joey "jaws" chestnut... american hero?

i'll be writing about the salt lake city trip soon, it's just tough, sorry, but i will.

until then, i'll keep you busy with some hilarity. some of the BTBz got together earlier in the week and we ended up kind of accidentally watching the 2007 nathan's hotdog eating contest. takeru "kobe" kobayashi was the favorite despite being "day-to-day" due to jaw arthritis and a removed wisdom tooth. his main competition, joey "jaws" chestnut, stood by his side as they competed against a slew of other competitive eaters from other specialties (boiled eggs, strawberry shortcake, french fries, etc). earlier in the year, chestnut had beaten kobe's record set last year at nathan's (54-1/2) by eating 59 in 12 minutes. in the end chestnut bested kobe and set a new nathan's and world record of 66 hot dogs to kobe's 63. 66 dogs in 12 minutes is like 1 every 11 seconds, bun and all, PLUS they drink water/juice/etc to wash it down. that is just insanity.

now that i'm done with that recap, here's the part i wanted to talk about... the announcers. announcing a hot dog eating competition has to be the kind of thing they give to interns and guys who are waiting to retire. i don't know, but i'm guessing there's not a lot of prestige to it. they informed us that if you have a "reversal of fortune" (you can probably guess what that is considering the massive amount of food ingested so quickly), you are disqualified. it's funny that had to come up with a euphemism for a bodily function that might occur during the competition.

still, the funniest was the commentary that the announcer was giving. here are a few of my favorites. keep in mind, the competition was on independence day.

• This would be the greatest moment in the history of American sports if Chestnut can bring the belt home to Coney Island


• He [Chestnut] may have indeed changed the course of this nation . . . Chestnut is a true American hero


• ... the entire free world is focused on these two men


• and my favorite... you google "hero" tomorrow ... "American hero", you're gonna get Abe Lincoln, possibly Neil Armstrong, Taylor Hicks, and then this man, of course, Joey Chestnut

i think this guy is confused, taylor hicks is an american IDOL, not hero, and likening a competitive hot dog eater to real american heroes like the men and women fighting for our armed forces is just abominable (that's for BTVJGJHo at the BTBz).

either way, that announcer certainly was entertaining.