Dianna Russini put credibility of all women in sports at risk | Opinion

• Photos of reporter Dianna Russini and coach Mike Vrabel socializing have sparked controversy and an internal investigation.
• The incident has been criticized for reinforcing a negative stereotype about female sports journalists.
• While Russini is on leave, the Patriots coach has continued his duties as "business as usual."
• The situation highlights the double standards and unique challenges women face in sports media.

Editor's note: Dianna Russini resigned from The Athletic on April 14. Check out the full story here.

No matter what the New York Times' internal investigation of NFL reporter Dianna Russini finds, the damage is already done.

Russini has given new fire to the infuriating trope that women in sports are only here to hook up with athletes. Even if they turn out to be innocent, the photos of Russini and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel hugging and socializing at a resort in Arizona cast a cloud of suspicion on the interactions every woman reporter or broadcaster has with athletes, coaches and front-office personnel.

Are we being friendly because we’re cultivating a professional relationship or do we have other, more salacious motives? Are we asking for a phone number or email because building sources is part of our job or because we want to hit you up on the side?

It’s not fair, but it’s the reality: Russini made it harder for every single woman in sports, regardless of what we cover, to do our jobs. By risking her own credibility, she’s put ours in jeopardy, too.

Mike Vrabel, Dianna Russini photos: 'Business as usual' on so many levels

Vrabel and Russini have both denied any wrongdoing, and Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said April 13 that it's been "business as usual" for the coach. Russini is on leave, however, pending an internal investigation at The Athletic.

That's not surprising, given it's problematic for any journalist to be too friendly with someone you're covering. It is particularly problematic when women have fought for decades to be seen and respected like their male colleagues.

The environment for women in sports media is far different than it was in 1978, when a federal court ordered Major League Baseball to open its clubhouses to Melissa Ludtke, then a reporter for Sports Illustrated. There are now women covering every sport, at every level, and it’s a rarity to go to a game or event and find you’re the only woman there.

Women are sports editors and columnists at the largest, and smallest, publications. Maria Taylor and Rebecca Lowe have two of the most high-profile jobs at any of the sports networks. Candace Parker calls NBA and NCAA men’s basketball games.

And the occasional Cam Newton aside, women reporters are rarely subjected to the outright hostility and condescension that was once common in our workplaces. (Our emails and social media accounts remain a different story.)

That does not mean we are on equal footing, however.

Dianna Russini, Mike Vrabel, sexist assumptions and double standards

We are still asked, the suspicion sometimes obvious, why we got into sports journalism. The answer is simple: For the same reasons our male colleagues did.

We love sports. We played them. We grew up going to and watching games with our fathers or mothers or grandparents. Even if we weren’t getting paid to do so, we’d be watching games and talking about sports.

But we also are keenly aware that sexist assumptions and double standards linger in every male-dominated industry, and most of us go out of our way to avoid doing anything that could fuel them.

Every woman in sports journalism I know has had conversations about how to build relationships with the people we cover in a way that makes it abundantly clear we have no interest in anything else. How do you ask for a phone number? Can you get drinks alone with a coach or GM if it’s in a public place, or does it have to be with a group of reporters? How can you have repeated conversations with the same athlete without it raising eyebrows? If an athlete (or coach or front-office person) is pushing boundaries, what’s the best exit strategy without burning bridges?

These are not questions our male colleagues have to ask, mind you. Just as I doubt most men in sports give themselves the once-over before leaving for a game or an event to make sure what we’re wearing doesn’t send the wrong message or match the colors of a team we’re covering.

“I think a lot of times, my female colleagues get questioned in ways when they’re seen, with these guys, out, in ways that I do not get questioned. And I think a lot of that is totally unfair,” Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, another NFL insider, said Friday during a segment on Toucher & Hardy in Boston.

“And if this is what it looks like, then this is really bad for all the women who are doing it on the level.”

Yes. It is.

These are not the 1970s. Or even the 1990s. Women in sports media have fought too hard and for too long to be treated the same as our male counterparts.

The last thing any of us need is one of our own taking us backward.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

(This story has been updated with additional information)