Say what you want about competitive eating not being a sport, but Joey Chesnut’s rein over whatever you want to classify eating hot dogs rivals anything any athlete has done in any sport since the beginning of time.
Despite a leg injury that has forced Chestnut to lay low in competition this year and required the 15-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest to walk on stage with crutches this time around, Chestnut coasted through another July 4th contest with the second place finisher barely in the rear view.
But the leg injury wasn’t the only thing slowing Chestnut down. During the 10 minutes of allotted time, a protestor wearing a Star Wars mask ran onto the stage, shoving Chestnut in order to get to the front and hold up his sign stating ‘Expose Mithfield’s Deathstar’. Less than a second later, was met with a chokehold from Joey and wrangled to the ground – all while having multiple hot dogs in his mouth.