Even if he hadn’t eaten a single slice of pizza, Schnatter probably would have had a bitter taste in his mouth over the way he parted ways with Papa John’s. As Forbes recounts, back in 2017, Schnatter landed his pizza company in the hot seat after criticizing the NFL national anthem protests in which players peacefully kneeled while the national anthem played to express unrest over police brutality against unarmed black people. Some considered the peaceful protests un-American, and Schnatter whined that the kneeling players were cutting into his pizza profits. This led to concerns that Schnatter would be affiliated with racist groups that are totally cool with killing black people. When asked how he would address the issue in a May 2018 conference call, Schnatter argued that “Colonel Sanders called blacks n*****s” without facing repercussions.

That N-word was a no-no, and soon Papa John’s said no to having Schnatter as CEO. At the time he admitted making the statement, saying, “News reports attributing the use of inappropriate and hurtful language to me during a media training session regarding race are true.” However, in 2019, the former exec changed his tune, calling the conference call “a farce” and claiming “it was made up.” So he may have topped his 40-plus pizzas with sour grapes or maybe the pizzas, much like his conspiracy theory, were half-baked.