On June 27, 2024 at 2:15 PM EDT the announcement came this Fourth of July will see a notable change from previous years, as Joey Chestnut, the 16-time champion of Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest, will not be competing due to his ban. So he is going to take his freak show to Texas instead of defending his blowout wins on Coney Island. For those not familiar with this obscene contest. In 2021 Joey Chestnut ate 70 hotdogs and buns in 12 minutes. I’m nauseous just thinking about it. As of 2024, he is ranked first in the world by Major League Eating. He is even better than the famed Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi . (Granted Kobyashi weighs 128 pounds while Chestnut weighs 230 pounds. Not that has anything to do with anything.) If you think this is nonsense Joey Chestnut is reported to have a net worth of $4 million. It is nothing compared to Roger Federer, who has accumulated $130.5 million but Joey hasn’t retired yet. Nathan’s Hot dog eating contest top prize is $10k.
The world of competitive eating includes, not just hot dogs, but pies, pancakes, chicken wings, asparagus, stinging nettles, pizza and ribs as well as others. And this year, the most famous eating contest will be without its most famous winner. He has been banned and not for doping. The great and mighty warrior won’t be making an appearance. (I wonder if in the past he received show money.) Although, let’s be frank he really is no gladiator. I guess that is because that sport doesn’t really exist anymore and for good reason.
Bloodsport does still exist, just no animals are involved. We have boxing and MMA which are all governed by commissions to make sure they are fair. That way we can ease our conscience because we enjoy watching people barbarically beat each other. We enjoy watching people do incredible damage to each other. There used to be a joke until the NHL clamped down on fighting that said, I went to a boxing match and a hockey game broke out. Football and rugby now have concussion protocols. And the referee is supposed to jump in to say when a fighter has had enough if their own corner doesn’t throw in the towel and then of course the discussion that immediately follows is, “was that a good stoppage?” That means should the referee have stopped the fight, after all we all came to watch someone get knocked out.
The communal conversation about the danger of certain sports has trickled down to youngest of athletes only to find stiff opposition from Pee Wee football fans, who believe their kids are the only ones who won’t walk away with CTE, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated trauma to the head.
Gladiators no longer exist because we have decided that societally it is wrong, even if the gladiators willingly entered the ring. Our culture says you can’t fight to the death even if you want to. We don’t permit dog fighting, just ask Michael Vick. We don’t permit cock fighting. There are some things we as a society will not stand for even if it is called a sport or the participants are considered athletes or professionals.
According to the UN World Food Program
1) Up to 783 million people worldwide are facing chronic hunger. That means one in ten people are not consuming enough food to lead an active, healthy life.
2) Up to 309 million people are facing extreme hunger.
3) 42 million people across 45 countries are on the brink of starvation or worse. Over 1 million people are facing catastrophic hunger.
4) In 2023, we reached an estimated 152 million people. This year, we’re planning to serve 150 million people and need $18 billion.
5) In areas of extreme hardship around the world, where the U.N. World Food Programme works to serve the hungriest of the hungry, women have a 10% higher chance of being hungry than men. That means more than half of the world’s hungriest people (60%) are women.
6) 45 million children under 5 are severely hungry – meaning they’ve suffered from recent and life-threatening weight loss due to lack of nourishment.
7) Conflict is the number one driver of hunger in the world.
8) In 2022, we delivered over 4 million metric tons of food (the equivalent weight of 840,000 Asian elephants) and distributed over $3 billion dollars in cash and food vouchers.
9) We provide 20 million children around the world with school meals, nutritious snacks and take-home rations.
10) The average cost of a U.N. World Food Programme meal is $0.50 cents. For $75, we can feed a family of five for one month with an emergency box of food.
Maybe it is time our society says we can no longer tolerate this gratuitous waste of food. Or maybe each contest should promise to provide food to those who need it as part of their mission, like Bombas. We are consumers, maybe not at the speed or expertise of these eating athletes, but we love to acquire stuff. Many have an insatiable desire for more, more cars, more clothes, more homes and the market has realized that giving back makes us feel better. Social entrepreneurs are people who start-up companies in which they find solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues and we buy their products. Do you remember Toms even if you won’t admit to wearing them?
Either way I think the worst thing to happen to competitive eating is not Joey Chestnut’s ban. It is a needless waste of food.
Joey has decided to endorse a different brand of hot dogs, The Impossible Hot Dog and it is not even meat but then again I’m not sure a hot dog is either.