For NFL insiders who break transactional news in real time, the Twitter account is their most important tool.

Dianna Russini, who covered the NFL for The Athletic, has now deleted her Twitter account.

She had posted only two items since the photos with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel emerged 16 days ago. The first, a seemingly innocuous trial balloon passing along an article about the ongoing labor fight between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association, was a disaster; the replies were overrun with toxic and hateful content.

Five days later, she posted her resignation letter on Twitter, with the replies turned off.

In multiple statements made this week, Vrabel sharply contradicted her claim that the photos reveal nothing improper. In her resignation letter, she referred to the situation as "attacks" against her, and she complained that, "unfortunately, commentators in various media have engaged in self-feeding speculation that is simply unmoored from the facts."

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

Given that any reporter's career hinges on objectivity and credibility, it will be very difficult for her to resume that role, in any capacity. The deletion of her Twitter account could at some level be an acknowledgement of this reality.