Inside the fallout of the Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel photos - ESPN

NFL REPORTER DIANNA Russini was at home in Bergen County on Easter Sunday when a reporter from the New York Post approached the house. The outlet, the reporter told her, had photographs of Russini, a top newsbreaker at The Athletic, with Mike Vrabel, the head coach of the New England Patriots, together in Arizona.

Russini told the Post reporter that she and Vrabel recently had been in Arizona for NFL league meetings, according to two people briefed on the interaction.

The photos, though, threatened to become a public relations disaster. They were taken at a luxury resort away from the league meetings and appeared to show Russini embracing and holding hands with the Patriots coach. Later that Sunday, having learned the nature of the photos, she was on the phone with a crisis communications expert strategizing how to respond to the story, according to a person with knowledge of the call.

Two days later, on Tuesday evening, the Post published Oli Coleman's report with the headline, «New England Patriots' Mike Vrabel and top NY Times NFL reporter Dianna Russini hold hands and hug at luxury hotel.» The outlet published several photos of Russini and Vrabel at the Sedona resort. In one picture, their fingers are interlocked. In another they are hugging. Others showed them together at the hotel's pool.

In the days leading up to and following the Post's report, Russini, Vrabel and executives from The Athletic, which is owned by the New York Times, scrambled to respond to an explosive story that raised questions about the relationship between one of the most high-profile reporters in the NFL and the coach of a flagship NFL franchise, according to interviews with a dozen people with knowledge of how the last week transpired, who