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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andy Nesbitt

Joey Chestnut is now obviously one of the greatest athletes of our time

This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning WinSubscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

We are living in an amazing time to be sports fans.

Think about all the cool stuff we’ve been able to witness recently.

Steph Curry doing Steph Curry things while leading the Warriors to their fourth NBA title.

Tom Brady winning a million Super Bowls.

LeBron James being awesome at basketball for like 900 years.

The list could really go on and on but I have some business to take care of here so let’s get into it.

Yesterday we were able to witness even more greatness from a legendary athlete who has become the best to ever stuff hot dogs into his mouth at a rapid rate and with total disregard for his intestines or general well being.

I’m talking, of course, about Joey Chestnut. The hot dog GOAT.

The 38-year-old competitive eater went into yesterday’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest as the overwhelming favorite to win the thing and then he went out there and showed everybody why by eating 63 hot dogs in 10 minutes and rolling by 15 hot dogs to his 15th title in 16 years.

That’s just what Joey Chestnut does. That’s just who Joey Chestnut is.

I know what you’re thinking right now – competitive eaters aren’t athletes! And to that I say you are 14-million percent wrong. This competition aired on ESPN (well, technically ESPNNews, which is apparently still a thing) and that network is a sports network that only airs sports. If your event is shown on ESPN then it’s a sport. It’s as easy as that.

Poker? A sport.

Spelling bee? A sport.

Baseball? A sport.

If you needed any more proof that Chestnut is a dominant athlete then you should have seen what he did to a protester who jumped on the stage in the middle of the event. Chestnut basically choked the fella out while slamming another hot dog down his gullet. His level of athleticism in that moment was off the darn charts. You can’t coach that stuff. You can’t teach that stuff. Sometimes athletes get in the zone and make the unthinkable look so easy to pull off. That’s what Chestnut did yesterday on Coney Island. It’s what he does every year on Coney Island.

Oh, you need more proof that the hot dog king is an athlete? Chestnut showed up yesterday on crutches and with a cast on his foot due to a ruptured tendon that he recently suffered.

Dude played through pain. There were no excuses. There was no woe-is-me attitude. The man just loosened his belt and ate all the hot dogs as quickly as possible because he’s a GOAT and that’s what GOATs do.

What an awe-inspiring performance.

We’re lucky to be living in the Chestnut ear, folks. Enjoy it while you can.

Quick hits: White Sox run into embarrassing triple play… Wild in-the-park homer… The 19 best Brian Windhorst memes… And more. 

(Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

– The Twins pulled off a historic triple play last night but all I could take from it was… WHAT WERE THE WHITE SOX DOING?!

– Chicago’s other baseball team, the Cubs, had an awesome in-the-park home run yesterday in Milwaukee.

– My pal Charles Curtis has collected the 19 best Brian Windhorst ‘Now why is that?’ memes.

– Mary Clarke looks at 6 NHL trades that need to happen this offseason.

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