Joey Chestnut on ESPN's broadcast of the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Photo Credit: ESPN2

If you were expecting to hear Elon Musk’s name during the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest, congratulations, you should probably go play the lottery. There are only so many ways to give a play-by-play of a person eating 70 hot dogs in ten minutes, which means ESPN announcers have to get creative during the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.

After sitting out last year, Joey Chestnut made his triumphant return to Major League Eating and ran roughshod over the rest of his competition. The 17-time champion had skipped the 2024 contest due to a sponsorship dispute between Major League Eating, Nathan’s, and Chestnut’s endorsement deal with Impossible Foods. But in 2025, he demolished 70 hot dogs to reclaim the coveted Yellow Mustard Belt.

But the victory wasn’t complete without a bizarre moment from MLE President Rich Shea during ESPN’s broadcast. Shea has a history of weaving politics into the Hot Dog Eating Contest commentary, like in 2023, when he jokingly referenced Joey Chestnut’s Supreme Court-level perks during Chestnut’s dominant performance in front of 100,000 fans at Coney Island.

Two years later, Shea was at it again, as he found a way to sneak Elon Musk into the broadcast.

“Joey’s just on a roll here,” Shea began. “And Major League Eating, obviously, you look at this crowd — I’ve been thinking that Elon Musk should buy Major League Eating. Not because I want money, but because he’s got a spaceship. Can you imagine next year, 2026, Joey comes, ostensibly wins his 18th belt, gets on the spaceship, and goes straight to the moon to celebrate the Fourth of July? That would be great pageantry.”

“I mean, we’ve been to the moon,” replied ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap. “I thought Elon wanted to go to Mars?”

“Mars is fine. And this offer is open to [Jeff] Bezos, too,” said Shea. “Anyone with a spaceship, call me.”

Major League Eating isn’t actually for sale. But hey, if you’ve got a spaceship, maybe it is.

And since Musk seems done throwing cash at politics and wielding a chainsaw on our social fabric, maybe buying Major League Eating wouldn’t be the worst thing he’s done all year.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.