PAPA JOHN’S FOUNDER STEPS DOWN AS CEO

Papa John’s founder and CEO John Schnatter, who’d blamed the company’s recent declining sales on the National Football League’s national anthem kneeling controversy, is stepping down, the company said Thursday. Schnatter, right, who launched what became the world’s third-largest pizza delivery company in 1984, will remain as chairman of the Louisville-based company’s board of directors. Steve Ritchie, who started his career at Papa John’s in 1996 as a $6-per-hour customer service representative, will succeed Schnatter.