Man eats 44 pork roll sandwiches in 10 minutes

It happened this weekend at RiverFest 2022 at Trenton Thunder Ballpark.

A man named Geoffrey Esper who didn’t even grow up with the Jersey delicacy (he’s from Massachusetts) scarfed down 44 pork roll sandwiches in 10 minutes to win the Case’s Pork Roll Eating Championship. No word on saltpepperketchup.

Think about this. Sixty seconds in a minute times 10 minutes. In 600 seconds this dude consumed 44. That’s one pork roll sandwich every 13.636 seconds. And he wanted more.

“Not quite as much as I was hoping. I was hoping to get closer to 50 but they were crunchy,” referring to the bun. “It just slowed me down a little bit.”

Perhaps it was the hunger for the win. Perhaps it was destiny. Esper almost had to face down the number 1 ranked competitive eater Joey Chestnut who wins all those Nathan’s hot dog eating championships. But a broken leg sidelined him. Possibly a good thing for Esper. Chestnut won it last year with 45.

Possibly it wouldn’t have mattered. Esper is no slouch. He’s the world-ranked number 2 competitive eater.

People came from all over for this crazy contest. Even someone from the Czech Republic. But it was all Esper.

As far as whether it should be called pork roll or Taylor ham, the champion summed it up in a way that ought to stop this Jersey bickering debate once and for all.

“It’s the same thing, right?”

Of course, it won’t stop the debate. It ought to, but it won’t. Because in New Jersey we love to spar.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show any day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

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