Moose on the Loose: Joey Chestnut
NEW YORK (PIX11) — Let Joey eat.
When you think of the Fourth of July, you think of a celebration of America, patriotism, summer, the American flag, Neil Diamond, the beach, cookouts, fireworks and, of course, Coney Island and the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. The contest is where men and women have 10 minutes to eat as many hot dogs, buns included, as they possibly can. It is a slice of Americana, just like mom’s homemade apple pie.
The Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky of competitive eating is Joey Chestnut. His world record is 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, what a champion. He has won the event 16 times and competed for the last 19 years. Chestnut has been banned because he signed an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, which is prohibited. Now we have come to find out since that Chestnut will have a hot dog eating competition with another hot dog eating legend, Takeru Kobayashi, for Netflix on Labor Day. It’s entitled “Unfinished Beef.”
So, was this all just some great marketing ploy for Chestnut? If it was, it worked. But in the end, how do you have the greatest and most famous hot dog eating champion of all time not participate in an event that he has helped define because he has an endorsement with a plant-based food company? Is that really a competitor? Plant-based and 100% all beef are two completely different hot dogs. They both can be great and thoroughly enjoyable, but they are different eating experiences. Major League Eating, which banned Chestnut, needs to come to its senses. Will the event be more competitive without Chestnut? For sure. But as the Hall of Fame wrestler Ric Flair famously said, “To be the man, you have to beat the man.”
Chestnut has been so dominant that he is the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, and a competition without him makes little to no sense.
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