Dianna Russini on ‘Pardon My Take.’ / Pardon My Take / YouTub

Josh Allen won his first MVP this past season in the closest race for the award in nearly a decade. Allen received 27 first place votes while Lamar Jackson got the other 23. As is the case every year, people were very passionate about the winner.

The big difference between this year and others though was the fact that the votes were made public, a fact that took The Athletic’s Dianna Russini by surprise when her phone started blowing up after it came out that she had voted Jackson first and Allen second on her ballot. She shared the story with the hosts of Pardon My Take.

“It was the first year it was revealed and I did not know that,” said Russini. “I was out to dinner and my phone was blowing up with people in football very angry that I voted for people that I voted for. So that stunk. I wish I knew that.”

You would expect voters to face criticism online from fans, but the idea that people “in football” were mad at Russini raises a few questions. She seemed to be made uncomfortable by the reaction to her vote, even if she said she wouldn’t have changed it had her ballot been anonymous.

Who would feel emboldened enough to call out someone who cast that ballot? Russini was one of 23 voters who had Jackson first and one of 22 who had Allen second. It was an extremely close vote and getting upset with someone who voted either way seems childish.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know if the same people who angrily reached out to Russini did the same to people like Mike Florio, Mike Tirico and Tom Brady who all had the same top two in the same order as Russini. We’ll never know because those messages that do or do not exist weren’t made public like the MVP vote was. But maybe they should be.