A single Arizona weekend turned Dianna Russini from NFL insider to weekly headline fodder, putting her career on ice while Mike Vrabel kept his New England Patriots headset and his marriage.

Seven months later, Russini is said to be plotting a comeback to the NFL world she once fed with insider information on big deals, including Matthew Stafford's move to the Los Angeles Rams and Aaron Rodgers' friction and breakup with the Green Bay Packers in 2023.

Russini has reportedly told NFL contacts she expects to return to work next week after Barstool was rumored as a landing spot. That timeline would put her in the middle of the NFL season for Week 9 action as Vrabel's Patriots sit behind the Buffalo Bills with a 5-3 record and second in the AFC East.

Word is Russini is lining up her own show on a digital platform, but nobody’s naming the service or the launch date yet. Whether she returns as a classic scoop machine for a major network or reinvents herself in a new role remains to be seen.

CBS has an open NFL insider role after Jonathan Jones left the network for The Athletic, virtually replacing Russini. The network is broadcasting four of the league's fifteen games during Week 9.

However, CBS also said it would exit the insider business altogether, and Tony Romo's departure after his July arrest could make the network more cautious about bringing in talent with baggage, big or small.

NBC Sports' Mike Florio reported Wednesday that a source familiar with the situation said Russini told NFL figures she plans to return the following week.

Russini previously worked at ESPN from 2015 to 2023 before joining The Athletic. That ended after the Arizona scandal became public and additional photos showed the pair kissing at a bar in New York City during the 2020 pandemic.

Russini and Vrabel initially denied wrongdoing and The Athletic launched their own internal investigation. Russini resigned before her contract expired and before the investigation was completed.

The Athletic said its final review went unfinished. They stopped short of a final call on the exact nature of Russini and Vrabel's relationship but stated she breached newsroom conflict-of-interest standards.

In her final departure letter, Russini defended her work and said she refused to let the public controversy define her career.

"I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode," she wrote, "but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career."

Reports emerged in October that Russini enlisted crisis publicist Melissa Nathan as she weighed her media options. Nathan's client roster includes Johnny Depp, Logan Paul, Drake, and more.