Papa Johns Pizza and NFL to Part Ways
After a tumultuous advertising season with the NFL, Papa Johns and the league have decided to part ways. The decision to end the partnership stems from issues the two partners had during the 2017 NFL season regarding statements from the founder John Schnatter about how the NFL had negatively impacted sales due to protests and poor leadership.
Papa Johns will partner with 22 teams and various players to continue to reach the NFL audience.
The NFL is in the market for a new official pizza.
After the better part of a decade, the league and Papa John’s have mutually agreed to end their sponsorship agreement; the company, however, will continue local partnerships with 22 NFL teams, according to a joint statement.
“While the NFL remains an important channel for us, we have determined that there are better ways to reach and activate this audience,” CEO Steve Ritchie said during a conference call Tuesday to discuss the company’s quarterly earnings.
Papa John’s became the official pizza of the league in 2010, and until the 2017 season, that relationship appeared to be a happy one for both sides. But in November, Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, who has since stepped down as CEO, blamed the national anthem protests by NFL players for sagging sales and said “poor leadership” at the top of the league was to blame. Ritchie, then the company’s president and chief operating officer, added that, as the NFL’s most recognized sponsor, its success was linked to the league’s and that he expected the sales slump “to persist” until “a solution is put in place” by the NFL for its player protests.
The company’s stock plummeted following those comments, and Papa John’s apologized less than two weeks after Schnatter’s initial comments, saying they were not intended to be “divisive.” Along with outrage and ridicule over the comments, Papa John’s had been named the official pizza of the alt-right by the Daily Stormer.
“We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward,” Papa John’s said on Twitter. “Open to ideas from all. Except neo-Nazis — [middle-finger emoji] those guys.”
That way forward, apparently, will be with individual teams rather than the league itself. Nearly every NFL team had at least one player stage a form of protest during the anthem during last season, but some have been more actively involved than others. Many were prompted to take action after President Trump’s remarks last September, when he called on NFL owners to fire those who protested.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
