The first few weeks of July aren't typically the busy season when it comes to Mountaineer sports news.  Such was the case this year as we prepared for our radio show on Monday, July 3. 

 

As Tony Caridi and I were discussing show ideas we saw highlights on tv promoting the annual Nathan's hot dog eating contest coming up on the fourth. It got us thinking and eventually led to a fun, albeit non-traditional Sportsline question. 

 

Is competitive eating a sport? We started there and quickly branched off to a fun, secondary question: 

if you were to enter a competitive eating contest what food would you choose to eat?

 

Two very interesting questions that received a ton of response on the show. The argument in favor of competitive eating being a sport is surprisingly compelling. 

 

First of all, they keep score. We agreed that in order to be considered a sport you had to keep score. 

 

The participants practice prior to the event. They put in time thinking about strategy. So, there's X's and O's involved. 

 

They practice. Or train prior to "gameday." 

 

Golfers have practice rounds. Competitive eaters do as well. 

 

The winner makes money. In the case of Nathan's, the winner Joey Chestnut took home $10,000 (out of a total $40,000 purse). 

 

What do you think? Is competitive eating a sport?

 

That brought us to part two of the question. This is where it got fun. 

 

If you were to enter a competitive eating contest, what would you want the food to be? As you would expect, the answers we received were all over the board. 

 

Shrimp, meatballs, and mac and cheese all received votes. 

 

I couldn't pick just one, so I had a top three.  My personal top three foods if I were to enter a competitive eating event:

 

1. Chocolate doughnut holes. 

2. Tagalong Girl Scout Cookies

3. Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies

 

It feels as if the Girl Scouts have made the boxes smaller over the years, but I can plow through a box of Tagalongs in no time. 

 

And thin mints...I don't recall a time when I've ever eaten less than a sleeve at one time and have had to stop myself from hammering the second sleeve in a box. 

 

Caridi chose meatballs as his competitive eating food. 

 

What would your go to food be in a competitive eating competition?

 

Leave a comment below or send me a tweet: @BradHowe07

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Brad Howe, left, and Tony Caridi where they make the magic of Sportsline happen, while bottom photo, courtesy of Wikimedia shows Patrick Bertoletti at the 2010 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Photo courtesy of Michael Bisberg.