It’s hard not to think of the criticisms of black athletes peacefully protesting racial injustice as anything other than the racist scapegoating of more serious problems. Whether it’s our white supremacist in chief Donald Trump trying to bait other white supremacists in order to prevent his base from realizing how badly they are being bamboozled or the religious white supremacist-in-waiting Mike Pence wasting taxpayers’ money to win political points to the same end, these critiques of Colin Kaepernick and the movement he helped begin are insincere bunk. The most recent attempt to ingratiate oneself with the less thoughtful among us is Papa John’s CEO and conservative pizza man John Schnatter. ESPN is reporting that during a shareholder conference call on Wednesday, Schnatter explained that the recent battle between NFL players and injustice has led to failing sales and falling patronage of Papa John’s franchises.
"The NFL has hurt us," company founder and CEO John Schnatter said. "We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this."
Executives said the company has pulled much of its NFL television advertising and that the NFL has responded by giving the company additional future spots.
"Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership," Schnatter said, noting he thought the issue had been "nipped in the bud" a year and a half ago.
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That’s some weak (tomato) sauce, Mr. Schnatter. Papa John has an exclusive deal with the NFL and even though there is a never-ending stream of terrible stories about the NFL that have zero to do with the national anthem protests, Papa John’s CEO still feels this is the issue, not brain damage and a product that is becoming less and less edible. ESPN notes that no other league sponsors attacked the NFL, and Bloomberg points out that this is clearly an attack on NFL president Roger Goodell. Of course, as Deadspin has long written about, Roger Goodell should have been fired years ago for his league’s clearly negligent (at best) handling of head injuries to players, let alone his decades of terrible labor abuses.
Papa John’s should worry more about the labor abuses in their own franchises than fighting against racial justice. One way to start rebuilding your brand may be to create a product that one doesn’t need to be anesthetized with a case of beer in order to eat.