What will Joey Chestnut be doing on 4th of July since he is banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest
The greatest eater in the history of the world has been banned from the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, so what will he be doing on Independence Day?
It seems stranger than fiction but this week we are going to see something that we have never seen in the history of the sports world. An athlete at the top of his game, at the peak of success in the sport banned from the most famous event of the year. Joey Chestnut will not be participating in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest for the first time since 2005.
From GOAT to GONE
Imagine Michael Phelps getting banned from the Olympics, or LeBron James being excluded from the NBA Finals. That’s what we are on the verge of witnessing from Coney Island this week as the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest will carry on without its most illustrious eater, Joey Chestnut.
Chestnut is a 16 time winner of the mustard belt and he holds the world record for hot dogs eaten at the annual competition held on the 4th of July. Despite his countless titles and the immeasurable audience he attracted to the event over the last decade and a half, he has been banned from competing at this years contest.
The news came early last month when Joey “Jaws” Chestnut signed a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, which is a company that offers plant based substitutes for meat products. The headline news rocked the competitive eating world, and drew a stark response from Nathan’s which sponsor the century old hot dog eating contest.
Chestnut was from the competition that he helped make into an Independence Day tradition for millions of Americans who tuned in to watch the Glizzy GOAT go to work before grilling up some glizzys of their own. For the first time since 2005, Joey Chestnut will not be a part of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest which has broken the competition wide open.
Chestnut to take on the troops
Instead, Chestnut will be competing in a hot dog eating contest in El Paso, Texas. It’s all part of an event for military families called Pop Goes the Fort, and with the news of the hot dog champion’s bad blood with Nathan’s, organizers took advantage by challenging Chestnut, to which the GOAT responded, “Bring me your best 4 eaters and I’ll take them down, combined!”
This isn’t the first time we have seen a champion at odds with Nathan’s and the Hot Dog Eating Contest. In 2010, Six time champ Takeru Kobayashi did not compete in the contest after refusing to sign an exclusive contract with the organizers of the event. “The Tsunami” was in attendance for the event and eventually got up on stage only to be handcuffed and thrown in a police car following a dust up between security guards.
The two best hot dog eater of all time are scheduled to have a primetime showdown on September 2nd. The event is going to be broadcast on Netflix and has been dubbed Joey Chestnut vs. Takery Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef. The event is scheduled for Labor Day weekends and will feature all beef franks.