Wing Bowl 2015 Champion Patrick Bertoletti Eats 444 Wings in 26 Minutes

One of the traditions of Super Bowl weekend is the annual Wing Bowl, held in Philadelphia. The 2015 version took place Friday, with Chicago native Patrick Bertoletti squeaking out a victory with 444 wings eaten in 26 minutes. 

Bertoletti defeated defending champion Molly Schuyler by four wings to capture his first championship in this event. As impressive as the total is, the National Chicken Council reported prior to last year's Super Bowl that Americans were going to eat around 1.25 billion wings during the big game. 

According to Joseph Santoliquito of CBS Philadelphia, Bertoletti's total set a new Wing Bowl record, and afterward, the champion said that his practice sessions helped prepare him for the big moment:

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I own a restaurant so I’ve been cooking wings at the restaurant all week. I ate about 300 in my last practice. I knew I was going to hit 400. I didn’t know how many I ate today, it’s crazy. I almost lost it a couple of times. The second round was very tough, I knew I was behind and I had to pull it off in some way. The wings were very small, so I stripped the meat off with my hands. That seemed to be very efficient and fast. I’m glad to take it home. I came close before. This is the best day of my life, other than opening a restaurant and my niece being born. Somebody give me a drink.

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As impressive as Bertoletti's victory is, it wasn't the only notable storyline during the event. Former WWE champion Mick Foley was competing in the event but got disqualified after cameras captured him stuffing wings into a fanny pack to boost his total, via Brian Haddad of Sports Radio 94WIP:

Foley took to Twitter after the event to joke about his disqualification:

It's a sick world when not even a professional eating competition is safe from a scandal anymore. At least Foley's indiscretion was caught before things got too out of hand and a true champion was able to be crowned. 

The only problem for Bertoletti in setting a record this year is he will have more pressure next year, assuming he comes back to defend his title. Now that everyone knows he's capable of devouring 444 wings, the next step will be 450 and eventually 500.