Cocaine charges against a champion-chicken wing eater were unveiled on the eve of the gorging competition that made him a minor Philadelphia celebrity.
Bill "El Wingador" Simmons, the five-time winner of the Wing Bowl, was indicted on various charges stemming from an arrest in southern New Jersey last summer in which police allegedly found cash and thousands of dollars of worth of coke in his car, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Simmons, 51, was already banned from this weekend's Wing Bowl before Gloucester County prosecutors revealed they'd charged the bleached-blonde devourer with 13 counts of possessing, manufacturing and distributing different quantities of cocaine, the South Jersey Times reported. The organization banned him shortly after his arrest.
He spent 10 days in jail after his arrest, an eye-opening experience he called "life-changing," according to CBS News.
The Wing Bowl is a Philly tradition held before the Super Bowl and Simmons was a fixture at what the Gloucester County Times called a "beer-drenched, confetti and cleavage-ridden event."
Simmons used to strut into the event like a pro-wrestler, wearing a sleek robe and t-shirts emblazoned with his logo of a mighty bird.
But perhaps his best years of stuffing bar food down his gullet were behind him. He last won the contest in 2005 by eating 162 wings, the Associated Press said.
In his prime, Simmons had a knack for eating wings, which requires more technique than other foods featured in competitive eating contests, said George Shea, the CEO of Major League Eating. (Major League Eating organizes events like the Nathan's hot dog contest, but isn't affiliated with the Wing Bowl.
"He was a superior chicken wing eater," Shea told HuffPost.
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