Joey Chestnut Breaks Silence on Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest Ban

Joey Chestnut is blunt about being banned from Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

The 40-year-old competitive eater has won the annual competition 16 times, including the last eight years in a row. But in June, Major League Eating told the The New York Post that Chestnut was banned from this year’s July 4 event because of its partnership with competitor Impossible Foods, which sells plant-based hot dogs.

Chestnut released a statement to the MLE, saying he learned of his ban from the media rather than the organization, writing, “They are looking to change the rules of years past as to who else I can work with.”

MLE responded in its own statement, saying: “For nearly two decades, we have operated under the same basic exclusivity clause for hot dogs. However, it appears that Joey and his managers have prioritized a new partnership with another brand over our long-standing relationship.”

In an interview with Sports Illustrated published Wednesday, Chestnut spoke to the media about his ban for the first time.

“Everything went perfectly with Impossible, according to all my previous agreements,” he told the outlet. “They changed the terms and conditions[regarding]exclusivity. And this is not the first time they’ve changed things, but this is the first time they’ve really changed things after the fact, and I had to say, ‘Hey, it’s too late, I’ve already started working with this brand.’”

Chestnut continued: “It’s never been an issue in the past. And they tried to work around it, they changed a lot of terms, and then they made it worse than they ever imagined when they started leaking information and telling people that I was banned and that I had gone vegan, which is clearly not the case.”

The California native said that George and Richard Shea, the brothers who run MLE, reached out to him after his ban was announced, “basically saying they were sorry things got bad,” and one of them said they hoped to go out for a beer someday.

“I don’t think the Shea brothers are bad people. I’m not burning any bridges,” Chestnut said. IFsaying he would be willing to return to the Nathan competition next year. “And I love it, I love the Fourth of July and this competition. I’m always willing to try. I don’t hold grudges. So nothing is off the table.”

Newsweek contacted the MLE for comment.

How to watch upcoming Chestnut competitions

Chestnut is going to celebrate the Fourth of July by eating hot dogs again. The hot dog-eating champion announced that he will spend the day at a holiday party at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, competing against four soldiers — all on a team trying to beat the pro — at the base. The event will last five minutes and will be streamed on Chestnut’s YouTube channel.

Major League Eating’s first major star, Takeru Kobayashi, was also banned from the Coney Island competition due to a contract disagreement in 2010. For the first time since 2009, Netflix has announced that it will host a special live competition between Kobayashi and Chestnut on Labor Day (September 2).

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