Last week we heard that Papa John’s pizza–the ubiquitous sponsor of NFL football–would no longer be affiliated with said sports league. Both parties seemed to agree the parting was mutual, and for once actually I believed that old line. Each entity has become too toxic to also carry the toxins of the other. Race, politics, head injuries, money… nobody wants to be involved with all that. First mistake made by John Schnatter (that’s “Papa”) was opening his mouth at all about the tenuous connection between NFL anthem protests and slumping pizza sales. (I think this exacerbated the situation and put Papa John’s in the undesirable position of unofficial pizza of Skinheads and, well, undesirables.)

It all started with slow pizza sales.

Anyone ever think that it might just be their pizza is bad?