Dianna Russini reveals she bribed local Starbucks amid Micah Parsons Cowboys-Packers blockbuster

Dianna Russini bribed a local Starbucks so she could report on the Dallas Cowboys trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers. On Tuesday’s episode of The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz, Russini, the senior NFL insider for The Athletic, talked about the challenges she faced finding an internet connection to share the news to the world.

“I was having internet issues and we wanted to do a quick live reaction show for Scoop City,” Dianna Russini said, referring to her podcast. “And of course, everything always happens at the worst times, right? It’s like no internet, no technology, all this. So I have to go to Starbucks — only place I can think of to just sit somewhere to get internet. And I had to go up to the barista and basically ask him politely, ‘Can you not blend Frappuccinos? Can you kill the music? The biggest trade in the NFL in a long time just happened, and I have to go live.’”

Dianna Russini shares more on reporting Micah Parsons trade at Starbucks

Russini said she got the silence she needed. However, that silence came with a cost. “I realized there’s only one way people will do things that you ask, which is money. And I just put 50 bucks on the counter,” she recalled. “The music goes off. The blending stops. It was awesome.”

Russini did what she had to do to be one of the first to discuss the Micah Parsons trade. After not being able to agree to a contract, the Cowboys sent Parsons to Green Bay in exchange for defensive lineman Kenny Clark and first-round picks in 2026 and 2027. The Packers then signed Parsons to a four-year contract extension worth $188 million. Parsons is now the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history.

“To Cowboy Nation, really, just thank you,” Parsons said to the media last week. “I never left Pennsylvania, pretty much, until I got drafted. I was a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania guy that went to Penn State, and the moment I got drafted, I had a second home, and they welcomed me. They opened their hearts out to me, poured into me, and that fan base is a one-of-one. So thank you to the fan base.”