John H. Schnatter (born November 23, 1961), nicknamed commercially as Papa John, is an American entrepreneur who founded Papa John's Pizza. Schnatter stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2018, after comments he made in November 2017 criticizing National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell for allegedly not doing anything about national anthem protests by football players. He was succeeded as CEO by President and COO Steve Ritchie, but remained chairman of the board of directors until July 2018. He then resigned as chairman of the board on July 11, 2018, when a scandal broke out over his use of a racial slur when trying to minimize the controversy over his NFL national anthem comments by alleging that Colonel Sanders had used the slur and it had not affected his popularity.
