Papa John's Apology Pizza

Sports is big business here in Ohio. We have the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL. We have the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds in MLB. Of course we have THE Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus.

And we also have the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA. The star of the Cavs is LeBron James.

I happen to like LeBron. I think he's a great role model for kids (with the exception of one thing) and he doesn't say "you know" a hundred times during each interview. His grammar skills are pretty good, with a few minor exceptions, but at least you can understand him and he is always the first to acknowledge that Cavs' wins are a TEAM effort. The only thing I'm not really happy about is that he lives in a beautiful new home with his mother (very good LeBron...gotta take care of Mom), his GIRLFRIEND, and their two young children. No, he's not married. Hmmmm.... No, marriage isn't for everyone, but it might be a good idea to not have children until you've gotten married IF you are a role model for young people.

Anyway, last week as the Cavaliers played the Washington Wizards in a playoff game in Washington, D.C., a man was spotted wearing a jersey with LeBron's number (23), but instead of his name over his number, the word "CRYBABY" appeared. LeBron had commented earlier in the week that he'd been fouled pretty hard. Above the word "CRYBABY" was the logo for Papa John's Pizza.

Wow.

WOW.

You do NOT mess with Cleveland when it comes to sports.

People went crazy and it was all over the news. People were going to avoid Papa John's and never buy pizza or anything from them again. Their corporate headquarters in Kentucky never approved of the distribution of the shirts. Apparently, according to news reports, there were only 8 shirts given out, but only ONE was enough to make a statement.

Papa Johns decided that they needed to make a move quickly to rectify this situation, so they donated $10,000 to the Cleveland Cavaliers Youth Fund and another $10,000 to the LeBron James Foundation. They also decided to sell large one-topping pizzas TODAY (Thursday) only for a mere 23 cents, with a limit of one per person.

Well. The only question was, WHICH Papa John's would be doing this. They repeatedly said that all their restaurants in the "Cleveland area" would be participating. We are a good hour and a half south of Cleveland, so it probably wouldn't include us.

SURPRISE!

It DID include our area! There is a Papa John's just a couple of blocks from where my school is located AND there's another one about half a mile away from the high school Alex attends. Guess what was going to be for dinner tonight!

The one by my school opened at 11 this morning. I began calling there about 11:50 am, wanting to order one for pickup at 4:00. The line was busy. I called for 1o minutes and then during each break I had until around 1:30 pm. It was always a busy signal. I'm sure they just took the phone off the hook. A few people had gone out for lunch and commented that the line at the pizza shop was around the building. Well, no wonder!!

Where else can you get a large pizza for less than a quarter??

We got an email around 2:10 pm. It was a forward, and had originated at 2:00 pm. It simply said that Papa Johns ran out of pizzas and was closed for the day.

Come on...you make an offer like this and don't prepare for it???

I called Alex after he got out of school and told him to not bother with the pizza because I'm sure that the situation was the same at the shop by the high school.

Oh well, it was a good idea.

I've got the Cleveland news on now and they had to call in the police (who made a couple of arrests!) for at least one pizza shop line. They also said that the corporate HQ issued a statement about an hour ago saying that when the pizza shops used up all their dough on site, they would be closing for the day.

I'm wondering how they'll be making THIS up to the public!

And by the way, we're going to have to go to Plan B for dinner...as soon as I figure out what that is!

And another by the way, the Cavs won that series against the Wizards. Now they're playing the Boston Celtics and are down 1 game.