A Washington Heights man spent 48 hours, 15 minutes and 1 second watching sports to win this year's third annual Ultimate Couch Potato competition at the ESPN Zone in Times Square. Jorge Cruz, a "public affairs assistant" for Con Ed, bested three other competitors, including two-time defending champ Stan Friedman, who stood up from his chair at 5 a.m. today after 41 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds of continuous sports watching. The contestants had taken their seats at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day and were allowed to eat and drink as much as they wanted for free, but were only allowed to use the bathroom every eight hours. Falling asleep resulted in immediate disqualification.
Despite winning hours ago, Cruz is apparently still sitting in an attempt to win the national title by outlasting two other vidiots still watching sports at the Chicago ESPN Zone. His NYC victory comes with a $4,000 grand prize package, including a new HD-TV, a high-tech recliner, free cable or satellite service for a year, and, um, bragging rights. And despite two days without sleep, Cruz seems perfectly on message and capable of shilling blandly for ESPN, telling NBC, "This is something I would pay to do but ESPN Zone made an event out of it for great prizes."
