Pride Comes Before Puke

The pride of Neenah, Wisconsin, Justin Franken has just started a mental victory lap. This man-bear devoured his  tray of medium garlic wings, a feat no other man accomplished this day.  On the left, Wabeno Legend, Todd Veeser has accomplished saturation, while  Lou Hoefs reaps the rewards of chewing through a mountain of Wings, while knocking down 1-2-3-4, I said 4 bottles of beer, go Shawano!

ICU Bar & Grill in Neenah provided Justins Wardrobe, and that “Hey There Boo Boo” smile, that’s pride. All the standard words of encouragement echoed from the crowd. C’mon dad, alright dude were surely said, but tray 2 was not another tray 1, it was tray 2.  Dexter wondered why he was called in, clearly the RED fluid was Scary Larry’s, Legend Larry Brand registered trademark Wing Sauce.

“These are hot”

wild kingdom - Jim shoots hippo with drugs

The part of the hippo will be played by Justin Francken, a rack of wings serves as the dart. Consume or be consumed, two or more brain cells process the information, Justin utters, “these are hot”. By design, Justin removes meat from bone, ingests, repeats, words are for after eating, Justin knows the game is changing, Justin – hippo, hippo-Justin. The victory lap is well under way for our friend Justin, the stage has cleared, only Justin remains.

Our Hippo

What’s your name?, I ask Justin, he replies, rRrrRRrrr or something like that as his buddies talk our hero through the process of swallowing his last mouthful. Stage is cleared, Justin is trapped, alone, mouthful of wings. Swallowing the wings and walking off the stage would ensure victory, as would spitting the mouthful back into the tray. Larry’s marketing dude extraordinaire Mike Willis (“I’m more like Larry’s bitch, but don’t call me that “), enters stage right with Justin’s tray ready for a deposit. Justin,completes his part in Wild Kingdom as he pulls right while calling for  cleanup in aisle 3, chicken wing carcasses exploding towards the floor.

Return to Sender

There are two rules in competitive eating and Justin had clearly violated rule #2.

Out of the Wings

A member of theJustin Francken camp captures the moment for facebook as not just an innocent bystander Scott Seal of Manitowoc unwittingly becomes the king of the wings.

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cleanup aisle 3

“The Fox” a fixer from  ICU brazenly pays off the cleaning lady, “just keep Neenah out of this”.

fame - minute 16

A full gallery from this adventure awaits at the Sheboygan Press.