Speaker 1: Hey, we are Carpino and Rich on Fox Sports Radio
Speaker 1: and we're joined by competitive eating icon like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I let's welcome Joey Chestnut O.
Speaker 2: Good beyond with you, guys. What's up? It's just a
Speaker 2: goofy dude that like to eat. You know what.
Speaker 1: We've interviewed you so many times throughout the years. You're
Speaker 1: such a legend. I'm not even sure we ever got
Speaker 1: the story of how you got into it. Is it
Speaker 1: because you love to eat? Did you have a natural
Speaker 1: knack for it?
Speaker 2: Growing up? I was always the fastest eater in the family.
Speaker 2: My mom would actually get mad. And uh So when
Speaker 2: I went away to college, I was kind of ashamed
Speaker 2: of it. All Right, I eat normal, pretend I'm like
Speaker 2: everybody else, but every once in a while I'd let
Speaker 2: let it out and like my friends in the dorms,
Speaker 2: They're like, oh my god, Joey can eat. And then
Speaker 2: eventually I got signed up to a contest a couple
Speaker 2: of years later, and uh and I was like, all right,
Speaker 2: I'll do it, and I was like I fell in
Speaker 2: love with it. It was like it was like I don't
Speaker 2: have to be ashamed of it. I'm like, lean into it. Yeah, dude,
Speaker 2: I just went in and uh yeah, people are just
Speaker 2: yelling at me to eat, and I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 2: put him down.
Speaker 1: That means rich. You kind of have a natural knack
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 3: Rich I finish before everyone else, notice, purposely have to
Speaker 3: slow down.
Speaker 2: It's when I eat. Oh yeah. So like with my
Speaker 2: fiance now, she's awesome. She uh we order three entrees
Speaker 2: all the time we go out, so it's not that weird.
Speaker 2: So we say we're sharing one, but really just ends
Speaker 2: up be in mine.
Speaker 3: You know, It's funny would say that I'm a big
Speaker 3: advocate of splitting food and with his buddies, though not
Speaker 3: with his wife, his buddies, his friends.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, I'll steal food. It's not stealing. I'm really
Speaker 2: I'm just making sure it's safe. Like if the if
Speaker 2: the food makes him sick, I want I want to
Speaker 2: Yeah good, It's like no, no, it was definitely the
Speaker 2: food that made him sick, because I got sick too.
Speaker 2: You know what's annoying about it?
Speaker 1: Not you, Joe. You're a great guy, You're a professional.
Speaker 1: He's just an annoying friend. He's eyeing up my food
Speaker 1: the whole time, and I'm like, dude, wait until like
Speaker 1: get your nose out of my place.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't be neglecting your food there, you should, Joey. Don't
Speaker 2: stare at it, eat it, Joey.
Speaker 1: I feel this guy.
Speaker 3: I will sometimes encourage my wife to order something I
Speaker 3: know she won't finish so that I know I'll get
Speaker 3: a little taste.
Speaker 2: I know exactly what I mean.
Speaker 3: He knows by the way, I know how Cavino is
Speaker 3: a guy that always says the four major sports football, Baseball, basketball,
Speaker 3: and eating. Because I feel like we talk about you
Speaker 3: a lot. You had a big year. You got that
Speaker 3: Netflix money this year.
Speaker 2: How was that? Oh? Netflix is awesome, I mean beyond
Speaker 2: the money, was really just going against my old rival.
Speaker 2: How crazy was Kobash? She was dodging me for years?
Speaker 2: And uh, it really sucks that I couldn't go with
Speaker 2: the Fourth of July this year. Dude, the Major League
Speaker 2: eating was not happy that I was doing the Netflix thing.
Speaker 2: But uh, hopefully we can figure it out for this year.
Speaker 3: And I'm not just kissing your ass without you in it.
Speaker 1: It really was so weak.
Speaker 3: I mean, you felt that we had to feel that way,
Speaker 3: like you getta hope to come back next year.
Speaker 2: I hope we can figure it out. Uh. It's uh,
Speaker 2: it was weird because they did some weird things. But uh,
Speaker 2: I'm I'm hoping that they I don't have I'll have
Speaker 2: hurt feelings for long. Yeah, but you know what, you know,
Speaker 2: then's the return of I mean, this is America. You
Speaker 2: gotta have the best person there. Yeah, it's a big
Speaker 2: it's on TV. You gotta have the best Hey.
Speaker 1: Yeah. We got a question from one of our listeners.
Speaker 1: Mercerman in Pittsburgh, who's an amateur eater, has a question
Speaker 1: for you, Joey Chestnut here, how did you train to
Speaker 1: eat bagels? Fifteen and eight minutes? Was at it fifteen minutes?
Speaker 1: He says, because it doesn't seem like a lot, but
Speaker 1: they're so tough to chew your jaw tires fast, They're
Speaker 1: so dense, and there's always the danger of the choking
Speaker 1: hazard of eating bagels.
Speaker 2: How do you train for something like that? Like like
Speaker 2: all eating contests I had, I had to do practice
Speaker 2: with bagels. I tried to so my first year, yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't know what kind of bagels that were. This
Speaker 2: year was a lot easier to practice with. I found
Speaker 2: some New York style bagels. They were they kind of
Speaker 2: it's like really dense on the inside, but there's like
Speaker 2: almost a crispy shell on the outside. It's like a
Speaker 2: it's a real New York bagel. But uh, just practice
Speaker 2: and the jaws usually get stronger.
Speaker 1: We always see the physical strategy when you're competing, tell
Speaker 1: us about the mental strategy, and you know the moments
Speaker 1: where your body's saying no, but you're still pushing.
Speaker 2: It's weird because like I've always been like, like you,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of big eaters, fast eaters out there,
Speaker 2: but that's fun. I go in knowing, like you gotta
Speaker 2: be like a football player. They know that they're gonna
Speaker 2: be injured even if they do not really, they're gonna
Speaker 2: feel like garbage for days after after a game. I
Speaker 2: once I started realizing, all right, I have to go
Speaker 2: in really really isn't accepting that I'm gonna feel like
Speaker 2: garbage for three days. Then I was like, all right,
Speaker 2: it's not about eating for fun, It's about eating just
Speaker 2: to do whatever it takes. And uh it's and then
Speaker 2: I was able to push harder.
Speaker 3: Joey, are people ever offended if you turn down food?
Speaker 3: Because imagine, imagine someone's like, try my wife's pie or
Speaker 3: and you're.
Speaker 1: Like, oh, no, thanks, that's like this weekends about the
Speaker 1: five layer dip.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a super Bowl food.
Speaker 1: If you say no, thank you, that's like, man, okay, Joe.
Speaker 2: A lot of times I'm like super like some people
Speaker 2: are oh, like, do the restaurants want to kick you out?
Speaker 2: Like no. Usually, usually the chef comes comes and brings
Speaker 2: over like their their their favorite thing that they're proud of. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and most of the time it's really good and they're
Speaker 2: super happy actually eat it because they're used to people
Speaker 2: like just taking one bite and wasting the food. But
Speaker 2: they're super happy. But once in a while they bring
Speaker 2: out something that's a little bit funky, it's just a
Speaker 2: little bit different that that doesn't agree with. It's very rare.
Speaker 2: I'm not a picky eater, but I just feel like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel like, oh my god, I'll force it down.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make anybody feel bad because you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a terrible cook and having anybody.
Speaker 3: But you know what, I actually wrote that like a
Speaker 3: cooking skills you eat a lot, you know, so no
Speaker 3: skills in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: Actually I'm terrible, dude. It's just a great eater. It's pathetic.
Speaker 2: So so I have respect for anybody who actually can't cook.
Speaker 1: Joey, I'm not sure we ever asked you this man.
Speaker 1: When you're out and about at a restaurant, people recognize
Speaker 1: you anyway. They've been watching you for years. They know
Speaker 1: you're the guy. But they're also watching to see how
Speaker 1: you eat.
Speaker 2: Is that annoying?
Speaker 1: Like do you notice that they're like, oh, let's see
Speaker 1: how he finishes. Like you can't even go out and
Speaker 1: public and just enjoy a nice meal without people wondering.
Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's not that bad of a gig
Speaker 2: when you really take a bigger re loook, right. I
Speaker 2: heard remember like Charles Barkley getting people the people like
Speaker 2: yelling at him in the bars, and you get in
Speaker 2: fights people commenting about my eating. It's not a big deal.
Speaker 1: You're a big eater, Are you a big guzzler?
Speaker 2: Like? Can you throw some back?
Speaker 1: Does that quinetify for you being a big travel Really?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: I mean can you really drink a lot or not?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, go down really? Yeah? One time I did
Speaker 2: something for Pat McAfee before he was this Pat mcife.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, he had he lined up twelve pints
Speaker 2: of beer and and I rank him in like seventy seconds. Damn.
Speaker 3: I gotta ask, of all the things that I know,
Speaker 3: the different categories, is there one that you're like, it's gross.
Speaker 1: I'll set this one out.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, bull testicles, dude. So yeah, it was a
Speaker 2: casino contest. You mean they're not delicious? I didn't. I
Speaker 2: didn't do it, but I was like, so the casino
Speaker 2: was the tour is for making bad food, right, And
Speaker 2: I was like, no, I don't trust him to make
Speaker 2: him and the eaters they told me that they were
Speaker 2: like undercooked and and like stretchy and they were not. U. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm lucky I didn't do that one.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad he didn't either. Joey Chestnut here
Speaker 1: on the Cavino and Rich Show Fox Sports Radio, and Joe, you're,
Speaker 1: as far as I see it, responsible for the popularity
Speaker 1: of competitive.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, competition, I think the Golden era
Speaker 2: like me and Kobeyashi, right, and that's what really like.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's sure we always can.
Speaker 2: Actually be competitive, Like like there were contests where he
Speaker 2: started out ahead and I caught him and I overtook him.
Speaker 1: Angel Rees, Caitlin Clark, Ali Frasier.
Speaker 2: You need, you need, you need a good rival.
Speaker 1: That is true.
Speaker 2: It's a I mean it's really nice.
Speaker 1: Would he give you that credit?
Speaker 2: Oh? He I mean no, he might cry. Dude crying.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. I was like, dude, I feel like
Speaker 2: I'm abusing him. I didn't even make him crazy. I
Speaker 2: didn't even say anything mean to him. But he cries,
Speaker 2: like like that Netflix thing. He had to change, he
Speaker 2: had to change the rules. He didn't want to dunk,
Speaker 2: so I had to eat the hot dogs. No dunking.
Speaker 2: It's uh, that guy is he needs Yeah, I still
Speaker 2: love him. I respect the competition.
Speaker 1: But he cries alone.
Speaker 2: Oh he cries a baby.
Speaker 1: Sports baby, I don't know, sports baby.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: What I was gonna ask you is I see you
Speaker 1: as responsible for the popularity of the sport. How do
Speaker 1: you see it evolving?
Speaker 2: I think, uh, you know, I think part of the
Speaker 2: biggest the biggest thing is Fourth of July. It's America. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's uh, you know, you know, you don't have apologize
Speaker 2: for being American. You don't have to apologize for eating
Speaker 2: twenty hot dogs. It's it's like it's the perfect Uh,
Speaker 2: it's the perfect storm of like yay, I'm we're we're
Speaker 2: loving this thing. We're loving hot dogs, he love fireworks,
Speaker 2: and uh, we're gonna push it to the limit.
Speaker 3: We're here with a lot of football players, you know,
Speaker 3: media row, Yeah, Joey in the NFL thirties, forty ish
Speaker 3: tops is like, you know, that's time to call quits.
Speaker 3: Is there a retirement age for competitive eating? Is that
Speaker 3: something like, you know, golfers could go into their fifties
Speaker 3: or sixties if they wanted to, Like you.
Speaker 2: Know what, I keep looking towards Tom Brady. I think
Speaker 2: he won the Super Bowl at forty four. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: am forty forty one right now. It'd be really nice
Speaker 2: to be on top at forty four. That'd be really rad.
Speaker 2: At forty five that'd be unheard of. That'd be nuts.
Speaker 2: So that'd be really cool. I'm just and it's taking
Speaker 2: more work.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, as as just nature and life
Speaker 3: and your body takes all the time.
Speaker 2: If all the time is a jerk. When I was younger,
Speaker 2: I could do a practice like every three or four days.
Speaker 2: Now it's like seven or eight days to the recovery period.
Speaker 2: It takes so much longer to recover. You know what
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask you, Joe.
Speaker 1: There's so many football teams that take a lot of
Speaker 1: pride in eating those uncrustables, right, Like, what was the
Speaker 1: Broncos here?
Speaker 3: The Broncos team, I think it was like seven hundred
Speaker 3: on crustables they put back in.
Speaker 1: A week, like they're pounding those. Like, maybe that's an
Speaker 1: angle for you. How many of those PBJSN yeah, team,
Speaker 1: but the whole team bush league?
Speaker 2: Right? What going on that?
Speaker 1: I'm wondering how many you could eat again? Peanut butter
Speaker 1: and jelly with the bread and everything.
Speaker 2: That's one I haven't done it, but it's.
Speaker 1: Become a big thing because all these young football players
Speaker 1: now they grew up eating that. So it's a big
Speaker 1: thing in the locker room. That might be an angle
Speaker 1: for you that you could take on an entire team.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, or like.
Speaker 1: The offensive line, Joey versus the offensive line take on
Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos. I'd put my money on you, man,
Speaker 1: I'd bed no. Seriously, have you have you ever tried that?
Speaker 2: I've done a couple of contests me versus a group
Speaker 2: of people, but I think uncrustables that that sounds it
Speaker 2: needs to be done. Right, add that to the list
Speaker 2: of records.
Speaker 1: Let us promote it. Let's get some money. Yeah, charity
Speaker 1: Smucker's got some flow.
Speaker 2: Let's do this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Joey here at the Super Bowl. Is it funny
Speaker 3: when people in different sports recognize you, like NFL players
Speaker 3: or you know, celebrities passed by, like, hey, Joey Chestnok,
Speaker 3: that's got to be a weird feeling, right.
Speaker 2: I mean it's weird. But then they then they tell me, oh,
Speaker 2: I've been watching you since I was a kid. It's like, damn.
Speaker 1: Speaking of the youngsters, man, Joey Chestnut here with Cavino
Speaker 1: and Rich, do you have advice for aspiring eaters, like
Speaker 1: the young guys out there that are like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm good at this?
Speaker 2: What sort of advice would you give them? I think
Speaker 2: it's really it's figuring out your body because it's not like,
Speaker 2: you know, these guys play football. They knew five six
Speaker 2: years old they were going to be a professional football player.
Speaker 2: Like me, I didn't really think I was gonna be
Speaker 2: It wasn't even when I was champion. I didn't think
Speaker 2: it was gonna be my jobby job. Right, it was?
Speaker 2: And you were embarrassed by Yeah, it was insteading into something.
Speaker 2: It was something I grew up like, all right, I
Speaker 2: have to hide it from the world. But a competitive
Speaker 2: eater like these days, like if they if they know
Speaker 2: they're a good eater and they start figuring out their
Speaker 2: body when they're young, trial and error and learning how
Speaker 2: to go from absolutely empty to one hundred percent full
Speaker 2: and then make their body yeah, make it yeah, make
Speaker 2: it go through your body fast. If they can figure
Speaker 2: out their body, they I think that's the biggest thing,
Speaker 2: is like keep a food journal, how you're feeling and
Speaker 2: knowing that you don't actually have to feel good to
Speaker 2: do good.
Speaker 1: And I want the Fox Sports Radio nation to always
Speaker 1: remember as Tom Brady, Michael j Jordon Gretzky, Alie and
Speaker 1: Joey Chestnut.
Speaker 2: There he is.
Speaker 3: He's the go this year the return hopefully, let's put
Speaker 3: some pressure on it.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to have you on the show Man
Speaker 1: for
Speaker 3: You guys, Joey Chestnut Coveno on Rich Fox Sports Radio