Joey Chesnut; photo by Erik Pendzich
The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. All aboard! It’s July and 100% time for my over-the-top American Pride article.
It’s a tradition and something I have done every year since 2008, writing for the Pulse. I love this country and I love sports. Every July 4 there are two guarantees for me. I watch Independence Day and pretend to be Will Smith! I am a black man who gets jiggy with it, blows up aliens, saves the president, marries a stripper, and shows the world how badass America is.
The other tradition has always been watching Joey Chestnut stuff wieners down his throat at a pace that the mind cannot comprehend. Joey, without question, is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He could stand tall in a room with M.J., Gretzky, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Babe Ruth, TB12, Messi and Caitlin Clark.
I fell in love with Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest decades ago when Kobayashi took the world by surprise, later going on to win six titles. Takeru Kobayashi is widely credited with popularizing the sport of competitive eating. Kobayashi peaked when he ate 54 dogs and buns, a number nobody thought could be beaten in early 2000s, but that was before Joey stepped on the stage!
Takeru Kobayashi
The year was 2007. Joey Chestnut ate 66 dogs and Kobayashi disappeared from the shame of it.
In 2009 Joey put down 68 dogs followed by 69 in 2013. Chestnut’s excellence shined in 2016 when he hit 70 dogs and buns—GOAT status. His prime years were between 2017–21, when he ate 70-plus dogs every year, maxing out at 76 in 2021.
But now in the year 2024 the world mourns. Joey will not participate in this year’s Nathan’s contest. I don’t know who to blame. Joey feels Major League Eating has bullied him after he went vegan wiener! Fallout occurred due to a sponsorship deal between the champ and Impossible Foods.
From what I have read, there was no contract in place that said Joey couldn’t sign an endorsement deal with them weird vegans! But props to Impossible Foods; that company was fine with him patriotically gobbling meat-encased products on live TV, but Nathan’s cancelled Chestnut for representing a rival brand of fake dog.
When you look at it like that, I guess I blame the people at Nathan’s. Joey is just making that bag and Nathan’s has decided to punish him and all of the patriotic Americans who tune in every year for the competition.
But Joey won’t sit home and do nothing. He is taking his talents to the Fort Bliss Army base in Texas. It will be Chestnut versus four soldiers in a 5-minute hot dog eating contest.
“If they each break 10, that would be pretty good,” Chestnut said. Around 15,000 people, mostly soldiers and their families, are expected to attend the event. Chestnut also said, “Maybe I’ll get to get on a tank!”
Fun fact: in September on Netflix, Chestnut will compete against Kobayashi in a live hot dog contest. Call it unfinished beef! So, raise a wiener and let us say a toast to the greatest American athlete ever, 16-time champ Joey Chestnut.
I wish I could tell you I was done talking about wieners, but I would be lying. I don’t care how other people live life, I don’t care who they sleep with. Not my business.
But I do care when these mentally deranged adults get mixed up with today’s children in these so-called Pride parades. If you saw pictures or videos coming out of the Seattle pride event . . . San Francisco, Portland and particularly the one in Toronto, Canada, was so disgusting I feel dirty even mentioning it. They say it’s kid-friendly, yet we have fat, nasty alphabet men and women completely nude handing out flags to the kids. I don’t understand how men swinging their junk around in front of kids is not only accepted by these people but applauded.
The month of June and the rainbow have been hijacked for parades like this and it’s sad to see how few people are willing to call out these freak shows of nudity where children are present. Thank goodness we have entered July and left June behind us. Alright, let’s focus on some good.
In celebration of America’s Independence Day, I believe reminiscing on some great patriotic moments and sports figures is a beautiful way to spend the remainder of this month’s article!
Happy July 4th! Grill some burgers, some dogs, chug a beer, blow up some fireworks and take a moment to remember all the men and women who served so we can continue to live in a free country. But freedom doesn’t mean blithely accepting the abomination of Pride parades with nudity and kids . . . sorry, went off topic again.
I have given love to Pat Tillman every year for the past decade in these articles. Tillman gave the ultimate sacrifice for his country. Pat was an Arizona Cardinal, an NFL safety who turned down $4 million to join the Army after 9/11. Pat was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 and became the face of heroism for so many. God bless you, Pat! Pat deserves the highest honor for giving the ultimate sacrifice!
There are so many great moments in American sports history—Jesse Owens shaming Hitler in Berlin and winning numerous gold medals, just to name one. Unfortunately, it was a time in American history where Jesse wasn’t exactly given the hero’s welcome home he so deserved in 1930s America. Thankfully, today the history books remember, and Owens will be remembered as one of America’s greatest athletes and Olympic stories.
The 1980 hockey team taking down the power that was USSR hockey was another proud moment. Many people like to give credit to President Reagan for ending the Cold War. I say it was the Miracle on Ice that did it.
Remember the 1992 Dream Team? Complete domination: they beat teams by an average of 44 points to win a gold medal for USA Basketball. We’re talking names like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Ewing, Malone. Ballers!
This was a legendary patriotic moment—it was 1976 and Rick Monday stopped two protestors from burning a flag on the field at Dodger Stadium. One unfurled the flag and the other took out a lighter, but Monday was faster and snatched the flag away before the disgusting act was accomplished. “What they were doing was wrong then, in 1976, and in my mind, it is wrong now, in 2006,” Monday said later. “It was also reinforced by a lot of friends who lost their lives protecting the rights and freedoms that flag represented.”
Let us also not forget the perfect pitch during game 3 of the 2001 World Series. Just 49 days after 9/11, George W. Bush was wearing a bulletproof vest and standing alone on the mound, head high in Yankee stadium. Many people say he looked like an unbreakable statue that night. Bush threw a perfect pitch from the mound, something not easy to do. The crowd went wild, and it was a feelgood moment for America when we needed it most.
My last patriotic moment is more recent. Remember when Tony V and the boys in orange won the 2024 Championship in the college world series in Omaha? I remember it like it was yesterday. It was a beautiful moment for America and a historic moment for Tennessee. The world is better off when the Vols are winning championships. They love to hate us, but the passion is something special in Knoxville, that “Yee-Yee Tennessee!”
I hope you have a wonderful July 4th and enjoy good food and better company. 2024 is going to be a wild ride, especially Nov. 5. Obviously, we have the presidential election on that Tuesday, but the NFL has recently announced the trade deadline has been moved to Nov. 5 and that’s also my birthday—wild day!
Remember my motto, live life following the 5 F’s: Faith, Family, Football, Food and Friends! It’s a proper way of living. The train is rolling into the station. Choo-choo!
