Lord of the Wings
The problem with Bill’s eating career is that he’s afraid it’s devouring him. There is, in this country, a growing professional eating circuit — 70 contests a year, prize pots upwards of $20,000, and TV deals with ESPN and INHD. Bill’s Wing Bowl success gave him the chance to compete more broadly. He is ranked 19th in the world, down from 13th earlier this year. He’s won trips, limo rides and a car, and has been to L.A. three times to film TV shows. Bill is the hot-dog champ of New Jersey, and on Fox’s 2002 Glutton Bowl broadcast he beat one of the sport’s dominant pros by eating almost four feet of a 15-foot-long monster sushi roll. These are not events that he particularly enjoys. "Even when I win," says Bill, "I feel like shit. What am I doin’, throwin’ shit down my gullet? What am I doin’ to my body? Just throwin’ shit down my gullet doesn’t make me anybody’s hero."
It does get him attention. He gets to hang out at celebrity bartending events. He gets a few hundred bucks here and there to referee amateur wing bowls and to work the crowd at the odd Eagles party. He markets a quite tasty hot sauce. It has yet to make him rich. "How?" says Bill. "You tell me how to be rich, ’cause I don’t know how to do it."
Being El Wingador is not as great as people think. But the more Bill insists he doesn’t need to be El Wingador — the more he claims he’s "more dimensional than just being a competitive eater" — the more he frets about his stomach lining, the more Bill really needs to be El Wingador. Because it is not nothing. Not to Bill.
Angelo Cataldi is a brilliant promoter. In the early 1990s, before he had much of a budget, he boasted on-air that he could catch a baseball thrown from a helicopter. A listener called to donate the use of a copter, and Cataldi set up shop in the Spectrum parking lot — a great stunt, great publicity, and all of it for free.
After Thanksgiving in 2003, after Bill had won three Wing Bowls straight, Bill was hanging out at the WIP studio when Cataldi pulled him aside. At least two times since Bill’s victory in Wing Bowl XI, Bill had told Cataldi that he wasn’t sure he could attend Wing Bowl XII. Debbie didn’t want him to compete, Bill says — she was worried about his health. Now, in the WIP studios, Cataldi tried to get an answer. "He asked me if it would be better if I stayed out of it," remembers Bill, who says Cataldi added that "the sponsors weren’t paying the money because I was being like Mike Tyson, knocking everybody out in the first round." Cataldi told Bill he could be a color commentator if he wanted. Bill wanted more time to think, and mentioned to Cataldi that he "didn’t really want to miss out on anything with the prize money." Then, according to Bill, Cataldi told him, "If you get in, I guarantee you’re not gonna win." Cataldi promised to bring the world’s top eaters to knock Bill off his perch.
