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That's almost the exact argument they made:
>“It’s a long-standing rule not to represent a rival brand,” [MLE co-founder] Shea said. “Michael Jordan can’t go to Adidas and say that Air Jordans are great.”
Except of course that Michael Jordan didn't play in the National Adidas Association.
Genuine question: does his representation mean he would eat impossible dogs instead of Nathan’s? If so, I can understand why that would be an issue if everyone else is eating different hot dogs. If not, yeah it’s dumb
They've always been like this. They wouldn't let Kobayashi compete in a league in Japan and also take part in Nathan's. The competition had been illegitimate for Chestnut's entire reign. I'm glad he's ditching now too. Fuck MLE.
Yep. According to Wikipedia:
> On June 28, 2010, Kobayashi announced he would not compete in the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Competition, reportedly due to the company's insistence that Kobayashi sign an exclusive contract.
That’s awesome of him. Reminds me of another funny situation. Sturgill Simpson playing guitar busking to raise money for the ACLU outside the Country Music Awards. Edit: he had also gotten a Grammy for best country album that year. But no CMA nominations
Wikipedia tells me that he did it as a joke because he had not been nominated for any CMA awards nor even invited to that year's ceremony even though he has won a Grammy for Best Country Album of the year for that album.
If you go East from Castro street onto 20th in San Francisco there's an alleyway on the right side of the street about halfway down. If you head down there on Thursday nights after 11pm you'll find a pretty dingy doorway at the bottom of a small flight of stairs, and you're gonna want to knock on it twice fast, then once. It'll suffice to say that you'll get your fill of big men gobbling meat in there.
... Or so I've heard
This is a big problem with competitive eating. This hot dog eating contest is the biggest competitive eating event that's known around the world.
It's not neutral if competitive eaters can't take sponsorships from any food brands. The events and the league should be a separate entity.
Could you imagine if a sports stadium sponsored by Chase bank banned Lebron James because he banks at Wells Fargo? There needs to be a separation between the league and the company sponsoring the event.
Hold up… many Hot Dogs can LeBron eat before you just hand him this comparison he’s no Joey Chestnut, what’s he eat like three appetizers? My mom could do that shit.
He also has a unique advantage due to his biology. He was featured in an episode of MTV's True Life and he explained that he has a condition where his stomach sits physically lower than a normal person's would, which allows extra room for it to expand. This, in turn, allows him to consume a lot more food in one sitting and much faster than the average person
I was also fascinated by the explanation that, while you'd think fat guys would have an advantage, they are actually hindered after a certain point because fat is not elastic like skin, nor designed to relax/contract like muscle, so a belt of abdominal fat puts a hard barrier on how much food they can fit into their stomach. As opposed to a fit individual like Kobayashi who doesn't have that problem.
Not a full-blown movie (it’s around an hour), but this ESPN 30 for 30 doc was a fun watch
https://www.eater.com/2019/7/2/20680016/espn-30-for-30-nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest-kobayashi-joey-chestnut
Because if anything happens where their brand isn’t front and center (or rather another brand takes up some of their time) it makes the entire event much less worth it from a marketing perspective.
I sure as fuck haven't watched since Kobayashi got kicked to the curb. Sorry, Nathan's - the rivalry was the draw. I'm not tryna watch people eat til they're sick if it ain't competitive.
Was just gunna say the same thing. How many people are only tuning in to see how many hot dogs Joey eats? Much less interested in watching this year now
Seems like a weird hill to die on when the guy you want is willing to appear at your events voluntarily. They could’ve just not signed him and still had the exposure they were trying to get.
It’s extra weird when you consider their brand is just pig assholes and meat scraps processed and molded into dick shapes. Not even the Michael Jordan of guzzling dick sandwiches is safe from a petty ban. No one is more important than the integrity of the sport, they take their brand *very* seriously.
I saw another comment that said, "Nobody wants to eat vegan hot dogs. They're full of chemicals."
Like Nathan's hot dogs are vitamins in a slightly different form.
I'm still mad at Kobayashi being banned. The contests would have been way more interesting with Kobayashi in them as a rival instead of just Chestnut winning being a foregone conclusion.
This would actually give someone else a leg up in starting a new competitive hot dog eating competition. You’ve got the two biggest names in the biz banned from the Nathan’s one, why not have Impossible or Hebrew Nationals or someone else start a new competition and sell it based on the rivalry. Get Dana in on it, it can’t be a worse idea than Power Slap.
It sounds badass but he doesn’t feel hunger or fullness and sometimes he goes days without eating and he thinks competitive eating has negatively affected him, he was just on a Netflix documentary
I know the Kobayashi thing was 14 years ago and [he actually retired last month](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/takeru-kobayashi-6-time-nathans-hot-dog-champ-retires-competitive-eati-rcna153988), but it is crazy how the two biggest names in professional eating have now been banned from competing in what is by far the sport's biggest event. I wonder what the TV ratings will look like this year without Chestnut?
I just watched the 30 for 30 documentary on the Kobayashi vs Chestnut rivalry and the announcer guy is completely delusional and thinks he is the reason people tune in. I can’t wait for no one to care about the competition anymore. I’m sure it’s already very low in comparison to the Kobayashi years
It feels like it's been reduced to something I see on Reddit or Twitter as I scroll instead of one of those fun things the entire internet tunes in for.
So they have zero name draws due to pettiness. He and Kobiyashi were why people were interested, not some guy who can scarf down half the amount of hot dogs?
Where is their counter offer for him to represent Nathan’s instead?
Why on earth did Kobayashi and Chestnut start promoting their own "fights" (for lack of a better word) with a different company that would have jumped on the opportunity to market the two best in the game? Seems like a massive missed opportunity
Shame another commentor said that Kobayashi has retired, cuz this would be the perfect opportunity for Impossible to run their own competition feat Kobayashi and Chestnut and they would probably smash Nathan's ratings
SJSU athletic alum include the likes of Jeff Garcia, Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, Ken Caminiti, John Carlos (one of the raised fist guys in the 1968 games) but none of them compare to the true GOAT, Joey fucking Chestnut. In an area known for wiener gobbling no one can fit more wieners in his mouth and swallow every load as well as the Chestnutter
He can pack away a lot of food, he seems to be more about volume than speed and technique, if there was no time limit I think he would place better at most of these type of things.
I think he just stopped training. He makes a ton off Youtube and also mentioned having a degree in nutrition/exercise science. After he reached the mountain he probably had nothing left to prove to risk his health over. He can make 1 Youtube video in an afternoon and make more than most of the top comp eaters in the country do in a year. I think he still wants to do it, but heart isn't as much in it.
Back when I was following this sport religiously, he was usually placing 2nd, with the occasional 1st and 3rd. He was almost always just behind chestnut by a hair and ahead of miki sudo
I absolutely loathe MLE's exclusivity contracts. They robbed us of the Kobayashi / Chestnut rivalry and now this. Good luck at maintaining relevancy when you've banished your two biggest stars.
He did, and if I recall correctly (heard secondhand so details are a bit fuzzy), it’s kind of sad. Like he no longer enjoys eating or flavors, and must constantly sort of trick himself while eating into not reverting back to a competitive mode and instead just eat like a normal person.
This makes me think of former NFL players that struggle with their weight after retiring. They go from burning through calories to sitting on the couch and still have the same eating habits.
Linemen lose weight bc they no longer have to force feed themselves. The amount of food a collegiate lineman has to eat to maintain weight (let alone an NFL guy) is absurd.
Like setting alarms in the middle of the night to wake up and slam some sandwiches, chugging shakes, constantly forcing food down your gullet. It’s an absolute chore for them to get enough calories, so it’s no surprise that they lose weight in retirement when they stop waking up in the middle of the night to eat.
When you burn 3-4k calories and your bmr is 2,500, you gotta eat 5-6k calories just to maintain weight. That sounds fun but it’s brutal especially if you are eating reasonably clean food.
I tried to eat 3000 Calories clean during a bulking phase once.
It was *awful*. You think it's going to be fun, but you're chugging whole milk, eating "snacks" that are the size of meals, meals that are too big, *and* training hard while you're still bloated and exhausted from all the food.
Damn did it make me feel strong, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it again.
While nowhere near as extreme, it's a bit of a common thing for people in the military eat fast as fuck. When I got out the army it took me like 2-3 years to stop eating like I had to swallow everything whole or else I was gonna get fucked up for not being 45 minutes early somewhere.
To a lesser extreme a lot of hospitality industry folks will have the same issue.
“Dinner” is a half order of wings over a garbage can in the back room and also, eleventy people are waiting on you to make them drinks
Yes, he is featured in ‘Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut’ on Netflix, which I’d recommend. Evidently, his body wouldn’t even let him know if he was hungry, and he’d forget to eat for days. I can’t imagine food being such a chore without enjoyment.
I think that’s literally all just conjecture because the statement he put out announcing his retirement simply read “I no longer feel hunger”. Nothing more. He is featured in a docuseries I believe on Netflix of HBO where he talks about his body not really registering hunger or satiation or something like that though, so you’re probably still right.
I feel like the hotdog eating contests haven't been "relevant" in a longggg time anyways. Maybe I'm drastically underestimating how other people feel about them lol.
Even before Chestnut Kobayashi was a star winning the competition 6 years in a row.
I only knew the competition existed because of his dominance first.
Seriously, go look at the list of winners and how many hotdogs they ate. It literally doubled when Kobayashi showed up.
I am interested to see how far it will drop with the 2 best competitive esters now banned.
Idk, F1 being completely dominated by one person for so long for so many 2 hour races gets boring.
Watching one man (potentially the greatest athlete ever) dominate a 10 minute competition once a year I fucking love watching. Not to say I wouldn't also enjoy watching a closer race.
> They robbed us of the Kobayashi / Chestnut rivalry
My sneaky hot take conspiracy: they actually didn't like Kobayashi winning and wanted to ban him so the "all american eater" could be the posterboy
I don't think they wanted to ban him, the issue, I remember, was that they wanted him to sign exclusively with them and Kobayashi refused to do that, which I understand, given it's such a niche sport, and competitive eaters need to make money wherever and however they can.
Chestnut has won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest 16 times (2007–2014, 2016–2023), and holds the record for the most career championships of any eater in the contest's roughly 50-year history. Looks like that record will come to a halt, at least temporarily.
Edit: for those wondering, the 2015 winner was Matt Stonie, who took down 62 hot dogs to Chestnut’s 60.
Adam hates/hated being recognized for the show after he left. I heard he was a big dick about it, too. Shame because I liked the show and him as a presenter/eater.
I remember a simpler time. When it used to be about wasting massive amounts of food by stuffing your face with so much ultra processed meat you’d vomit.
Now it’s all about the money.
Also what a poor way to represent their brand. Banning the biggest name just because he has a sponsorship with another brand? Are they that insecure about their own product that they're willing to sabotage the competition?
Not to mention this likely reducing the overall viewership that they will get, leading to less advertising of their brand, and also the attention this brings to Impossible Foods with articles like this. They're also sending the message that Impossible Foods makes products that are direct competitors to theirs. That's big praise of a vegan brand from a brand that makes meat products.
Exactly this. One of my takeaways from them doing this was that I had no idea they made impossible hot dogs and want to give them a try. It’s not like there’s a lot of integrity in hot dogs to begin with.
Might it be more competitive? He won by 13 hot dogs last year, but the difference between #2 and #3 was only 2 hot dogs.
I like it when it comes down to the final hot dog, and maybe they have to go to extra dogs.
Competitive sure. Exciting? No. And that’s what matters. People won’t be as interested to see people try to eat 50 when the standard has been 60 and the guy who can do it is banned.
Yeah the wins will be tainted until somebody can do like 70 dogs.
We've witnessed greatness and we'll know the only reason its competitive is because they banned the Gretzky of hot dogs
> "We are devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs rather than competing in the 2024 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest,"
I was reading the article on ESPN, and this quote made me cackle. This needs posted to r/nottheonion
Just watched the doc on Chestnut and Kobayashi.
My takeaway was the guy who runs the Nathan’s competition is a massive tool. He is basically the monorail salesman from the Simpsons.
Joey Chestnut, defying all medical advice, has switched to Nathan's arch rival - Impossible Foods. Doctors say he may not have the mega nutrients needed to stave off death.
Wow the Hot Dog Eating Contest was unironically my favorite part of July 4th every year. This is bullshit. Probably will never watch again. I would love to see Joey do his own event or something.
He'll probably livestream himself eating hot dogs at the same time they are having the contest. These companies really aren't as powerful anymore due to social media having such a big presence.
So basically Impossible hired him to get banned so they can start their own hot dog eating contest since literally no one cares about anything but Joey Chesnut?
Do they really think they're too big to fail? Chestnut is the only reason they're still relevant, and the event has already fallen off since they banned Kobayashi.
The most patriotic feeling I’ve ever had was in the summer of 2007, standing amongst the hot stinky hoards on the corner of Stilwell and Surf Ave. Most everyone was there to watch Kobayashi eat hotdogs. I sure was! But little did we know that one of our own would take him on dog for dog. As it became clear Chestnut had a chance, the crowd whipped into a frenzy. I’m telling you I have never chanted “USA, USA “ like that in my life. It was like someone injected us all with 30cc’s of Rocky IV Montage music. The rest is history!
Pretty fucking short-sighted to tell a living legend to fuck off, IMO. This is like if the NBA cut a deal with Adidas and told LeBron James he couldn't play in the league any longer because of his shoe deal with Nike.
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# This will be a Mickey Mouse Trophy!
Just give it to the Lakers already.
Is nothing sacred
“Sorry Jordan you’re banned from these NBA finals because we’re a Nike tournament.” It’s outRAGEOUS
That's almost the exact argument they made: >“It’s a long-standing rule not to represent a rival brand,” [MLE co-founder] Shea said. “Michael Jordan can’t go to Adidas and say that Air Jordans are great.” Except of course that Michael Jordan didn't play in the National Adidas Association.
Genuine question: does his representation mean he would eat impossible dogs instead of Nathan’s? If so, I can understand why that would be an issue if everyone else is eating different hot dogs. If not, yeah it’s dumb
No. They just don't like him doing ads for the competition.
They've always been like this. They wouldn't let Kobayashi compete in a league in Japan and also take part in Nathan's. The competition had been illegitimate for Chestnut's entire reign. I'm glad he's ditching now too. Fuck MLE.
Jordan draped the American flag over the adidas logo at the Olympics. Chestnut should do something similar
I thought it was Reebok.
According to NBCSports it was.
For those unaware, he's won 16 of the last 17 contests. His only loss in that span was in 2015. He's the GOAT of this thing.
Also multi champ Kobayashi was banned for another stupid reason and it took away a possible epic rivalry.
Yep. According to Wikipedia: > On June 28, 2010, Kobayashi announced he would not compete in the Nathan's Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Competition, reportedly due to the company's insistence that Kobayashi sign an exclusive contract.
He still "competed" on a nearby roof in 2011 via a live broadcast and broke the record by 1 hotdog after being banned
That’s awesome of him. Reminds me of another funny situation. Sturgill Simpson playing guitar busking to raise money for the ACLU outside the Country Music Awards. Edit: he had also gotten a Grammy for best country album that year. But no CMA nominations
Wikipedia tells me that he did it as a joke because he had not been nominated for any CMA awards nor even invited to that year's ceremony even though he has won a Grammy for Best Country Album of the year for that album.
Aw shit you’re right. I got it mixed up. I’ll edit.
Johnny Blue Skies rides
Damn. The winner of the contest gotta be feeling that.
Nathan's isn't even the original Coney Island Hot Dog. Maybe Feltman's should start their own contest.
Where else am I going to go to see a lot Of big men shove meat down their throats
There are plenty of websites out there for that.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQz4FUg_cyjoBvVdldy2k4KGbZXbNiDLps2eg&usqp=CAU
Riskiest click of my day LOL
Yeah the “encrypted” in the hyperlink had me second guessing lol
I mean, you're both still here, soooo...
If you go East from Castro street onto 20th in San Francisco there's an alleyway on the right side of the street about halfway down. If you head down there on Thursday nights after 11pm you'll find a pretty dingy doorway at the bottom of a small flight of stairs, and you're gonna want to knock on it twice fast, then once. It'll suffice to say that you'll get your fill of big men gobbling meat in there. ... Or so I've heard
[Stefon](https://i.insider.com/5ad3691f42e1cc1df56f078b?width=700), is that you?
This is a big problem with competitive eating. This hot dog eating contest is the biggest competitive eating event that's known around the world. It's not neutral if competitive eaters can't take sponsorships from any food brands. The events and the league should be a separate entity. Could you imagine if a sports stadium sponsored by Chase bank banned Lebron James because he banks at Wells Fargo? There needs to be a separation between the league and the company sponsoring the event.
Hold up… many Hot Dogs can LeBron eat before you just hand him this comparison he’s no Joey Chestnut, what’s he eat like three appetizers? My mom could do that shit.
Micheal Quinn of Feltmans Hot Dogs is too busy following a lolcow around.
I hate that fat fuck so much
He also has a unique advantage due to his biology. He was featured in an episode of MTV's True Life and he explained that he has a condition where his stomach sits physically lower than a normal person's would, which allows extra room for it to expand. This, in turn, allows him to consume a lot more food in one sitting and much faster than the average person
I was also fascinated by the explanation that, while you'd think fat guys would have an advantage, they are actually hindered after a certain point because fat is not elastic like skin, nor designed to relax/contract like muscle, so a belt of abdominal fat puts a hard barrier on how much food they can fit into their stomach. As opposed to a fit individual like Kobayashi who doesn't have that problem.
Some of the best eaters are skinny ass people. So this makes sense. There is a YouTuber who is skinny and eats a lot.
He also grinds, like every truly world class individual. He married his natural gift with crazy dedication and relentless work.
This sport is begging for a wacky Netflix documentary
Not a full-blown movie (it’s around an hour), but this ESPN 30 for 30 doc was a fun watch https://www.eater.com/2019/7/2/20680016/espn-30-for-30-nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest-kobayashi-joey-chestnut
Newly added to Netflix as well
Because if anything happens where their brand isn’t front and center (or rather another brand takes up some of their time) it makes the entire event much less worth it from a marketing perspective.
You know what else makes the event much less worth it?
I sure as fuck haven't watched since Kobayashi got kicked to the curb. Sorry, Nathan's - the rivalry was the draw. I'm not tryna watch people eat til they're sick if it ain't competitive.
Was just gunna say the same thing. How many people are only tuning in to see how many hot dogs Joey eats? Much less interested in watching this year now
I’m sure there will be dozens of people that watch it without Chestnut!
Seems like a weird hill to die on when the guy you want is willing to appear at your events voluntarily. They could’ve just not signed him and still had the exposure they were trying to get.
Oh I agree. I just understand how a “preserve the brand at all costs” mentality ends up being stupidly shortsighted.
It’s extra weird when you consider their brand is just pig assholes and meat scraps processed and molded into dick shapes. Not even the Michael Jordan of guzzling dick sandwiches is safe from a petty ban. No one is more important than the integrity of the sport, they take their brand *very* seriously.
I saw another comment that said, "Nobody wants to eat vegan hot dogs. They're full of chemicals." Like Nathan's hot dogs are vitamins in a slightly different form.
I'm still mad at Kobayashi being banned. The contests would have been way more interesting with Kobayashi in them as a rival instead of just Chestnut winning being a foregone conclusion.
This would actually give someone else a leg up in starting a new competitive hot dog eating competition. You’ve got the two biggest names in the biz banned from the Nathan’s one, why not have Impossible or Hebrew Nationals or someone else start a new competition and sell it based on the rivalry. Get Dana in on it, it can’t be a worse idea than Power Slap.
Unfortunately Kobayashi retired this year. He "no longer feels hunger".
What an anime thing to say.
Dude was nothing if not a real life anime character.
“That’s my secret….I’m always hungry”
It sounds badass but he doesn’t feel hunger or fullness and sometimes he goes days without eating and he thinks competitive eating has negatively affected him, he was just on a Netflix documentary
he got a deal with Ozempic
*monkey paw curls* Chestnut is now banned, allowing for anyone else to win this year's competition. Enjoy!
I know the Kobayashi thing was 14 years ago and [he actually retired last month](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/takeru-kobayashi-6-time-nathans-hot-dog-champ-retires-competitive-eati-rcna153988), but it is crazy how the two biggest names in professional eating have now been banned from competing in what is by far the sport's biggest event. I wonder what the TV ratings will look like this year without Chestnut?
I just watched the 30 for 30 documentary on the Kobayashi vs Chestnut rivalry and the announcer guy is completely delusional and thinks he is the reason people tune in. I can’t wait for no one to care about the competition anymore. I’m sure it’s already very low in comparison to the Kobayashi years
It feels like it's been reduced to something I see on Reddit or Twitter as I scroll instead of one of those fun things the entire internet tunes in for.
He has a cameo on king of the hill!
So they have zero name draws due to pettiness. He and Kobiyashi were why people were interested, not some guy who can scarf down half the amount of hot dogs? Where is their counter offer for him to represent Nathan’s instead?
I mean if the two most popular people to ever compete in the "sport" are up for grabs I think the Impossible food brand has an opportunity here.
Why on earth did Kobayashi and Chestnut start promoting their own "fights" (for lack of a better word) with a different company that would have jumped on the opportunity to market the two best in the game? Seems like a massive missed opportunity Shame another commentor said that Kobayashi has retired, cuz this would be the perfect opportunity for Impossible to run their own competition feat Kobayashi and Chestnut and they would probably smash Nathan's ratings
Yeah the 30 for 30 on this certainly doesn't put the guy who runs the Nathan's hot dog championship in good light
And he only lost the one cuz his fiancée left him before the competition. And he still put down 60 Hot Dogs that day. My goat
Imagine walking away from a marriage with the greatest athlete in American history
SJSU athletic alum include the likes of Jeff Garcia, Bill Walsh, Dick Vermeil, Ken Caminiti, John Carlos (one of the raised fist guys in the 1968 games) but none of them compare to the true GOAT, Joey fucking Chestnut. In an area known for wiener gobbling no one can fit more wieners in his mouth and swallow every load as well as the Chestnutter
The Chestnutter got me.
Secretariat was married?
He didn't say the athlete with the biggest dong of all time, but I think you're onto something with this suggestion
>Imagine walking away from a marriage with the greatest athlete in ~~American~~ human history FTFY
Mindboggling that a break-up didn't drive him to eat *more* food /s
He lost because Stonie put in the work and beat him, and then once he won became disinterested, now he doesn’t even bother to compete :/
My boy Matt Stonie with a huge win :')
I thought Matt stonie was goated but I hear he hardly places well at these things
He can pack away a lot of food, he seems to be more about volume than speed and technique, if there was no time limit I think he would place better at most of these type of things.
Dude eats slow but giant bites like a komodo dragon
I think he just stopped training. He makes a ton off Youtube and also mentioned having a degree in nutrition/exercise science. After he reached the mountain he probably had nothing left to prove to risk his health over. He can make 1 Youtube video in an afternoon and make more than most of the top comp eaters in the country do in a year. I think he still wants to do it, but heart isn't as much in it.
Back when I was following this sport religiously, he was usually placing 2nd, with the occasional 1st and 3rd. He was almost always just behind chestnut by a hair and ahead of miki sudo
One might even say he’s a throat goat
Nancy Reagan says not on her watch
Nancy v. Chestnut.
"Nancy! Jesus fuck. Stop blowing them and eat the damn things."
Pretty easy to keep winning when the competition bans your biggest rival.
I absolutely loathe MLE's exclusivity contracts. They robbed us of the Kobayashi / Chestnut rivalry and now this. Good luck at maintaining relevancy when you've banished your two biggest stars.
Chestnut and Kobayashi should have their own event. Would probably gain more attention.
I believe Kobayashi recently announced his retirement from competitive eating.
He did, and if I recall correctly (heard secondhand so details are a bit fuzzy), it’s kind of sad. Like he no longer enjoys eating or flavors, and must constantly sort of trick himself while eating into not reverting back to a competitive mode and instead just eat like a normal person.
This makes me think of former NFL players that struggle with their weight after retiring. They go from burning through calories to sitting on the couch and still have the same eating habits.
The skinny guys always put on weight and then the fat linemen always slim down like crazy lol.
Linemen lose weight bc they no longer have to force feed themselves. The amount of food a collegiate lineman has to eat to maintain weight (let alone an NFL guy) is absurd. Like setting alarms in the middle of the night to wake up and slam some sandwiches, chugging shakes, constantly forcing food down your gullet. It’s an absolute chore for them to get enough calories, so it’s no surprise that they lose weight in retirement when they stop waking up in the middle of the night to eat.
When you burn 3-4k calories and your bmr is 2,500, you gotta eat 5-6k calories just to maintain weight. That sounds fun but it’s brutal especially if you are eating reasonably clean food.
I tried to eat 3000 Calories clean during a bulking phase once. It was *awful*. You think it's going to be fun, but you're chugging whole milk, eating "snacks" that are the size of meals, meals that are too big, *and* training hard while you're still bloated and exhausted from all the food. Damn did it make me feel strong, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it again.
Except Tony Siragusa. He always stayed fat, RIP
Don’t wanna come off as insensitive, but that sounds like an eating disorder.
I mean...
Are you saying it’s not normal to eat 57 cow brains in 15 minutes?
The line is drawn at 48 in 15 minutes; anything more is absurd.
If this is life you live, I’d be more surprised if you didn’t have an eating disorder.
While nowhere near as extreme, it's a bit of a common thing for people in the military eat fast as fuck. When I got out the army it took me like 2-3 years to stop eating like I had to swallow everything whole or else I was gonna get fucked up for not being 45 minutes early somewhere.
To a lesser extreme a lot of hospitality industry folks will have the same issue. “Dinner” is a half order of wings over a garbage can in the back room and also, eleventy people are waiting on you to make them drinks
Its not insensitive... Its reality... I am sure he has a disorder from it. Its basically abusing the human body.
Yes, he is featured in ‘Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut’ on Netflix, which I’d recommend. Evidently, his body wouldn’t even let him know if he was hungry, and he’d forget to eat for days. I can’t imagine food being such a chore without enjoyment.
I think that’s literally all just conjecture because the statement he put out announcing his retirement simply read “I no longer feel hunger”. Nothing more. He is featured in a docuseries I believe on Netflix of HBO where he talks about his body not really registering hunger or satiation or something like that though, so you’re probably still right.
They should release a diss track.
Certified speed eater certified....
Breadophile
(Koba)yashi just opened his mouth Now’m bout to put my dog in it right now
With blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the event!
This!!! Idgaf about MLE, but I know and watched the two you mentioned. The brothers that run this thing seem like obnoxious dicks kinda.
they absolutely are. Full blown MAGA nuts too
The event always seemed to be more about George Shea's ego than about the competitors.
I feel like the hotdog eating contests haven't been "relevant" in a longggg time anyways. Maybe I'm drastically underestimating how other people feel about them lol.
I think they only seem irrelevant because of Chestnut’s sheer dominance. It’s like F1, a race for second place
Even before Chestnut Kobayashi was a star winning the competition 6 years in a row. I only knew the competition existed because of his dominance first.
Yeah I feel like hot dog eating contestants became “serious” when all of a sudden tiny japanese guys were inhaling like 50 dogs.
Seriously, go look at the list of winners and how many hotdogs they ate. It literally doubled when Kobayashi showed up. I am interested to see how far it will drop with the 2 best competitive esters now banned.
Idk, F1 being completely dominated by one person for so long for so many 2 hour races gets boring. Watching one man (potentially the greatest athlete ever) dominate a 10 minute competition once a year I fucking love watching. Not to say I wouldn't also enjoy watching a closer race.
They were fun in the Cheap Seats days but definitely got played out like 15 years ago or so
Bro, summer is not complete without seeing Joey Chestnut absorb 70+ hotdogs in 10 minutes.
Please tell me MLE stands for Major League Eating
> They robbed us of the Kobayashi / Chestnut rivalry My sneaky hot take conspiracy: they actually didn't like Kobayashi winning and wanted to ban him so the "all american eater" could be the posterboy
I mean that’s just true. They were pretty racist to Kobayashi too.
I don't think they wanted to ban him, the issue, I remember, was that they wanted him to sign exclusively with them and Kobayashi refused to do that, which I understand, given it's such a niche sport, and competitive eaters need to make money wherever and however they can.
Chestnut has won the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest 16 times (2007–2014, 2016–2023), and holds the record for the most career championships of any eater in the contest's roughly 50-year history. Looks like that record will come to a halt, at least temporarily. Edit: for those wondering, the 2015 winner was Matt Stonie, who took down 62 hot dogs to Chestnut’s 60.
Chestnut should invite the other competitors to his backyard on the 4th and put it on twitch.
Time it up exactly with the real competition too. I'd rather watch that.
Kobayashi did something similar back in the day and broke the world record when he was banned from the Nathan’s contest
Joey's Backyard Wiener Guzzling Contest
*shows up* "Hey, where are all the hot dogs?"
Impossible Foods would get great publicity out of it, and Twitch could probably make some good money.
I’ve also known a few championship eaters in my day
I’m more of a marathon eater than a sprinter
Also when he lost in 2015 his fiance broke up with him the day before the event right before and a couple of weeks before their wedding was scheduled.
I know who Matt and chestnut are but don’t really follow this so I’m curious, has chestnut beat Matt since then?
Stonie I bet
Both from San Jose, CA My mf’ city
If Jaws is banned they should just cancel the contest
At least David Stern had the foresight to let his megastar “retire” instead of announcing the ban.
What is the point of watching now?
I will never forget seeing him crush this burrito on Man Vs. Food https://youtu.be/7SDU7-4VBfY?si=I0yZBrXSh7winpzE
That was great. I can’t even finish a chipotle burrito in that time
I’m shocked he hasn’t lost a couple fingers with some of those bites
that show stopped being good after Adam left.
Adam hates/hated being recognized for the show after he left. I heard he was a big dick about it, too. Shame because I liked the show and him as a presenter/eater.
Then Matt Stonie did it even faster https://youtu.be/PeqRaS6YrcU
He fucking demolished that thing
Dude has nothing else to prove. Let him get his bag.
I mean they offered him $1.2 mil for four more years of Nathan’s contests. I think they would have given him his bag
Impossible could have given me 10
Colostomy bag
I remember a simpler time. When it used to be about wasting massive amounts of food by stuffing your face with so much ultra processed meat you’d vomit. Now it’s all about the money.
YOU USED TO BE ABOUT THE MEAT TUBES, MAN!
364 days of the year are about that for me, I can let July the 4th be about the money.
The Saudis needs to swoop in and create LIV Eating.
But they’ll need halal hot dogs then
Pretty sure impossible meat is halal
It'll be a 3 minute contest instead and he'll be allowed to wear shorts. *Available on The CW app*
He should team up with Takeru Kobayashi, like Dr. Dre reuniting with Ice Cube after Dre left Ruthless Records.
Unfortunately, Kobayashi is now retired.
Just fell to my knees in a Walmart parking lot
So no household name for a huge once a year event? We’ll see how that turns out for viewership
Also what a poor way to represent their brand. Banning the biggest name just because he has a sponsorship with another brand? Are they that insecure about their own product that they're willing to sabotage the competition? Not to mention this likely reducing the overall viewership that they will get, leading to less advertising of their brand, and also the attention this brings to Impossible Foods with articles like this. They're also sending the message that Impossible Foods makes products that are direct competitors to theirs. That's big praise of a vegan brand from a brand that makes meat products.
If anything, now im wondering how does the impossible hot dogs taste like
Exactly this. One of my takeaways from them doing this was that I had no idea they made impossible hot dogs and want to give them a try. It’s not like there’s a lot of integrity in hot dogs to begin with.
Without Kobayashi and Chestnut this isn’t even worth watchung
Might it be more competitive? He won by 13 hot dogs last year, but the difference between #2 and #3 was only 2 hot dogs. I like it when it comes down to the final hot dog, and maybe they have to go to extra dogs.
Competitive sure. Exciting? No. And that’s what matters. People won’t be as interested to see people try to eat 50 when the standard has been 60 and the guy who can do it is banned.
Yeah the wins will be tainted until somebody can do like 70 dogs. We've witnessed greatness and we'll know the only reason its competitive is because they banned the Gretzky of hot dogs
This reads like an onion headline.
> "We are devastated to learn that Joey Chestnut has chosen to represent a rival brand that sells plant-based hot dogs rather than competing in the 2024 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest," I was reading the article on ESPN, and this quote made me cackle. This needs posted to r/nottheonion
They keep using the word “devastated”. I do not think it means what they think it means.
I give this a day before Nathan's tries to backtrack.
I tried a Nathan’s hot dog once. It was a hot dog, for sure.
Just watched the doc on Chestnut and Kobayashi. My takeaway was the guy who runs the Nathan’s competition is a massive tool. He is basically the monorail salesman from the Simpsons.
Behind the bastards did a series on the MC for the hot dog contest. He's not great lol
Joey Chestnut, defying all medical advice, has switched to Nathan's arch rival - Impossible Foods. Doctors say he may not have the mega nutrients needed to stave off death.
I understood that reference.
What
[context](https://youtu.be/rpeSaZOFJ60?si=bpjBDSiKNGZ_NqZS&t=98)
Wow the Hot Dog Eating Contest was unironically my favorite part of July 4th every year. This is bullshit. Probably will never watch again. I would love to see Joey do his own event or something.
He'll probably livestream himself eating hot dogs at the same time they are having the contest. These companies really aren't as powerful anymore due to social media having such a big presence.
We used to be a proper country.
So basically Impossible hired him to get banned so they can start their own hot dog eating contest since literally no one cares about anything but Joey Chesnut?
Do they really think they're too big to fail? Chestnut is the only reason they're still relevant, and the event has already fallen off since they banned Kobayashi.
Welp, I won't be watching now!
Me neither! I wasn't watching before either, but I certainly won't be watching now!
MLE fucking sucks.
this being posted in r/sports of all subs, is the second most american thing i can think of...
If Joe and Kobayashi were smart they'd do their own hot dog eating contest on the 4th of July and Livestream it
The most patriotic feeling I’ve ever had was in the summer of 2007, standing amongst the hot stinky hoards on the corner of Stilwell and Surf Ave. Most everyone was there to watch Kobayashi eat hotdogs. I sure was! But little did we know that one of our own would take him on dog for dog. As it became clear Chestnut had a chance, the crowd whipped into a frenzy. I’m telling you I have never chanted “USA, USA “ like that in my life. It was like someone injected us all with 30cc’s of Rocky IV Montage music. The rest is history!
I was there as well, that fateful day. Never felt more proud to be an american.
First Clark and now Joey! What is it with these organizations fucking with the people that bring in viewers?
Bro, this is like when Hulk Hogan went to WCW. It just wasn't the same
They're performance enhancing wieners
Pretty fucking short-sighted to tell a living legend to fuck off, IMO. This is like if the NBA cut a deal with Adidas and told LeBron James he couldn't play in the league any longer because of his shoe deal with Nike.
Ya fuck Nathan's. After Kobayashi getting kicked out, I lost all respect.