On Thursday morning, former NFL player Brian Baldinger threw out some fire, stating in a radio interview that he was hearing there were already problems between Chip Kelly and Trent Baalke. Our friends at Bleeding Green Nation have a full transcription of that particular segment of the show:
Baldinger: "I already hear that there's problems in the building with [Chip Kelly] and Trent Baalke. I already hear there's problems. And remember Chip was already saying, ‘Look, I don't wanna [be involved with] personnel.' I already hear there's problems. I talked to somebody tied to the program the other day."
Anthony Gargano: Do they already think it was a mistake bringing him in?
Baldinger: "Well, it was a mistake from the standpoint that one person from the organization wanted him and one didn't. But the person that made the decision has more of the power. So it's a problem."
This afternoon, Pro Football Talk addressed the topic. I am a little surprised it did not pop up earlier, but even Mike Florio is skeptical about the issue. He looks at Baldinger's connection to NFL Network, and given some history of NFL Network's non-reporting personalities, he is not buying it quite yet:
So I'll wait until a reporter from NFL Network or ESPN or FOX Sports or CSNBayArea.com or the Sacramento Bee or the Bay Area News Group or the San Francisco Chronicle reports this before concluding that it's true. Or I'll wait until I've heard the same something from a sufficiently reliable source or sources.
Clearly I deserved a name drop in there as well, but I can live without it!
But seriously, aside from just being an NFL Network guy, Baldinger is an Eagles guy. He has done work for the Eagles in the past, and things ended poorly between Chip Kelly and the Eagles. Baldinger could be 100 percent correct, but all things considered, it is easy to put two-and-two together on this. I think we can wait a few more months before reports of things falling apart between Kelly and Baalke.