Papa John's Mess Reveals Drawbacks of NFL's Power

You would not expect the NFL’s day of reckoning to arrive during the subdued third-quarter investor earnings call of America’s third-largest pizza chain. And you would not expect Papa John Schnatter (eponym and founder of Papa John’s Pizza, the chain in question) to publicly force that reckoning while explaining management's downward revision of its year-end sales outlook, rebuking the league for which the company has been the official pizza sponsor since 2010. But ours are strange times, aren’t they?

Schnatter said on Nov. 1 that the NFL’s failure to “resol[ve] the current debacle to the players’ and owners’ satisfaction… has hurt Papa John’s shareholders.” He referred also to “the ongoing…