(AP) — Papa John’s Pizza apologized Tuesday night for comments made by CEO John Schnatter blaming sluggish pizza sales on NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based company is a major NFL sponsor and advertiser, and Schnatter said on an earnings call on Nov. 1 that “NFL leadership has hurt Papa John’s shareholders” and that the protests “should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago.”
The company tweeted a statement offering to “work with the players and league to find a positive way forward.”
“The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive,” it said. “That definitely was not our intention.
“We believe in the right to protest inequality and support the players’ movement to create a new platform for change. We also believe, as Americans, we should honor our anthem. There is a way to do both.”
The movement was started last year by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled to protest what he said was police mistreatment of blacks. More players began kneeling after President Donald Trump said at an Alabama rally in September that team owners should get rid of players who protest during the anthem.
Papa John’s added that it is “open to ideas from all. Except neo-Nazis.” It previously has tried to distance itself from white supremacists who praised Schnatter’s comments, saying it does not want those groups to buy its pizza.
The company’s stock has fallen by nearly 13 percent since Schnatter’s comments.
That and the fact that your pizza is worse than Dominoes Death Discs–and that’s quite an achievement.
The only thing Papa John should be selling is douche, since he comes by it naturally…
Fuck this guy. He’s just another money-grubbing plutocrat who supports the GOP and Trump. I sincerely hope he suffers a massive boycott and that someone eventually stuffs him into one of his pizza ovens…if you can even call that shit “pizza”.
I still remember John Schnatter hugging Mitt Romney and saying that he couldn’t offer health insurance to his employees because he himself would make $40 million per year instead of $44 million if he did so. He’s a member of the clueless 1% who is also stupid enough to overtly diss the “little people.” In fact, I helped organize protests outside his local pizzeria in 2012 after he said that. I realize I will never close him down, but it felt good to do something.
Interesting how the folks that claim democrats are always doing things for money, always seem to be doing things for money. Shakespeare was right. Funny how that is. Oh Roy!