Former Eagle Brian Baldinger Intentionally Broke Eric Swann's Ankle

Here's a crazy story that surfaced today. Former Eagle and current NFL analyst Brian Baldinger was a guest on 97.5 The Fanatic to talk all things Eagles and he was asked about the LaRon Landry spitting incident. In the course of that discussion, he admitted that he once broke a guy's ankle on purpose. The player was Eric Swann of the then NFC East rival Phoenix Cardinals.

"No, I think spitting is….I’ve broken a guy’s ankle on purpose before and put him out for the season. That was just pay back, and that’s all legal, and that’s all fair game when somebody tries to put you out. You go back and you devise a game plan to put Eric Swann out for the season. That was fun and that was legal. But the spitting part, that’s probably the lowest thing you can do in this league. I’ve never had it done to me, and I would never do it to somebody. No spitting."

Ok, so spitting is the worst thing you can do while breaking a guy's ankle on purpose is "fun and legal?"

"Yes, yeah. Well he tried to put me out during the first game of the season, and my knee has never been the same. So all I thought about the entire game was to make sure he was carried off the field"

Not only was he proud of the fact that he broke Swann's ankle, he was congratulated for it.

"No, because it was so well crafted that you couldn’t really see my intent. It was just a legal chop-block, but I made sure to work with the center and the tackle to make sure the high-low was in effect. I had talked about it and actually had a game-plan for it, and I’m actually pretty proud of it because he was a dirtiest player that ever played the game. I said it was all fair game. I actually got compliments from a lot of players around the league that thought he was the dirtiest player as well. "

It was a different league back then... Also, you might not want to cross Brian Baldinger.