Joey Chestnut barred from Nathan’s hot dog eating contest (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, widely considered the greatest professional eater in history, won’t be allowed to compete at the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest after signing an endorsement deal with plant-based company Impossible Foods.


The deal with Impossible, which is trying to attract more meat eaters with its new plant-based hot dog, does not prohibit Chestnut from entering eating competitions, including Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog-Eating Contest on July 4.

“We love Joey and support him in any contest he chooses. It’s OK to experiment with a new dog. Meat eaters shouldn’t have to be exclusive to just one wiener,” the California-based company said in a statement.


But Nathan’s demands loyalty from its competitors — at least when it comes to hot dog brands, said George Shea, chair and co-founder of Major League Eating, the governing body for numerous competitive eating contests, including Nathan’s.

A key agreement for all competitors at the Nathan’s contest — where people compete for the “Mustard Belt” and prize money in front of ESPN’s cameras — is to “not represent a rival hot dog brand,” Shea told The Washington Post.

The latest contract between Chestnut and Nathan’s had expired, Shea said, and the two sides were negotiating a new one when Chestnut announced he had signed a deal with a “plant-based firm.” Nathan’s didn’t know then that it was with Impossible.

Shea said Nathan’s had asked Chestnut for a potential carve-out: Could he represent all other products in the company’s line, except for its plant-based hot dogs?


“And they said no, and that was where we got to an impasse,” Shea said. “We just got surprised by this.”


Impossible Foods wouldn’t comment on its deal with Chestnut. But in signing with Impossible, Chestnut apparently walked away from a lucrative deal with Nathan’s, which was prepared to offer the 16-time winner an annual $300,000 appearance fee over four years, said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

“I was very disappointed to learn from the media today that after nearly 20 years I am banned from the Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest,” Chestnut said in an Instagram post.

“I love competing in that event, I love celebrating America with my fans all over this great country on the 4th and I have been training to defend my title.”…….

https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/06/11/joey-chestnut-nathans-hot-dog-contest-impossible-foods/

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

It’s OK to experiment with a new dog. Meat eaters shouldn’t have to be exclusive to just one wiener,”

happy pride month

 

[superchuck500]

I get that Nathan’s probably believes that it has built this event into a national pastime and so it has the right to control the event - but demanding complete loyalty is silly. Corporate ego in this situation is just unfortunate, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

Hopefully they get it worked out.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I get that Nathan’s probably believes that it has built this event into a national pastime and so it has the right to control the event - but demanding complete loyalty is silly. Corporate ego in this situation is just unfortunate, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

Hopefully they get it worked out.

This doesn’t seem orchestrated to you?
It sure seems like they’re ginning up controversy to get people talking

 

[superchuck500]

This doesn’t seem orchestrated to you?
It sure seems like they’re ginning up controversy to get people talking

I don’t think Impossible Foods would be in on the ruse.

 

[donato]

Nathan's comes off looking ridiculous.

 

[nolaspe]

Dude went ham 2x at our local Fat Boys pizza joint in da Metrys... (they make good pizza)...

 

[bclemms]

The level at which this could backfire is stupid high.

The level at which this could get political and drive magaworld into a Nathan's eating frenzy is also high.

If I were to lay money, the move was calculated by Nathan's that they could lose support of 100% of snowflake vegan's and still come out ahead with the backlash support from magaland. If Nathan's paired this with a conspiracy they would be raking it in.

Overall marketing ploy: 9/10

 

[Saintman2884]

The level at which this could backfire is stupid high.

The level at which this could get political and drive magaworld into a Nathan's eating frenzy is also high.

If I were to lay money, the move was calculated by Nathan's that they could lose support of 100% of snowflake vegan's and still come out ahead with the backlash support from magaland. If Nathan's paired this with a conspiracy they would be raking it in.

Overall marketing ploy: 9/10

It's so easy, yet still comes across as being so cheap, petty and predictable. Adding a "conspiracy" to this that seems believable might be a bit of a challenge, even in our very polarized times. And unbelievably silly and ridiculous, too.

It might work wonders with all the righteous controversy ginned up in the short-term, but it'll burn out and more then likely backfire over the long-haul.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[Optimus Prime]

Look, I understand that the hot dog eating contest is a joke. The Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest represents the epitome of American hucksterist gluttony, a nation of plenty making its decadent abundance repulsively real with a row of human beings smashing as much processed beef refuse into their mouths as quickly as our species’ biological limitations will allow them to.

I can certainly attest that it never fails to disgust whatever friend or family member I harangue into watching it with me every July 4. But this does not stop me and, frankly, millions of other Americans from making it my central Independence Day tradition.

Part of it is the vaudevillian spectacle of the whole enterprise, the carnival-barker freakshow spirit that makes the setting of Coney Island so apt. But, at the risk of coming across as if my bar for athletic entertainment has been set too low, the real reason I watch it is because I find the competition — and the competitors’ achievements — legitimately impressive.

I mean, almost anyone several inches north of 6 feet can dunk a basketball. How many people can consume a Dodger Stadium afternoon matinee’s worth of dogs in less time than it takes to microwave popcorn? It might be ridiculous for such a competition to exist, but you can at least appreciate it being done so well. If you are going to play, play your best.

That’s why, for all your (pretty great) jokes, I was honestly saddened to hear that Joey Chestnut, the greatest hot dog eating champion of all time, will not appear at this year’s Nathan’s contest because of a deal he signed with Impossible Foods, a rival company that makes a plant-based hot dog.

Whatever your thoughts on which side is right here — I prefer to think that in a battle between the organization that hosts a hot dog eating contest on July 4 and the man who dominates it, there are no possible bad guys — the end result, losing the GOAT from the signature event he has defined for two decades, is an unquestioned bummer. You want to see greatness? Chestnut, in his own very specific way, is greatness.

To put Chestnut’s incredible run at the top of his sport in context, it’s important to understand the history of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. The event began in 1967 (held on June 30 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the hot dog) and was won by Walter Paul, a 400-pound truck driver. The contest was held on Memorial Day through 1978 until moving to July 4 in 1979; the 1981 winner was a man named Thomas DeBerry, who, according to news reports at the time, “downed 11 hot dogs in five minutes and then rushed off with his family to attend a barbecue.” (This is something, if I had just gone through a particularly dark period in my life, I think I could personally do.)

The event had this sort of geek-show quality for decades — one year it was won by a 130-pound West German woman who, before the starting pistol, had never eaten a hot dog in her life, and another year, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa took part (and wasn’t half bad) — until 2001, when everything changed forever.

That year, an unknown Japanese man named Takeru Kobayashi made his first appearance in the contest. Previously, the record for most hot dogs eaten in 12 minutes was 25 1/8; Kobayashi, weighing only 128 pounds, showed up and nearly doubled the record, reaching 50 by introducing a novel strategy of eating called “the Solomon Method,” which involved him taking the dog out of the bun, putting the bun in water and using it to wash down the dog. His record was so surprising that the event ran out of signs that day to mark how many hot dogs he had eaten.

Kobayashi’s 2001 performance was so unprecedented that the only historical corollary I can come up with is what Babe Ruth did in baseball. No one had hit more than 27 homers in a season until Ruth showed up and started smashing more than 50, then 60. Like Ruth, Kobayashi blew everyone’s minds, but, more important, he informed other competitors of what was now possible.

What had been a silly diversion became a serious competition about the limits of human potential. Kobayashi would win the next five hot dog eating contests, but his winning margin shrunk a little more every year as his foes raised their games to challenge him. And one, in particular, inspired by Kobayashi’s abilities, began to close in on him.

I am very proud to say that I, along with 30,000 others, was there when Joey Chestnut, at last, dethroned the Babe Ruth of competitive eating by eating 66 dogs in 12 minutes, defeating Kobayashi by three dogs. (Chestnut’s performance initially was listed as winning by two dogs, but Kobayashi lost one from his total because of a “reversal,” which is the competitive eating term for vomiting.)

I hope you will not mock me when I tell you I found the victory emotionally stirring and, it must be said, even patriotic. To see an American take back this most American of titles, to elevate a sport in front of the man who had changed the entire sport (such as it is), moved me and many in the crowd. I swear, when, afterward, Chestnut said, “If I needed to eat another one right now, I could,” people were chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” I might have been one of them............

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/13/joey-chestnut-goat-eating-hot-dog-contest/

 

[Optimus Prime]

NEW YORK (AP) — Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago has won his first men’s title at the annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.

Bertoletti won by consuming 58 hot dogs in a tight, 10-minute race where the leader bounced back and forth. He surpassed his personal best of 55 hot dogs.

Bertoletti, 39, defeated 13 competitors from around the world. The reigning men’s champion, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, didn’t attend the competition this year over a sponsorship tiff. Instead, he’ll compete against soldiers at a U.S. Army base in El Paso later in the day.

Earlier, defending champion Miki Sudo of Florida won her 10th title in the women’s division.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — Dental hygiene student Miki Sudo of Florida has won her 10th title at the annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest.

Sudo consumed 51 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Thursday in New York City — and set a new world record for women.

“I’m just happy to call this mine for another year,” Sudo said after winning her 10th pink belt……..

Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago wins his first men’s title at annual Nathan’s hot dog eating contest.

Defending champion Miki Sudo has won her 10th title, and Patrick Bertoletti won his first men’s title at the 2024 Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest.

apnews.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

……..But there was a Chestnut-shaped hole in this year’s event. The maestro of mastication has won the “Mustard Yellow Belt” 16 times, and ate a world record 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes in 2021.

If Chestnut was absent from Nathan’s Famous contest, he wasn’t going to allow Independence Day to pass by without taking on a food challenge.

The 40-year-old will be competing in his own showcase event, taking on four US Army soldiers at the Fort Bliss base in El Paso, Texas, in an “all-beef” hot dog eating event.

The contest, which hopes to raise money for military families, will last five minutes and likely Chestnut will have had one eye on his rivals competing in Coney Island.

Chestnut has reportedly said he hopes to eat more hotdogs in five minutes than the winner of Nathan’s competition does in 10 minutes.

“I think 56 is doable,’’ he said, per USA Today. “I’d be very happy to do that.’’………

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/sport/nathans-famous-hot-dog-eating-contest-joey-chestnut-spt-intl?cid=ios_app

 

[Madmarsha]

 

[Merl]

I think the "competition" is dumb and dangerous I won't watch it, but I think Nathan's is right to bar him from the contest since he signed a contract with their rival.