We officially live in a “no fun” world — where every kid in the league gets a trophy regardless of whether their team wins a game or not and character-building games like dodgeball are almost universally banned. So it should come as no surprise that moments after Papa John’s put together some timely t-shirts with LeBron James’ number and the name “crybaby,” they issued an apology for offending people.
Papa John’s will sell Cleveland residents a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents this week, and will also donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund. I realize this is a no-brainer for them because they get a ton of free publicity, but this is not cool. Either have the stones to call someone out or don’t. This is no better than playing both sides of the feud — sticking whichever side is winning.
Sports are all about trash talking, and it should be a good thing if D.C. establishments want to get in the game and support the local franchises. But don’t wuss out and bail the second you get a phonecall complaining (even if it’s from the commissioner David Stern). You had the grapefruits to think up the t-shirts and to have them made. Stand by your decision and tell Cleveland to, once again, quit crying.
1 comment
May 5, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Yet another reason why you and I get along. This everyone wins society is going to do us all in. Just wait until one of these kids who has never known defeat or criticism gets to the real world. They won’t get their dream job or their boss will yell at them in a meeting and they won’t know how to rationally handle the situation.
This country is at a level where everyone is hyper sensitive. Be it racial, political, or athletic hyper sensitivity. I don’t know about the athletic hyper sensitivity but we’ll make it up and use it for this example. 🙂