He came, he ate, he conquered.
As the cold, misty dawn slowly rose from the depths of the ocean, a calm swept over the piers of Coney Island like that of the eerie stillness before the impending storm.
Thirty men marched on to the stage much like the gladiators in ancient Rome did waiting for battle, but these men weren’t challenged by soldiers, but by hotdogs.
Adrian Morgan, also known as “The Rabbit,” is the No. 7 competitive eater in the world as ranked by Major League Eating, or simply “The League” as it is known to its constituents.
The Class of 2005 LSU graduate recently competed in Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hotdog Eating Contest; the Super Bowl of competitive eating.
In the 10-minute span allowed – the standard time for all competitive eating events – Morgan ate a personal-best 35 hotdogs and buns in the 96th year of the event, 33 behind five-time defending champion Joey Chestnut, to finish in sixth place.
“Everyone wants to compete in Nathan’s,” Morgan said. “Once you make it to Nathan’s it’s the epitome of competitive eating. It’s nationally televised on ESPN, it’s New York City.”
Morgan busted onto the competitive eating scene after his breakout performance in a peanut butter and banana sandwich-eating contest in Biloxi, in which The Rabbit beat many of the MLE’s top 20 eaters with 18 and a half sandwiches in 10 minutes.
“It started out with me watching Man vs. Food,” Morgan said. “I would go to Acme Oyster House and eat a lot of oysters… I would always watch the Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest, but I never thought I could actually do it.”
Since that fateful day in Mississippi, Morgan has competed in more than 30 events, including eating 20 hard boiled eggs in 84 seconds and earning the top qualifier spot in this year’s Hooters World Wing Eating Championship.
“The biggest thing to remember is to not to forget to swallow the food,” Morgan said. “You can keep stuffing food into your mouth, but you have to swallow eventually. It’s also important to remember to always have enough liquids to get the food down.”
The average person may be ignorant to the strategic expertise that goes into competitive eating.
Morgan said he must choose his drink wisely to ensure that the flavors are properly balanced.
He claims that hotdogs are the toughest food to eat competitively due to the high sodium content and the dryness of the bun. This makes the choice of drink all the more important, with Morgan typically opting for a sweeter drink, such as a powdered fruit punch mix to counterbalance the salty hotdog.
However, for sweeter items such as MoonPies, the Rabbit chooses a rather unexpected liquid companion.
“For MoonPies I’ll usually have black coffee to balance out the sweetness,” Morgan said. “If I drank something else sweet all the sugar would make me sick. Its all about balancing flavors.”
People might also picture Morgan as a mega weight. However, Morgan weighs in at a lean 195 lbs.
He said he trains using healthier foods like salad and rice in order to expand his stomach but not his waistline.
In fact, he earned his “rabbit” moniker after a visit to a salad bar with friends.
Of course, every great competitor has that one rival that always pushes them to the edge, Adrian Morgan has Matt “Megatoad” Stonie.
Megatoad is a 19-year-old eating phenomenon from San Jose, Cali., who has posted two third place finishes in his first two events, only losing to world No. 1 Chestnut and No. 2 Pat Bertoletti, who coincidentally competed in this year’s Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest in nothing but an American flag Speedo.
“In his first competition, he beat me by a few ounces of whatever we were eating,” Morgan said. “I think he’s one spot ahead of me in the rankings and the gap has been slowly growing ever since. He is definitely someone I want to beat.”
While the Tiger faithful may be more familiar with the likes of Tyrann Mathieu or Aaron Nola, but when it comes to hotdogs or fried asparagus, Adrian “the Rabbit” Morgan has become a mainstay in the world of competitive eating, and he doesn’t appear to be relinquishing his spot any time soon.
As of right now, Morgan rests in the top 10 of the MLE, but the Rabbit won’t rest until his desire to be the “top dog” is satisfied.
Contact Mike Gegenheimer at [email protected].