mistake.club2nd Opinion
Back to the archive

The encyclopedia · Marketing & Brand · Marketing decision · 2017–2018

Papa John's founder blamed NFL protests — then lost the NFL, the CEO job and his brand

In 2017, John Schnatter said NFL anthem protests hurt Papa John's pizza sales. The backlash cost him sponsorship, the CEO role, and eventually the chairmanship.

Papa John's International

What happened

Papa John's had been the official pizza sponsor of the NFL since 2010. By 2017, the chain's same-store sales were slowing. Founder and CEO John Schnatter blamed the NFL's player protests during the national anthem, saying the controversy was hurting pizza sales and that the league 'should have handled the situation' differently. The comment turned a quiet sales dip into a national story.

The backlash was immediate. Customers and franchise owners distanced themselves from Schnatter's statement. The NFL terminated its sponsorship agreement with Papa John's. Schnatter stepped down as CEO on 1 January 2018, though he remained chairman. Six months later, in July 2018, he resigned as chairman after admitting to using a racial slur during a media-training conference call. His resignation severed his operational ties with the company he had founded in 1984.

Papa John's spent the following years trying to rebuild its brand identity around quality rather than its founder's personality. The company launched a new marketing campaign, replaced Schnatter's image on pizza boxes, and attempted to distance itself from the controversy. The founder's comments, however, permanently changed the brand's trajectory, ending an era of celebrity-founder marketing in the pizza category.

Why it happened

  • Schnatter blamed a social movement for a business problem, turning a routine sales conversation into a public political stance that alienated customers on both sides.
  • The NFL sponsorship was one of Papa John's most visible brand assets; blaming the league lost the chain both the partnership and the credibility it bought.
  • Papa John's identity was built around Schnatter as the folksy CEO. When the founder became the controversy, the brand had no other identity to fall back on.
  • The racial-slur revelation months later proved the NFL comment was not a one-off misstep but part of a pattern, extending the damage beyond the original incident.
What it costNFL sponsorship lost, CEO and chairman gone, brand damagedcostly

The lesson

A CEO who cannot separate personal opinion from company messaging makes the brand a hostage to every public statement. John Schnatter proved a founder who becomes the controversy cannot be edited out.

Sources

spotted an error? The club wants to know.

Comments · 0

    Sign in to join the comments.

    More like this

    2026 · Marketing & Brand

    Nike scheduled a sneaker drop for 7/11 in 7-Eleven's own colours — and got sued for it

    sued; recall and treble damages sought
    2019–2026 · Marketing & Brand

    Xponential Fitness misled franchisees on costs and executive lawsuits — $17M

    $17M settlement; permanent franchise misrepresentation ban
    2014–2022 · Marketing & Brand

    Casper spent $423M on marketing to sell a product people buy twice a lifetime

    $232M accumulated deficit at IPO; taken private for $286M

    Somewhere, someone solved the problem this company failed at. 2nd Opinion →