NFL insider gets honest about Aaron Rodgers relationship

The first time Aaron Rodgers directly called out Dianna Russini on The Pat McAfee Show , she was in the ESPN green room.

Rodgers crushed both Russini (now with The Athletic) and Adam Schefter. The New York Jets quarterback took Russini’s report as an opportunity to rail against the media, specifically NFL insiders’ attempts to gain information about him.

Rodgers refused to credibly confirm the idea that he handed the Jets a wish list of players.

Russini later went on ESPN and defended her reporting about Rodgers’ alleged wish list.

“These were not demands from Aaron Rodgers, and we never reported it that way, and we never even presented it that way,” Russini said. “It was, ‘These are the players I want to join me in New York; here are guys I like.’ Randall Cobb is not a player the New York Jets had on their free agency board as a player they wanted to bring in. That’s a player that Aaron Rodgers likes and wants.”

Russini has since responded to Rodgers indirectly on numerous occasions. The Athletic’s senior NFL insider offered a reaction to Rodgers’ criticism of her reporting on Zach Wilson and later clarified that she doesn’t have a vendetta against the quarterback or the organization; rather, they do it to themselves.

That’s hard to argue with.

In any event, host Brandon Contes recently asked Russini on the Awful Announcing Podcast about her reaction to being publicly called out by Rodgers. She’s discussed this before, but she offered more details about what she was doing at the moment and how she and Schefter were taking turns popping on some of ESPN’s NFL shows. Despite a perceived adversarial relationship, she also gave insight into how Rodgers feels about her.

“Aaron went on Pat McAfee, and that was the first time he addressed my report that he had a wish list of players that he gave the New York Jets, which we all knew was true, and obviously turned out to be true,” she said. “Because you saw who they signed (Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard, Billy Turner and Tim Boyle). And I remember Pat asking him the question about the wish list, and everyone in the green room, it was Schefty, (Dan) Orlovsky, producers, people were just popping their head in, and I think it was Orlovsky who was like, ‘Here we go!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, gosh, what’s he gonna say?’

“Because he is an incredible quarterback and anything he says people are just going to believe… I think he said he didn’t know my name. I think he said, ‘Dianna, whatever her name is,’ and whatever he said. And so, in the moment, I remember feeling defensive. I remember going, ‘Oh, I’m going on SportsCenter in two minutes, I’m gonna light him up. I’m gonna drop even more names that I had on his list.’ I’m thinking I’m gonna go punch him right in the gut.

“I’m sitting on the set, and Sage Steele is sitting next to me, and the other anchor is in the middle of a read, and he’s doing something. And so Sage looks at me, and I think she could see on my face that I was fired up. And she just immediately went into a mentor, big-sister mode… I was like, ‘Okay, stick to your facts, give your information. It’s about the story, not you.’ Anchor tosses to Sage; Sage says, ‘Alright, Dianna, Aaron Rodgers just went on Pat McAfee ; he denies that there was a wish list. What do you know?’ And I just went back to the reporter version of me… and I saw Sage recently and thanked her for that moment.

“It’s a really good lesson that it’s not personal, and you can’t let it ever get that far. Even though you can feel maybe forms of embarrassment, or I just remember not wanting the attention in that moment. I just wanted to report the story. So, I’m very grateful that I had somebody there in the moment and say, ‘This could be really bad if you don’t act like a credible journalist right now.’ Ever since then, I’ve handled the Rodgers’ situation the same way, which is, I’m just gonna share what I know. I know he doesn’t like it. And I know he respects me because I had somebody from his camp tell me that. ‘You drive him crazy, but he thinks you’re really good.’ So, I’m at peace with it.”

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The post Dianna Russini shares what Aaron Rodgers thinks of her appeared first on Awful Announcing .