During a recent conference call with investors, the 55-year-old Schnatter blamed low pizza sales on the NFL Players protest. You know the protest I'm talking about...where predominately black players are taking a knee during the national anthem to protest the injustices committed against blacks in this country. Thanks to the ignorance of Donald Trump,the protest got turned into a protest against the anthem itself and the military, which is definitely NOT the case.
During this conference call, Schnatter is quoted as saying "The NFL has hurt us by not resolving the current debacle to the players' and owners' satisfaction." As a result, he says he is pulling ads from some of the NFL games for the remainder of the season. He blamed a 24 percent drop in his company's stock to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell not being able to control those black players who are exercising their rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. He, like Trump, has made this an issue about disrespecting the anthem, while closing their eyes to the FACTS behind the ongoing protests.
Schnatter has, very cleverly (and stupidly) used the NFL protests to cite his company's poor sales performance. The fact that some of his products aren't all that great doesn't seem to be a factor. I can tell you, first hand, how bad their chicken philly cheese pizza is. Without coming out and blaming it squarely on the black players, he knows the overwhelming majority of protesters are black and they are an easy scapegoat since he can rally the Trump base to be on his side and take up his cause. And guess what? That's just what they did!
The day after the Papa John conference call, the white supremacist website, The Daily Stormer, came out and pledged its support for Papa Johns's pizza and posted a photo of a pizza with the swastika symbol displayed with pepperoni. The called Papa John's the "Official Pizza of the Alt-Right."
I bet Papa John's pizza sales will probably drop even lower. Whether or not the majority of whites support the NFL black players peaceful protest, I do believe the majority will fail to support the company knowing they are supported by a neo-nazi, racist group. Schnatter knows that too since he was forced to come out and issue another statement on the matter:
"We condemn racism in all forms and any and all hate groups that support it. We do not want these individuals or groups to by our pizza."
TOO LATE!
Perhaps the Trump base will keep Papa John's in business. After all, he did support Trump's campaign financially. Perhaps the NFL owners will rally to his defense, since he has been the official sponsor of the NFL since 2010 and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, owns at least 100 of the Papa Johns franchises in Texas.
One thing I do believe is, he has lost the support of the general public and the people on social media will not let him forget it.
