I was reading Deadspin today, and I heard about the fact that Takeru Kobayashi, otherwise known as the Worldwide Hot Dog Eating Champion, may not even be back in Coney Island to defend his title this year in the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Brooklyn.

According to Deadspin...

"Kobayashi's mother died in March and he's currently taking a sabbatical. He's not even in training," the hot dog eating champion's manager tells Shukan Gendai. "I haven't heard a word from him about whether he's going to take part in the July contest and there's no way that I know to get in touch with him."

Should he even enter, he would not be the favorite according to many competitive eating experts (who apparently flunked med school), as Joey Chestnut of California broke the world record at a contest where he ate 59.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

Should Kobayashi not enter the contest, there will be absolutely no reason to miss all of you're Fourth of July fun to watch the contest on ESPN2. (But there's still a reason to watch re-runs after you're Fourth of July hangover...)

Could Kobayashi be like Lance Armstrong and retire ahead of the game? Could Chestnut be like Floyd Landis, take over the throne, and test positive for testosterone?

I'm way too into this...