If you're the kind of person who's prone to reclining in front of a TV set for hours at a time, feet up, gobbling casual refreshments and watching whatever sports match-up is on - the epitome of a couch potato - it does not seem such a wild idea to stretch it into a few days of full-on, unblinking endurance.
That, at least, is the thinking behind a competition being held for the second straight year at the ESPN Zone, where four sports fans are testing their vegetative mettle by sitting for as long as they can before an array of game-blaring television screens without sleeping.
They may stand up and stretch for five minutes once an hour, but cannot otherwise leave their recliners, which means no leaping for joy at a favorite team's touchdown. Bathroom breaks are allowed once every eight hours.
"I'm pretty lazy," said Alex Pyzik, 24, who was back in the race when it began Friday morning after going for 70 hours in last year's contest, 45 seconds shy of the winner's total. "People will come by my house and say, 'Have you moved since I last saw you?' I have the same kind of recliner at home - it helps me train for this."
Pyzik, who lives in Bel Air, is due to start a new job Monday, as a computer technician, but said he had already alerted his new boss that he might have to postpone his debut if he survives the couch-potato contest into next week. His boss, Pyzik said, understands his priorities.
"I love sports, and I'm a big soccer and football fan," said Pyzik, resplendent in a pink Ravens scarf and black Ravens sweater. He played soccer for St. Mary's College of Maryland and is now in a Baltimore soccer league, sometimes playing as often as four nights a week. In November, he said, he took part in the Baltimore Running Festival's team relay, coming in 17th out of 101 teams.
On Friday, Pyzik and his three fellow contestants sat in a row on the competition's first day at ESPN's Inner Harbor sanctum as identical contests got under way in Chicago and New York. A huge TV screen and 12 smaller ones beamed all manner of sports events - several football bowl games, soccer and hockey matches, and so on. The contestants could order anything they wanted from the waitresses, on the house, but, in deference to the dearth of bathroom breaks and the need to stay awake, none ordered beer. Instead, they occasionally sipped water or milkshakes, or nibbled on salads.
Pyzik almost sneered when describing a contestant in New York last year who gave up after five hours. "He over-hydrated the night before," Pyzik said. "But you've got to have more dignity than that. You got to go at least 24 hours."
The defending champion in Baltimore, Jessica Mosley, 27, was determined to blow past the New York record, 29 hours, set in 2008, and Chicago's 40 hours and 30 seconds, that same year. She thought she might last about 48 hours.
Instead, Mosley, a Peyton Manning fan who lives in Arlington, Va., came in with a total of 70 hours and 45 seconds, shortly after an exhausted Pyzik conceded. This year, she's aiming to keep her crown by going for 100 hours, even though she was so tired last time that she became "kind of delusional" and doesn't remember the home stretch.
"It didn't cross anyone's mind that it would go on for 70 hours," said Leigh Friedman, ESPN Zone's regional marketing manager, who was taking the first shift monitoring the contestants on Friday. He noted that the winner will be the person who sits the longest and there is no requirement to break last year's record.
Each winner in the three cities will receive a recliner, a $1,000 gift certificate from Best Buy, a $1,000 gift certificate from ESPN Zone, a year's free cable or satellite service, and a trophy in the form of a real spud on a stand.
"The prizes are beyond nice, and I could use a big-screen TV," said Chris Dachille, 30, one of the two newcomers and a sports producer at WBAL-TV. "But it's a real challenge. I saw Jessica did it for 70 hours and I haven't done anything for 70 hours straight. I'd be happy to be here for 24, maybe 36 hours. The biggest challenge for me is the restroom issue."
"Really? That's your biggest challenge?" asked Chad Jones, 35, reclining comfortably next to him. "Mine is going to be staying awake."
Jones, the public affairs director at Fort Meade, almost didn't make the cut on Friday. A few hours before the contest's 11 a.m. start, his pregnant wife, Laila, announced she was having contractions. He rushed her to a hospital, where he said she fretted that "everyone would think she plotted this to stop me from spending all this time watching sports from a couch."
The contractions proved to be a false alarm and she insisted that Jones proceed with his contest.
"I know spouses don't like their husbands to watch all this TV," he said, "but she's being a real good sport about it. I've been doing this for 30 years, watching football all day on New Year's Day. It seems silly to say it, but this is the least amount of effort a human being can possibly make."