Dianna Russini reveals discussions with ESPN to do radio show with Mike Greenberg (2024)

When she departed ESPN for The Athletic, Dianna Russini took a chance on herself.

The veteran insider didn’t see a path for herself to grow at the Worldwide Leader, whereas, at The Athletic, she’s involved in more video content and her new podcast with ex-NFL quarterback Chase Daniel, titled Scoop City.

When Russini left ESPN, she said, “There was no elevation” for her at the company. The opportunity to do something like a podcast wasn’t readily available, as she didn’t have any conversations related to that medium while she was still in Bristol. But Russini did have conversations about doing a radio show.

She revealed as much during a recent appearance on the Awful Announcing podcast, telling host Brandon Contes that there were discussions about doing a radio show with Mike Greenberg.

“That was something I was really interested in,” she said. “Mike Greenberg is the absolute best at what he does. And the idea of hosting a show and the idea of being asked to host a show by Mike and the people at ESPN, I almost was intimidated by it at first, thinking, ‘I’m gonna sit next to Mike Greenberg, who has not technically sat next to a partner on the radio side since Mike Golic? Since Mike & Mike? And they’re gonna include me in this?’

“So, while it wasn’t a podcast, there was a form of a show with Mike Greenberg that we discussed, but I wound up leaving ESPN, so we were never able to do it. I’m still really good friends with Mike Greenberg. We really miss each other a lot.”

That would’ve been Greenberg’s current midday radio show, #Greeny, which follows his morning appearances on Get Up. According to Russini, they had some conversations about the NFL insider being a co-host on that very show. But whether that meant five days a week would’ve been hard to decipher, given that her schedule while she was at ESPN was what she described as “wild.”

“I’m traveling a lot to do the job,” Russini says. “My main job was Sunday NFL Countdown, like that was what I was (at ESPN) to do, is that pregame, postgame reporting. And during the week, obviously, SportsCenter wants you to pop on their shows, and I enjoyed Get Up. Out of everything I did, that was my favorite show to do. So, Greeny was great about making sure I was always in the mix. And plus, in terms of being in-studio, it’s in New York. I live in New Jersey. It takes me 35 minutes to get there. It was perfect.

“And Mike always brought out the best in me, in terms of appreciating information but allowing me to be me. That was the best version, I think, of what I was able to bring to a show. So, it made sense to put us together because we worked so well together.”

Was that something they were pitching if Russini did stay at ESPN?

“Yeah, that was part of my new deal that they were offering, was to do a show with Mike Greenberg,” she continued. “But, I wound up turning that down because The Athletic’s offer — in terms of what they were going to allow me to — just at the time, to me, was better. And now that I’ve been here a full year and truly understood what it is that the Athletic wanted and what I’ve been able to do here, it was 100% the right decision.”

The Dianna Russini episode of the AA podcast will be released on Friday, August 16. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts,Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.

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