🌭 The Truth Behind the Biggest Beef in Sports

In 2021, Joey Chestnut set a world record when he ate 76 hot dogs in just 10 minutes. This year, Chestnut’s official line is set at 71.5 hot dogs (for context, the second highest line is set at just 50.5 hot dogs).

Chesnut’s odds to win are currently -2500, or you can bet on the field for +900 (but that’s probably just a donation).

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: The Truth Behind the Biggest Beef in Sports

📉 Biggest Loser: A New Solution To Football’s Biggest Problem

🏆 Winner’s Circle: The Most High-Tech Whistle Ever Created

🗞 The Big Story

This is the biggest beef in sports that nobody seems to know about.

B.C. (Before Chestnut): Since it's basically an annual tradition at this point, you’re probably expecting to see Joey Chestnut make his return to the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating stage today and scarf down several dozen hot dogs to claim his title as the best professional eater of all time.

But what if I told you he wasn’t, and that the true battle to crown the greatest of all-time actually wasn’t allowed to happen?

For much of the early 2000s, it wasn’t Joey Chestnut who dominated the competitive eating scene; instead, it was a Japanese professional eater named Takeru Kobayashi.

His revolutionary technique and grueling training regimen allowed him to eat so much food that it moves other organs out of the way, to the point that it limits his breathing.

Now, in 2007, Kobayashi entered the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, having won the last six in a row. The year prior, he had set Japanese and world records by eating 53 and 3/4ths hot dogs in just 12 minutes. And with 50,000 people gathered to watch, Kobayashi took the stage to attempt to claim his 7th title in a row.

Kobayashi’s New Competition: However, seated to his left was a relative newcomer named Joey Chestnut, who had just entered the competitive eating scene two years prior. Now, this newbie just had a breakout performance in the deep-fried asparagus-eating championship by eating 6.3 pounds of asparagus in 11.5 minutes, but he had only ever participated in the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest twice:

• 2005 - 3rd place (32 hot dogs)

• 2006 - 2nd place (52 hot dogs)

And while many thought that 2006 would be the year that Kobayashi would finally be beaten, the Japanese eater followed up his victory by beating Chestnut again in the Johnsonville Bratwurst Eating Championship in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, by eating 58 brats in 10 minutes, compared to Chestnut’s measly 45.

A New Champion: It was at this point that Kobayashi seemed unbeatable, but the following year, on July 4, 2007, Chestnut came ready to play and beat Kobayashi 66 hot dogs to 63, setting a new world record and dethroning the six-time champion.

However, the feud didn’t stop there, because the next year the two faced off again and ended regulation tied at 59 hot dogs a piece, with the winner being decided in a five-hot-dog-eat-off. Chestnut downed his 5 hot dogs in 50 seconds, with Kobayashi finishing 7 seconds behind him.

The following year, in 2009, it was more of the same, with Chestnut dominating and Kobayashi coming in second, but this is where the feud really starts to heat up.

Kobayashi’s Contract Dispute: See, in 2010, Kobayashi attempted to participate in the Hot Dog Eating contest despite not being signed with Major League Eating. Kobayahsi didn’t like that his contract with the organization would limit his participation in non-MLE events, so he never re-signed with them and was even arrested for showing up at the 2010 Hot Dog Eating Contest.

However, as Chestnut points out, Kobayashi didn’t seem to have an issue with his contract until he started losing. To which Kobayashi responded by accusing Chestnut of cheating in a 2009 pizza-eating competition.

Now, Chestnut finally would get his wish in the form of a rematch with Kobayashi in a one-hour Netflix special last year, where he solidified himself as one of the greatest athletes of all-time in a dominating 83-66 hot dog victory.

And with Chestnut making his return to the Nathan’s stage in Coney Island this year after a one-year hiatus, I think we can definitively say who won this beef.

📉 Biggest Loser

This organization you’ve probably never heard of might have just found the solution to football’s most important problem. Let’s break it down.

Concussion Concerns: Since 2015, youth tackle football has seen a nearly 40% decrease in participation, which has largely been driven by concerns over concussions. This is obviously an issue for the game, as fewer players at the youth level could mean fewer fans following football at the collegiate and pro level.

But what can be done about it?

Because even as helmet technology and safety at all levels continue to improve every year, the sharp decrease in youth participation hasn't stopped.

Well, that’s where the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment comes in. Since 1973, NOCSAE has established safety guidelines for football helmets at all levels.

However, as manufacturers have continued to design their helmets to fare better in lab tests, an unintended consequence has been the increase in the average weight of helmets.

Impact of Adding Weight: Now, while an extra couple of ounces might not be noticeable for a fully-grown adult, it turns out it’s extremely important for youth players. This is mainly due to the fact that their necks are significantly weaker and their heads are much heavier relative to those of an adult.

And even though they don’t hit each other as hard when playing football, the impact their heads can take when they hit the ground while wearing a heavy helmet can be substantial.

That’s why, thanks to research conducted by two professors from Virginia Tech and the University of Ottawa, NOCSAE has just announced its first set of standards specifically for youth helmets, recommending that they weigh less than 3.5 pounds going forward.

The only issue now is that, currently, there’s an extremely limited selection on the market that fits this criteria, which is why NOCSAE is giving manufacturers until March of 2027 to implement this new standard.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This is the most high-tech whistle ever created, and it helped one referee earn tens of millions of dollars.

Background: In the early 1980s, a North Carolina native named Mike Costabile followed in his father’s footsteps and began pursuing a career as a basketball referee in his early 20s. He began by working at the high school and college level before eventually becoming a full-time NBA ref in 1989, which for most people would be a dream job.

However, in his second season, Mike had a realization that would ultimately change the course of his life forever.

The Game: Mike recalls a game he was reffing on December 4, 1990, between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. It was a one-point overtime game, and just as the clock was winding down, Mike called a foul on the Bucks.

According to Mike, he says he blew his whistle before the final horn sounded, but since it takes a human timekeeper an average of 0.6 to 0.8 seconds to actually stop the clock, everyone in the arena thought the game was over.

However, in a very unpopular decision with the Milwaukee Bucks, Mike put Sixers’ star Charles Barkley on the line with no time left on the clock, where he went on to make both free throws and win the game for Philly.

And while all the articles the next day talked about the “guts” it took for Mike to make the call, he had a much different takeaway, thinking, “What if there was a better way to stop the clock?”

Mike’s Invention: So, Mike got to work developing a way to replace human timekeepers, and by 1993, he had his first prototype of what he called the Precision Time System.

The way it works is that each ref has a microphone clipped to their shirt, which is calibrated to the exact frequency of their whistle. This microphone is then wired into a small pack attached to each ref's hip, which wirelessly stops the clock at the scorer's table when they blow their whistle and restarts it with the press of a button on the side of that same pack.

And since each ref’s mic is tuned to a different frequency, the scorer knows exactly who blew the whistle and when.

Initially, teams at every level were skeptical of Mike’s new system, so he began challenging them to use his Precision Time System and compare it to a human timekeeper to determine who was more accurate.

And the results were shocking.

Time Saved: When you account for a 0.6 to 0.8 second reaction time across 60 to 80 whistles per game, on average, the human time-keepers wasted 1 minute and 28 seconds of game time per game, whereas Mike’s new systems didn’t waste any.

And this was all the proof the NBA needed to implement Mike’s Precision Time System ahead of the 1997 season, which has now been adopted by dozens of leagues worldwide, including at the collegiate level, undoubtedly earning Mike tens of millions of dollars in the process.

⏱️ In Other News

• WNBA players call the first CBA offer “a slap in the face”

• The NHL is “not focusing on expanding right now”

• Did I just find the best $151 value in sports?

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👋🏻 Happy Friday!

If you are crazy enough to think you could hang with the pros in a hot dog-eating contest, you’re probably wrong.

In 2003, NFL defensive lineman William “The Fridge” Perry (6’2”, 390 pounds) competed as a celebrity contestant and had to tap out after 5 minutes, having eaten just four hot dogs.

The contest hasn’t invited a celebrity contestant to compete since.