Monday, November 6, 2017

Papa John's Disappointed at NFL

NFL Kneeling
The famous official Pizza of NFL and one of the league's major sponsors, Papa John’s, says that poor leadership over the player protests are hurting its sales.

Players have been protesting during and before the anthem this season to highlight social and racial injustice in the United States. Papa John's has pulled many of its ads around NFL games and says sales estimates for the next quarter are being revised downwards.

"The NFL has hurt us," the Papa John’s founder and CEO, John Schnatter, said. "We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this."

The protest movement started last season when Colin Kaepernick knelt for the anthem. Schnatter implied the NFL should have dealt with the matter then when he said the issue could have been "nipped in the bud" 18 months ago. Kaepernick has not been picked up by a team since leaving the San Francisco 49ers last season and has filed a grievance alleging NFL team owners have colluded to keep him out of the league.

TV ratings are down for the league this year and it is clear that this is directly linked with the protests.

Players, team owners and the league have met to discuss the issue although no satisfactory agreement has been reached. "Leadership starts at the top, and this is an example of poor leadership," Schnatter, who appears in his company's ads alongside Peyton Manning, said of the NFL’s attempts to address the issue.

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