Papa Johns Apologizes for Their Comments About NFL Kneelers Hurting Sales

When Papa Johns, the NFL’s primary partner in pizza, saw their net worth dropping like a rock, Papa John himself, John Schnatter, blamed the NFL controversy for his falling sales.

Schnatter found his company $70 million lighter, and pointed his finger directly at kneeling players and the NFL’s leadership, specifically Roger Goodell.

“The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle,” said Schnatter, adding “leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership.”

The resulting fallout of Schnatter’s conclusions was a mob of people mocking and rejecting the pizza company. Twitter was abuzz with insults toward the company and promises that their pizza would never be purchased again.

Two weeks later, it would appear that the pizza company has caved under the weight of the mob’s wrath. As Right Scoop pointed out, Papa Johns Twitter issued a series of statements apologizing if their statements on their earnings were viewed as divisive.

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. That definitely was not our intention. (1/3)

— Papa John’s Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017

Papa Johns stated that while they do encourage the right to protest, they do believe that the anthem should be honored and that there has to be a middle road.

We believe in the right to protest inequality and support the players’ movement to create a new platform for change. We also believe together, as Americans, we should honor our anthem. There is a way to do both. (2/3)

— Papa John’s Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017

The pizza company said they would work with both sides to try to find common ground, then threw a middle finger emoji toward white supremacist groups for good measure.

We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis — those guys. (3/3)

— Papa John’s Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017

The message from Papa Johns is actually something many should be able to get on board with. Middle roads can be reached. It should be noted, however, that Schnatter’s original statement that the NFL and Goodell were hurting pizza sales is still very likely correct.

The NFL’s tanking viewership is definitely happening. Networks that show NFL are noticing subscribers slamming their decision into reverse and backing away as fast as possible. DirecTV had to offer angry customers refunds for their NFL ticket packages. ESPN lost a whopping 480,000 subscribers in October alone due to the controversy.

The bottom line here is that these protests corrode everything they touch, and Schnatter was very likely correct in pointing that out.

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