Joey Chestnut at the 2018 contest

The Train Daddy is back with sports news, life lessons and politically incorrect talk. All aboard! ’Merica, F-yeah!

Let’s start off by talking about the circus that is Colin Kaepernick. It’s being reported that his latest workout with the Raiders was a disaster. Kap was trash years ago when he lost his starting job, and he hasn’t played football for over 2,000 days! Just think about that, it’s been over 2K days since any public action other than bitching about life.

Kaepernick has a right to kneel, but it still makes him a punk in my book. That’s fine, we all don’t have to agree with one another. I just find it ignorant to hijack something like the national anthem to grab attention. I don’t hate Kaepernick, though most of you probably believe that I do. Sure, I probably wouldn’t invite the dude to my BBQ, but at the end of the day Kap can cry all he wants about being blackballed. He made his own decisions and life isn’t always fair. Learn to live with those decisions, or be like Kap and play the victim.

Have you ever thought about how many wieners you can shove down your throat in 10 minutes? The editor of this paper told me he might be able to knock out 20 in the hot dog eating contest if hungry enough! Yeah, that’s called taking a quick left turn, going from from Kaepernick to wieners!

Dominating this annual patriotic event is a legend by the name of Joey Chestnut, one of America’s greatest athletes! Last year he broke the record for wieners and buns eaten after stuffing 76 of them down his throat. Joey has won the competition 14 out of 15 years, consuming anywhere from 54 to 76 hot dogs in the 10-minute timespan each year, seemingly always one-upping himself year after year.

The women, on the other hand, while still impressive, aren’t anywhere near that number. Miki Sudo, while not the reigning champ, has won 7 out of 8 contests she has competed in. She didn’t participate last year due to being pregnant. She should be back to championship form this year. The women’s champ may put down 40 wieners with the male putting down 70-plus.

I love this event and I have watched every single one of these Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contests since Kobayashi came onto the scene in 2001 and shattered the record with 50 wieners.

I was rooting for Joey to put down one more dog this July 4 and break his record once again. He did not set a personal best, downing 63 dogs in 2022, but still dominated the field; the second place finisher only ate 47.5.

And as expected, Sudo easily won the women’s division with 40 wieners and buns.

Biology matters when it comes to athletics, even in the world of competitive eating. That’s the perfect segue into another topic, a huge win for the integrity of female sports.

Transgender bans in the sports world—it’s like a domino, knock one over and they begin to topple. I don’t even need to get into much detail about this, but I believe without doubt the integrity of female athletics has been damaged and it’s beautiful to see something done about it before it’s gotten too far out of hand.

Biology matters in sports, and if you don’t believe it does, we should just get rid of gender separation and let best the compete regardless of sex. You know as well as I do what the results of that would be. So, it’s great to see FINA (the world swimming body) and World Rugby say enough is enough!

Maybe we can salvage the integrity of female sports. Honestly, there is no room for debate—at this point it’s all nonsense and emotions. Let the goofs like Megan Rapinoe cry about it. She believes inclusion in sports doesn’t threaten the integrity of fair competition, this after watching the recent domination of University of Pennsylvania trans swimmer Lia Thomas, who competed as a male for three years and didn’t make a bleep. Then, boom, within a year, Thomas competes with the women and wins a Division 1 National Championship!

Believe what you want, but I call that B.S., and it gives me hope seeing these dominoes fall, reflecting what polls clearly show: right, left or independent, most Americans are not okay with natural-born males competing with women.

A new NPR poll shows 63 percent of Americans are opposed to allowing trans women to compete on teams that align with their gender identity. Among Democrats 41 percent oppose it, among independent voters 63 percent oppose it, and among Republicans a whopping 88 percent oppose it.

I had no intention of rambling too much about that, but I have been talking about this topic for over a decade, so excuse me for celebrating a win.

Let’s end this article on a more positive note for all of us. Happy July 4th—grill some burgers, swallow a wiener (or 70 of them), 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! This country may not be perfect, but only the ignorant fail to realize how fortunate those living here truly are.

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 for the U.S, the 1980 hockey team taking down the power that was USSR hockey—many like to give credit to President Reagan for ending the Cold War, but 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, with names like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Barkley, Ewing and Malone. Ballers!

Or, do you recall in 1976 when Rick Monday stopped two protestors from burning a flag on-field at Dodger Stadium? That was a legendary patriotic moment. One unfurled the flag, the other took out a lighter, but Monday was faster and snatched the flag before the act was accomplished. “What they were doing was wrong then, in 1976, and in my mind, it is wrong now,” Monday said later in a 2006 interview. “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 before game 3 of the 2001 World Series, 49 days after 9/11 George W. Bush, wearing a bulletproof vest and standing alone on the mound, held his 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 feel-good moment for America when we needed it. I know one truth; America was more united during that time than today’s youth could even imagine.

That’s it, the Train Daddy is rolling into the station! To my readers, have an amazing July. It’s crazy that football is just around the corner, with NFL preseason play beginning in August. About time! I can stop rambling and start doing what I do—talk Tennessee Titans and Vols football. That’s my passion!

Nothing but love to you all. My feelings towards policies regarding trans athletes do not equate with my feelings towards transgender individuals in general. That would be ignorant! Many people attempt to discredit an opposing viewpoint regarding the playing field of sports by saying it is based on hate. Not so.

The Train is rolling into the station. Choo-choo!