Papa John’s apologizes for blaming low earnings on NFL players’ protests

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Papa John's issued an apology via its Twitter account Tuesday for having blamed disappointing quarterly earnings on NFL players' protests during the national anthem. The pizza chain said that while it believes Americans "should honor the anthem," it supports "the players' movement to create a new platform for change."

Earlier in the month, the founder and CEO of Papa John's, John Schnatter, said that the NFL's "controversy" was the result of the league's "poor leadership" and "should have been nipped in the bud a year and a half ago." Without specifying the controversy to which he was referring, Schnatter said that it was hurting the NFL's TV ratings and thus sales of his product, which is advertised heavily during games.

— Papa John's Pizza (@PapaJohns) November 15, 2017

— The statements made on our earnings call were describing the factors that impact our business and we sincerely apologize to anyone that thought they were divisive. That definitely was not our intention. (1/3)

—  We will work with the players and league to find a positive way forward. Open to ideas from all. Except neo-nazis — those guys. (3/3)

— We are – stay tuned.