Last Call: Pizza Acrobats Demand Your Respect
Wow, two sports stories on The Takeout today, must be some kind of record. What are we, Deadspin over here? Hoo boy I am going to put on a sweatband because of all the serious sports writing I've been doing.
Hot on the heels of our sausage soccer uniform coverage, we now bring you more food-related sports news: Pizza acrobatics. Yes, ESPN is digging in to this growing athletic pursuit, and while the tone of the article is playful—calling pizza acrobatics baton twirling with dough—the subject of the ESPN Q&A would like to assert that pizza acrobatics is no joke.
"Sometimes a juggler or a flair bartender tries to compete because they think they can or they're like, 'How hard can it be?' It's pretty comical," says pizza acrobatics world champion Tony Gemignani. "I would compare it to dunk contests from the '80s to dunk contests now. Everyone's gotten better."
To confirm whether pizza acrobatics is as legit Gemignani implies, I searched YouTube. I'm now a proponent of making it an Olympic sport.