You should read most of the comments on the link. 90% or More are through with Nike. Kaepernick is an idiot who needs to stop taking a knee to his masters and read a damn history book! A REAL One.

The Betsy Ross Flag (on the Heel of the Nike Shoe) was released to celebrate America's independence from Great Britain. While the ties to Britain are debatable, the fact remains that it had nothing to do with slavery.

Less than 2% of Americans owned slaves. Some historians raise that number to 3.9%. The first slaves were white and that went on for hundreds of years. Now take into account that the largest immigration from Russia, Europe, Britain and Ireland came AFTER the Civil war and AFTER the Indian wars. I don't have the exact numbers but that leaves upwards of 98.5% of today's Americans had absolutely nothing to do with the slavery of Whites or blacks. Think about that.

Psst.. Someone please tell Kaepernick that the original 13 colonies didn't have slaves.. :-) That's what the flag represents. Betsy Ross Flag is 13 stars - 13 colonies.. And yes, I know the esoteric significance of 13.

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Charles Robinson
NFL columnist

In a decision that will thrust Nike into the spotlight of corporations walking a tightrope between product and historic symbolism, the athletic giant has pulled an American flag-themed shoe from circulation after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick expressed concern to the company about selling apparel he says features a slave-era emblem.

According to a source who spoke with Yahoo Sports, Nike began a movement to pull the shoe from stores nearly two weeks ago after Kaepernick and others raised concern that the “Betsy Ross Flag” printed on the heel of the company’s 4th of July-themed Air Max 1 was not only racially insensitive, but had also been adopted by some groups such as the Patriot Movement and Identity Evropa (pronounced “Europa”) allegedly as a symbol of white nationalism.

Nike spokesman Mark Rhodes released a statement Monday declaring: “Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured an old version of the American flag.”

A source who went into more detail about the decision told Yahoo Sports that a significant part of the shoe’s removal from circulation stemmed from complaints from Kaepernick and others about the symbolism of the Ross flag, which rose to prominence in the 1790s. Further backlash began to build on a smattering of social media platforms last week, while Nike began quietly recalling the shoes from stores as debates over the sensitivity of the product bubbled up on sneaker-centric accounts.

The “Betsy Ross Flag” features 13 stars in a circle representing the United States’ original 13 colonies.

One of the most nationally-publicized moments spotlighting the alleged symbolism occurred in Michigan in 2016, when students from largely-white Forest Hills Central High brought the Ross flag and a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” banner to a high school football game against Grand Rapids Ottawa Hills — a school which has a minority enrollment over 90 percent.

Following a complaint about the flag and banner, Forest Hills Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Behm apologized for the incident in a published letter. In it, he said the Forest Hill Central students had “[waved] a historical version of our flag, that to some symbolizes exclusion and hate” and “injects hostility and confusion to an event where no one intended to do so.”