This past Saturday evening I was on my way back home from Collegetown when I decided that I should stop at Insomnia Cookies to see if I could win myself a free cookie. A few minutes later, I left with my free cookie, moving to 3-for-3 on Saturdays this semester. I also left knowing this – when one small Japanese man injured his jaw in 2007, an American hero was born. 

For those unfamiliar with Insomnia Cookies’ Trivia Challenge, I ask: what’s wrong with you? They have a new trivia question each day, and if you get it right, you can get a free cookie – as long as you purchase something else. I recommend buying a milk to go with a free peanut butter cookie.  

So my particular question was – “With 68 hot dogs, who won the 2009 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest?” After first reading the question, I was disappointed by how easy it was. At the same time, it made me realize how little people know about the world of competitive eating, and as a disciple of the sport, it is my duty to spread knowledge of the single most important case of jaw arthritis in the history of the world.  

For those who don’t already know, this past July 4th, Joey Chestnut set a new world record by eating 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, winning Major League Eating’s (MLE) biggest event for the third consecutive year and retaining the prestigious Mustard Belt. As my friend said while answering the question to earn his own free cookie, “Joey Chestnut is a true American hero.” 

By the third time one of my friends was answering the question to get a free cookie, we wondered if the guy serving us thought we were cheating and telling each other the answer. To prove we truly deserved complimentary cookies, I began asking my friends my own trivia questions. 

“How many years has Chestnut held the Mustard Belt?” (Three). “How many hot dogs did Chestnut eat in the 2008 overtime eat-off?” (Five). “Who held the title for 6 years before being dethroned by Joey ‘The Jaw’ Chestnut?” 

When I asked that final question, I heard a shout from a stranger sitting at the lone table in the eatery, “It was Kobayashi! Everyone knows him.” 

As everyone should. After winning the Mustard Belt in 2001 and holding it until 2006 – shattering the world record along the way —Kobayashi became a household name. He put competitive eating on the map. He made it sexy to gorge oneself with massive amounts of food. He paved the way for elite “gurgitators” who followed. 

Then in 2007, while training for his seventh consecutive Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating title, Kobayashi was hit with the jaw injury heard ‘round the world. Chewing through the pain, the injury just got worse and worse. 

Finally, Kobayashi left this post on his MySpace, mere days before the showdown: “I feel ashamed that I couldn’t notice the alarm bells set off by my own body. But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn’t stop my training. I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw.” 

Ironically, Kobayashi’s jaw injury opened the door for Joey “The Jaw.” While Kobayashi did end up competing, he wasn’t chewing to his potential. His 63 hotdogs were enough to break his own Japanese record, but with 66, Chestnut set the new world record and kept the Mustard Belt in America for the first time since 1999. 

That fateful July 4, 2007, Joey Chestnut made his mark in Major League Eating — but more importantly, he showed that with an open heart and an open mouth, Americans can accomplish anything. In the spirit of such epic moments in American sporting history as the 1980 United States ice hockey team’s defeat of the Soviet Union, Joey the Jaw shouldered the weight of his nation’s pride and brought home a stunning upset victory. 

Since then, Chestnut has won the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest twice more — winning in an eat-off with Kobayashi in ’08, then setting a new world-record with 68 dogs earlier this year. He’s also taken the No. 1 overall ranking in the MLE, leaving Kobayashi to fall to No. 3 behind another American — Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti.

And it is all because of temporomandibular joint disorder. When Kobayashi was hit with arthritis in his jaw, a legend fell and another took his place. After dominating the sport for six years, Kobayashi has taken a back seat to Joey Chestnut – a man who will forever be known as a true American hero.

While I am sympathetic towards Kobayashi — who has fought to remain near the top of the sport despite arthritis in his jaw for the past few years — it is Joey Chestnut who inspires me to eat the amounts of food that I do.

A humble American who has missed competitions due to budgetary constraints, Chestnut found something he was good at — something he was passionate about — and he decided he would be the best. What’s more American than that?

He has followed in The Tsunami’s path to continue legitimizing competitive eating. He shows that MLE gurgitators are athletes too, pushing their bodies to new limits everyday. Let it be shown that Chestnut has more world records than Michael Phelps! I’m just saying.

To the true American hero, Joey Chestnut, I say thank you. Thank you for eating 9 lb. 6 oz. of pulled pork in 10 minutes. Thank you for winning in the name of America and bringing home the Mustard Belt. Thank you for working hard to make MLE what it is today. And finally, thank you for winning me a free peanut butter cookie last Saturday.