Here would be a great candidate for Keith's WPITW...

[Berry Cool]

...whichever idiot in Washington, D.C. owns the Papa John's Pizza franchises there. Whoever it is came up with the "brilliant" idea of giving out T-shirts at Friday's Cavs-Wizards playoff game in D.C., printed with the Papa John's logo, the #23 (LeBron James's number) and the word "CRYBABY" (echoing a taunt from Brendan Haywood after LeBron accused the Wizards of deliberately trying to hurt him).

The shirts were very popular with the Wizards fans at the MCI Center and could be seen all over the place, but not so popular with the Cavs fans in Cleveland. And it just so happens that Papa John's has a LOT of locally owned franchises here.

Guess which team won the Friday game and the series. Guess which team's fans, thinking the T-shirts were the product of a corporate-level decision at Papa John's, have been furiously calling and faxing their local Papa John's outlets, saying they will never, NEVER buy another pizza from Papa John's as long as they live.

Oops.

So now, Corporate has stepped in to clean up the mess. This Thursday, all Papa John's outlets in the Cleveland area will be selling large one-topping pizzas for 23 cents each, the proceeds of which, plus $10,000, will go to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

Luckily, they found a way to yank this PR mess out of the fire. But whoever's the guy in Washington who came up with the idea of putting the company's logo on the "#23 CRYBABY" shirts definitely deserves the honor of Worst...Person...in the World!!

[RevCheesehead]

1. Brilliant thinking on the part of HQ.

Perhaps the DC chains will be getting a reprimand from the big bosses.

Make sure you get your pizza, Berry! :9

[Berry Cool]

2. Assuming it's the same quality as their usual large pizza, I'm there.

Of course, there could be a bit of an order logjam.

I wonder if the folks in HR at work will get it into their heads that they should order pizza for us for lunch that day.

Some people think it's kind of a reverse publicity stunt, but I don't think so. I mean, why alienate one of your markets just to get attention there? If Papa John's wanted to sell more pizza in Cleveland, it would have been way easier to just declare Thursday "Cavs Day" or something and sell 23-cent pizzas without getting all the negative publicity first.

Naah, I think it's damage control, and badly needed, because it really isn't the fault of the local franchise owners that one in DC did something to completely alienate Clevelanders from Papa John's.

So, bullet dodged. Now, if someone could just get LeBron to stop wearing that Yankee cap...

[Patsy Stone]

3. I saw that story

Unbelievable.