A petty corporate decision is depriving America of its beloved hot dog king Boston 25 News [Video]

Empires fall. Castles crumble.

If you can’t beat him, banish him.

Joey Chestnut has been dethroned, not because another mortal could best him in one of America’s great marketing and capitalistic enterprises but because he dared to defy one of America’s great marketing and capitalistic enterprises by partaking in his own American marketing and capitalistic enterprise.

Chestnut, the 16 time champion — including the last eight consecutive — of the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest has been banned from this year’s competition.

The 40-year-old Californian, who has proven more efficient at eating 100 percent of all beef hot dogs than any human to ever walk the Earth, has an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, which happens to produce a 0 percent beef hot dog.

That was too much for the sensitive souls that sanction the Nathan’s competition. They are apparently terrified of soy leghemoglobin and cultured celery powder. Brooklyn has gone soft.

The champ is out. The king of kings, the man-child among us, the …