(Photo: Angela Weiss/ACMA2012/Getty Images)

The Associated Press is reporting that John Schnatter—known to fans of greasy, pepperoni-laden cheesebread and shitty TV spots everywhere by his self-applied nom de pizza, Papa John—is stepping down as the CEO for his blandly ubiquitous restaurant chain. Schnatter’s departure comes just a few weeks after he plunged his company into a social media shitshow, openly complaining about the effects of the NFL protest movement on the company sales, and inadvertently injecting unwanted politics into the already desperate decision-making process that normally accompanies a last-minute, “Aw, fuck it,” Papa John’s order.


Schnatter will step down as CEO next month, the better (presumably) to spend more time with his accumulated collection of those little garlic butter tubs. Meanwhile, the chain itself will continue to attempt to claw its way back out of the hole he dug for it, efforts that have previously forced it to clarify that it doesn’t think racists should eat its pizza, and that neo-Nazis should fuck off—a totally normal series of things for a fast-food pizza chain to find itself forced to say.