Bribed by Pizza, Ohio Forgives Papa John's - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Every Papa John's franchise in Northeast Ohio sold one-topping pizzas for 23 cents yesterday to atone for the "crybaby" t-shirts given away in Washington last week. And as you'd expect, it was a complete cluster. From the Columbus Dispatch:

The offer, intended to remedy a franchisee's insult to Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James (No. 23), resulted in closed stores, long lines and angry customers after stores became overwhelmed by the demand. Police were called to help control the crowds at some outlets.

"It's total chaos," said Ann Marie Buswell, 33, a social worker who got her pizza at the Hudson Avenue store after waiting an hour and a half.

If you think waiting an hour and a half is bad, consider that some people waited five hours for the free pie. Five freaking hours for a pizza that usually costs $12. But mind you, these people weren't just looking for free food; no sir, they were making a stand:

"I did it for the principle of it. The principle of it is he's not a crybaby and Papa John's should not have gotten into it," Jennie Moore, 54, of University Heights, said as she waited for a pepperoni pizza.

Yes, the principle! Justice has been served! Papa John's has learned it's lesson! Everybody who cried about LeBron James being called a crybaby has been heard! Of course, while all these people were busy making a stand for principle, three people were arrested (one for public intox, another for disorderly conduct and one for line-jumping) and police had to patrol stores after they closed to make sure they weren't vandalized.

And even if you were lucky enough to get a pizza, you still had to contend with trying to get it home:

One customer, who bought her pie about 10 p.m., told police she had her pizza stolen as she was walking down Turney Road. She said a man started talking to her, then grabbed the pizza and ran away.

The shop replaced her pizza.

While this stunt does little to restore my faith in humanity Ohio, there was some good that came of it: Papa John's donated every penny of their 23-cent sales plus $10,000 to the LeBron James Family Foundation, a sum of nearly $40,000. That may be what James makes in a single game, but that's not the point: it's money to charity that otherwise wouldn't have been donated, and that's always a good thing.