to matter more. And I will just
add even I thought the Amazon Prime game last night
was amazing. Of course, Amazon Prime craps out in overtime
with like twenty five seconds left during some kind of
time out there were like technical difficulties. Some people were
(29:49):
under the assumption, and I'm recording this about halfway through
the Sun's game that because the Amazon game went overtime,
they had a certain amount of time a lot before
they had to go to the next game, and so
hence that was the technical difficulties. I don't totally know
the answer. I haven't read that yet. It was kind
of embarrassing Amazon Prime's first playoff game, and that's what happens.
(30:12):
I will just add this, so the Heat could have
won the game in regulation. They could have won the
game in overtime, and they did. The Hornets Kobe White
had an amazing shot with eleven seconds left to force overtime.
I didn't like what the Heat drew up Tyler hero
hero ball ha haa ha miss three. And then at
the end of regulation they actually led before LaMelo scored
(30:36):
the game winning layup and they had a shot. I'll
just say the bam out of bio situation makes this
interesting because afterward, Eric Spolster came out pretty pissed off,
and he was honest, He's like, listen, I get it.
They played great, blah blah blah. We had a chance
but LaMelo tripping Bam out of bio. He said, it's
(30:57):
a stupid play, it's a dangerous play. He should be
penalty lot penalized. He should have been thrown out of
the game for that. If you look at it, LaMelo attacks,
falls backward on a miss, goes down and as he's
going down, Bam is trying to collect the ball with
and save it from going out and LaMelo kind of
yanks his legout from under him. Now, I'm sure LaMelo
(31:18):
will be like, I didn't do it intentionally. Anybody who's
played basketball, No, those are the heat of the moment,
bang bang things. You're doing whatever you can to keep
the ball and you're and it's pretty clear that he
not swept the leg, but kind of enough of a
tug that it should have been reviewed. According to the broadcast,
because there was no stoppage, it was not reviewable. I
think that's what they said, Stan Van Gundy. Everybody was wondering,
(31:41):
why are we reviewing this? This looked like I mean,
I don't know if you would eject him, certainly there
would have been some some sort of technical or flagrant
I don't know what it would have been. But Bam
and Abayo didn't return. He's their best player, he's rim protection.
And the Hornets, you know, if you hadn't watched them
this season, they basically do two things. They shoot threes
(32:01):
and they go for layups. They don't do the mid range.
They shot fifty six to three pointers. The heat shot
forty one. So that is the see my Matt says,
ninety seven three point attempts. That's too many for some people. Well,
LaMelo himself shot sixteen. He was two of sixteen, and.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Late in the game he.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Got smart when the threes weren't falling. I mean, at
one point he's like two. I think he was two
of fifteen. He takes another horrible three. You're like, bro,
what are you even doing? And then he starts driving
an allube to Brandon Miller. I'll say this, Aboulamelo, he
is an unbelievable speed that people cannot hang with. Nobody
could stay in front of him on the heat. They've
tried Davion Mitchell, obviously, Tyler Hero had no chance. Jime
(32:45):
Hawkes got beat on the final play like they had
no nobody to slow him down. He's just too fast
and so he gets by you and it's either a
layup or somebody comes over to help and you give
up an Alube dunk, or he makes the right pass
to somebody open for three. Like that's when he's at
his best. Again, LaMelo will get credit. Hey, you had
thirty points at the game winner. In tennisis the guy
(33:07):
was twelve to thirty one shooting like bro thirty one shots.
He shot sixteen threes, And I get it, that's in
their DNA, that's what they do. But like Brandon Miller
was way better shooting than three, five to ten, Miles
Bridges five to ten, Kobe White five of eight, and
then there's Conk Nipple. I don't know if all Rookie
of the Year ballots are in. I mean, listen, he
(33:28):
was great this year, made a lot of threes. Regular
season basketball is a different product than playoff basketball.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
We know this.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Anybody who watches the sport knows this. Conk Nipple. And
I said it on the Herd on on Tuesday. I'm like, listen,
Eric Spolster is not gonna let a twenty year old
rookie beat him. I would bet Conk Nipple, understand, And
I said it. I haven't bet them. I gotta look
into it. Well, life gets in the way. I had
to go to the gym. I did recorded an interview
(33:55):
that we're gonna use tomorrow. Like I had stuff going on.
I didn't get a chance to bet the others. Conkniple
thirty four minutes, two of twelve, shooting zero for six
from deep six points. It was clear he got so
confused defensively late in the fourth quarter. It left Tyler
Hero wide open for a three. And essentially then there
(34:16):
was a break in the action. They pulled Cakinnipple and
he didn't go back in. He was not in for
the final I think ninety seconds or two minutes, whatever
it was, and then he didn't play an overtime. And
that's not a knock. He's a young guy. But the
reality is, guys, like regular season NBA is totally different
than the playoffs. And you could see they were getting
physical with him. He's not getting to his spots, he's
not getting as many open looks, and you know, I
(34:38):
don't want to say he was forcing a lot of stuff,
but he's a young guy. You trust your veterans. They
went with Kobe White down the stretch. He was great.
There's some Grant Williams action. He took not a great
shot late in the game. But this is an interesting team.
They're fun, that's for sure. I mean, you shoot fifty
six threes, your fun Ca nipple will bounce. He's gonna
(35:00):
be fine. But the LaMelo ball, if he could, if
you could stamp out some of those crazy threes. And
the problem is you let you give him free reign
in the regular season. So he just jacks all these
terrible shots and at that point you're like, all right,
it's not a big deal. It's regular season whatever. And
he makes enough. You know, he scores a lot, blah
blah blah. That crap isn't gonna work in the playoffs.
(35:22):
He's got to consistently attack and he's got to distribute.
And I know that's not in his DNA because he
wants to drive and he wants to shoot and fake
the drive. But I'm just he isn't what a talented
player when he gets his head right. He had a
brutal turnover at the end of regular I mean they're
(35:42):
up five and uh, Tyler hero it's crazy three their
full court pressure, LaMelo turns it over, then fouls Tyler
Hero on a three and they go from up five
to down one in like seven seconds because of LaMelo Ball.
He's a liability defensively. They were hunting him if he
ever gets locked in.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
Oh man, that guy.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
That guy's dangerous. So tough one for the Heat losing
Bam out of Bayo. He only played eleven minutes scored
six points. I saw a report that the Heat want
to go big game hunting for a star.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
I mean, there's really one on the market. His name
is Yanis.
Speaker 1 (36:17):
What do you do?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
What do you what's Yannis gooling there for? Is that
a lateral move from the Bucks to the Heat. It's
not like the Heater missing anybody.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
I just none of that makes sense to me. Like
Yannis and Tyler Hero.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I mean, Yanni's Bam and Tyler Hero? But what are
you giving up to get him? Many teams can put
up better packages. I'm not. I'm just not buying that
so thrilling stuff. I Unfortunately, I'm not gonna be able
to stay up for Portland Sun second half, mostly because
we were on spring break in a different time zone
and I'm exhausted, and I do have to host the
Herd as I said earlier on Thursday, so I need
(36:53):
to kind of get to bed early and lock in,
but we'll be back Manyana. Good interview and hopefully not
the end of Steph Curry's season with Golden State.
Fox Sports Radio News
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Jonas Knox
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