Spike Eskin Saved Angelo Cataldi’s Life Yesterday

According to this strange story.

Update: Definitely a real story!

There is a story so strange in the paper, erm, website of record this morning, it feels like an April Fools day article in a college newspaper. Yesterday, reports Philly.com, the WIP crew was filming a Wing Bowl promo segment  Super Bowl commercial spoof that required host Angelo Cataldi to scarf a cheesesteak. He choked on it, couldn’t breathe, almost died, then was saved by the deft Heimlich maneuver of one Spike Eskin.

Cataldi takes a “huge bite,” and “half it’s coming down my chin.”

He had nothing to drink, and next thing he knows he’s like running into the building, gesturing for water.

The food slid and things got blocked, Cataldi said.

Spike Eskin was one of only two people there.

“The look on your face,” said Eskin, who often joins the morning show or hosts an evening gig.

“A panic swept over me,” Cataldi said. “… I realize I’m not breathing at all.”

Eskin at first wondered if Cataldi, known for overdramatizing and kidding, was kidding.

When he realized it was serious, it was “here we go,” Eskin said.

“I think I must have done it five or six times before it came out,” Eskin said.

The irony, of course, is that Cataldi and Spike’s dad Howard Eskin are longtime broadcasting rivals. (“I am indebted to every Eskin,” Cataldi said.”)(I reached out to Eskin to confirm the veracity of this tale, but have not yet heard back. Look, 90% of me believes it, but as one Philly.com commenter suggested, this might just be some smooth guerilla marketing for the Wing Bowl.

[Philly.com]