Cheesed off

My reaction was the same as I am sure the majority of Cleveland fans. When I saw Papa John's has sponsored the t-shirts calling LeBron a crybaby, my first thought was, "There should be a boycott."

Now I admit it is easy for me to suggest boycotting Papa John's because I think their pizza is crap. The only thing worse is Domino's(with the exception of St. Louis style pizza of course- which is basically a cracker covered with ketchup and american cheese). Why people over pay for chain made crappy pizza is one of life's mysteries to me. Do commercials have that much sway? A bunch of pretty faces and snappy tunes and people settle for sub par pizza. I don't get it.

Being from Cleveland's west side, I grew up spoiled when it comes to pizza. Every other corner or so in my neighborhood had a mom and pop pizza shop. Good pizza at a cheap price was everywhere. I spent a year living in Fort Lauderdale. You would think life with no snow and beautiful weather would be awesome but there isn't a single good pizza place in the entire town. All the pizza was chains or New York style. And I am not a fan of thin crust. And a pizza cost $15. In my neighborhood to this day, you can get a medium one topping for $5. With real cheese, a perfect amount of sauce and the perfect crust.

Anyway like I suspected a lot of people felt the same way I did about what Papa John's did. So much so that more than 40 area stores on Thursday will sell customers a large one-topping pie for 23 cents. The company will donate those 23 cents from every pizza, plus $10,000, to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

PR spin at its best but it makes me hate Papa John's even more. But the gambit may work as I may buy a pizza on Thursday. I will splunk down a quarter and then take the pizza and dump it in the store's trash.

Stupid yes but I am not doing it for LeBron, I am doing for all the small owner pizza shops that have closed because of corporate greed that has squeezed good pizza out of the market.

Then I will head to Little Anthony's and get myself a real pie.