Former Papa John’s CEO on the call that cost him his career 

It actually sounds like they set him up... all to steal his business.

Never trust a company called laundry service, except to clean your clothes.

Please I am black and there is context to what he is saying . Literally he doesn’t need to apologize. If a teacher says “slave owners used to call black people n****r “ should they be fired. It’s absolutely ridiculous and there are more things we can do to help people of color .

Wow…the way everyone flipped this is crazy. I wasn’t expected to agree with him but he really didn’t do anything wrong

When someone records you without your permission that's usually a sign they are out to get you.

“Papa johns founder”, no he IS Papa John

For those just watching this, he was later exonerated after an investigation by FBI former director, stated he was conducting a training and used the term not as a racial slur, but to describe a situation where a certain franchise owner described its general population who purchases their food. It was taken out of context and used it to show his disdain for racism.

He got kicked to the curb for that!!!! I'm ethnic and I remember meeting this guy!!! He was the man!!! He gave me a hug and actually talked with me about starting a company and what not... he's one of the biggest reasons I followed my dream job!!!! I know this guy isnt racist!!! Big up my man I hope you get it back 🙏🙏🙏 and kick them idiots to the streets!!!

With the name "Laundry Service" would you ever expect anything but being hung out to dry?

This pretty much sums up cancel culture: twisting someone’s words to ruin their life just because the opportunity is there

This guy needs to hire Johnny Depp’s law team.

We need to learn how to forgive people for their mistakes. I don't believe he's a racist. To take company that belongs to him is wrong and appalling. This company also conspired against this man.

“We didn’t leak the call” Ok well I doubt Papa John fucking did it

Damn, He never called anyone the N word. The news and media had me thinking the opposite all this time SMFH. I hope he gets his company back and his image is cleared.

This country is insane! What a ridiculous conversation. The guy was forced out of his own company for referencing someone else using a word? Is this the sensitivity level that we have reached?! Anyone who is impacted by what he said needs a team of therapists!

This man will forever live in my mind at THE pizza man. Whenever i think of pizza i think of this dude. Unfortunate his own company betrayed him. He didn't deserve it.

As a black man who got to see this, I believe he was done very very wrongly. He wasn’t calling anyone the N-word. He wasn’t intending to be racist, IT SEEMS.

As an African American woman I am so angered by what they did to this man. They were just trying to find a way to take his company from him. This is why we should build companies where we do not actually need to go public giving people the right to just take your entire life’s work from you. Should he have said the word, probably not, however, I do feel this was a total set up. Going forward, when these things happen, we should have a community conversation with the individual to gain a better understanding before we rush to judgment before we just , “cancel.” Community means, non media, actual people from the community.

The guy should totally be reinstated. He didn't use it negatively

He CITED the word. It's like reading it out of a book. That's SOOO different than USING it and CALLING someone that. This makes NO NO NO sense to me. Words are EMPTY without putting them into USE.

Now this is ridiculous LMAO why y'all mad at this man, this whole time I thought he was calling Black people slurs smh

Wait! So the company he actually hired to save him actually set him up? Damn!

I'm totally with him on "cancel culture". It's nothing more than malicious intent towards people who have their unjustified negative biases towards someone or something. Anyone who engages in "cancel culture" should really reevaluate everything about their lives as to why they are just a shitty human.

This is just how ridiculous things have gotten.

This is so stupid. He didn’t call anyone the N word. He simply mentioned that someone else said the word. The Racism label is so misused. God forbid all of us have our calls, private conversations or even thoughts recorded and brought out in public. Meanwhile, the world has more important issues than picking on a pizza guy.

The most obvious corporate take over I had ever seen. The company really must've wanted him out badly.

The media outlets should also be held accountable. They have destroyed many good things in my lifetime.

I don't think I've ever heard somebody suggest getting Papa John's in my entire life

This whole thing is stupid, condemning a man for using a word as an example that was not intended as racially insensitive.

I am a black woman. He was definitely set up. He seems like a straight up man.

The tape does exonerate him. The interviewer supposing that people would think he "didn't learn the lesson" is dead wrong.

And this is why you shouldn't jump too quick to take your company public.

Papa John's is dangerous. I gained over 10 pounds messing around with their pizza and cinnamon pies.

How in the f*** ?! 🤨 he was making an example smh 🤦🏽‍♀️ they take down who they want when they want.

I don't care about the n-word really, but if he has knowledge of hate crimes where blacks were dragged to death like James Byrd, he needs to tell the authorities about it. There are no known hate crimes like that in Indiana, so if he witnessed something like that, it shouldn't taken lightly. That was the most disturbing part about the comments for me.

So as soon as he paraphrased another person using the word, dollar signs $$$ popped up in the minds of those who took him down to fill their pockets with cash.

Now listening to the full call, HE GOT SET UP

Moral of the story: dont get too many people involved in a company that YOU built

“ I said the word, I didn’t use the word. “ is the greatest verbal example of modern-day racism I’ve ever watched.

I hope he wins that lawsuit. I’ve thought this whole time he CALLED someone that. This is insane.

I’m black and I’m not offended by that audio recording, it’s unfortunate all this time he was painted as a racist. I will start ordering again. Seems it was a poor lapse in judgment.

Lindsey Davis was right to press him for the first 2-3 times but the final 10 times she tried to fluster him by insisting his remarks were racist, she was being as bad as the original media reports that falsely ruined his reputation. She should have been treating him as a victim here and acting much more sympathetic. Even her final comment ("it remains to be seen...") was basically saying she still thought he was a monster. What kind of journalist does not change her opinion now that the truth has come out?

I wish we had this same standard for politicians.

To add to this, John walked away from the company with HUNDREDS of millions of dollars in stock. He doesn't need the money. He's trying to prove a point, and I for one believe him.

This is interesting. I had always thought he called someone the “n-word”. I didn’t know he was quoting someone. I don’t think he should have been fired for that.

He hired a laundry service that did him dirty.

When you use a business called Laundry Service, you deserve everything you get...

Context is everything, I can't believe this needs to be said to ADULTS

It seems his company wanted him out, hired laundry services who then attacked his character with out of context clips.

2018 was the dumbest year ever

That’s crazy..actually feel bad for him.

Wait....so he didn't actually call anyone the N word? So he just said it as an example that people should not say it? Wow. This is kinda sad. I feel bad for this guy now.

Imagine spending your whole life building a billion dollar company just to be kicked out of the company years later by its employees 😂

Is the full interview available?

Well tbh I or anyone I know didn’t even know or care about this. He started this company, and fed me and my grandmother the best pizza before she past the next day, and for 20 years since. We love you papa John.

its like even the lady is tryna get him to mix up his words💀

A company that is supposed to clean your image records a call and destroys it even further, I think they need to re-think their business strategy lol.

He did not use the word to degrade anyone. He used it to “explain” but does not support it. It seems like he was setup. This should not destroy a man. This is just ridiculous.

Wow! He did absolutely nothing wrong. Amazing. This world has lost their minds.

Art of deflection. While everyone is focused on what racist phrase he said, someone has acquired his positions and assets.

Y’all assassinated this man’s character over a word that he simply used as an example how another person used it before but also explained that he wouldn’t never use it that negative word himself! Wow!

I'll have to look up the video where this interviewer rakes Dave Chappelle over the coals.

If we are everyday familiar with curse words and such, why are they so offensive to some?

Oh Lordt! This man wasn’t trying to be racist. Seriously, pick your battles. He was absolutely set-up, and maybe the board wanted to get rid of him hence hiring Laundry to do a smear campaign. Also, I work in marketing and see EXACTLY what is happening. Laundry definitely wanted to trap him.

Poor Papa I feel he got hoodwinked out of his company

If you turn on a modern rap song you'll hear them say the N word 50 times in 3mins. This is idiotracy

I'm not sure I would have ever trusted a supposedly reputable company called Laundry Service in the first place.

I’m black, and even I think he got setup!!! damn…

I don't care brother I'm still buying Papa John's extra garlic butter

STARBOARD VALUE!!! Why is it not understood that Starboard Value trashes CEOs of companies they plan to takeover? Starboard Value was waiting for this opportunity to take Papa Johns as soon as their stock price feel beneath a certain amount. I worked for Advance Auto Parts when Starboard Value took over Advance Auto Parts and fired the CEO in just 6 weeks. The CEO of Advance Auto Parts was not known for controversy or misconduct but he was known to not understand how to do his job and that's why the employees didn't quite take him seriously at Advance Auto Parts. Starboard Value will do this to every company they "invest" in. Papa Johns became the target of Starboard Value whenever sales at Papa Johns started to suffer with the NFL controversy because Starboard Value has a business model of "investing" in companies, basically buying votes at board meetings of companies they feel is under performing, they shake things up at board meetings, promise the moon, get rid of CEOs who they feel are holding the company back, then then a quick quarterly profit, then sell off their shares to collect the profits before the fallout of their management decisions catch up with them with negative impacts to the customer experience. I went through this in the fall of 2015 when I worked at Advance Auto Parts. Starboard Value planned to remove John Schnatter from the company before Starboard Value even bought any stock in Papa Johns. That's just how pathological Starboard Value is. But we hear of Laundry Service as the people who fired John Schnatter, but did anyone ever really think about what if Starboard Value, the group of hostile takeover specialists, as being the people who wanted John Schnatter out of the way? I would have believed the story of John Schnatter being the person who brought about his own demise from his company until I found out that Starboard Value had invested in Papa Johns just after the NFL partnership caused Papa Johns stock to go down.

A company called “Laundry Service” makes more money if you’re covered in mud.

I'm black, and it's crazy how Quentin Tarantino can get away with it in movies with malicious intent. Meanwhile, Papa John uses it in context, and he gets blasted. Makes no sense...

“Laundry service” cleaned him out.

This is equivalent to saying the n word when directly reading a book that uses it.

He says that the conversation was recorded without his knowledge. If so, that is a violation of Kentucky law, which prohibits recordings without both parties' consent.

Never relinquish more than 49 percent of your company.

This interviewer did a terrible job questioning John about this incident. She was very presumptive about his intent in even referring to the n-word. It is clear he was not using the word with racist intent whatsoever. Very clear!

In 2,000 years, when another society is studying us, they're going to laugh at how stupid the people in this era were.

Dammm I’m only seeing this a year later

As nice as it’d be to have papa John back, their pizza quality had already gone down by the time this thing happened. They were my favorite delivery pizza during the latter half of my grade school years though!

I won’t be surprised if this “laundry service “ company is somehow tied with the board of directors

There's literally recorded audio from Jason Stein in this video saying they're setting him up. It's nuts.

To paraphrase comedian George Carlin: There is nothing wrong with the word in and of itself; it's the context that makes it good or bad.

HE SAID THE TRUE.

Damn I knew they set him up. When I worked for papa johns when I was 19 and 20.. I’ve met this man and his wife twice and never felt disrespected or judge by him. Hell he told me I made great pizza.

This is almost thee most kindergarten-ie thing I’ve ever seen.

He's pretty much right on all fronts. So are the rappers going to be in her next interview

Justice for John!

Wow. When all this went down, all I heard was that “papa John’s racist, he was recorded saying the n-word”. I’m sorry to say that I was duped and believed that narrative. Then I saw the video where he promised a” day of reckoning” and I just thought he was nuts. Turns out he was taking the truth all along... amazing. I hope he can find peace, I’m afraid the damage is already done, unfortunately.

Man they put A LOT of makeup on him

Context. If you aren’t sure what context means, Google is your BFF.

I never thought Papa John's pizza was good.

I think he has a legit lawsuit against this "laundry service" company, if he hired them to help his image and instead they basically slandered him that is pretty messed up. they twisted his words and ruined him. that is crazy

This twisted tale describes today's American society in a nutshell - it's beyond scary.

It's so unfair. He hasn't done anything wrong.

He's not greesy on here, that's character development he layed off the 40 Pizzas

She keeps pushing him to say it is just as wrong to use it the way he did as to use it as a slur against someone. So much for journalistic integrity.

I wasn't expecting to defend him. But this was blown way out of proportion. I feel duped by the media now.

We used to be a real country..

Laundry Service’s status as a Defendant is richly deserved.