Tuesday on his nationally syndicated radio show, conservative talker Rush Limbaugh argued that former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s opposition to Nike’s so-called Betsy Ross footwear was proof Kaepernick’s kneeling was not about alleged police brutality but animosity toward the American flag.

Nike pulled the product line based on Kaepernick’s opposition, which came because the footwear featured the Betsy Ross flag.

Partial transcript as follows (courtesy RushLimbaugh.com):

The Washington media-political complex, if you will, authors the daily script. It’s one-sided. How does Nike let one person sway them into ditching an entirely already-made shoe, featuring — by the way — a flag designed by Betsy Ross. Now, did not Kaepernick tell us when he began kneeling — as a barely-could-get-on-the-field bench rider for the San Francisco 49ers. Did he not tell us that he was kneeling to protest police brutality? Did he not tell us this? He did! That’s all it was. He was protesting the fact that the cops were shooting people like him.

That the cops are shooting black people and women and minorities first. It was all about the cops. Except it wasn’t! It was about the flag all along! He was taking a knee because he opposes the country! He opposes the national anthem. He opposes honoring the flag. This proves it! They always lie. They always lie to us. They hide so much of their real core. Even when they are in the process of displaying it, they still deceive. And there was the media and the Democrat Party applauding the guts and the courage of the forever untalented bench retired, Colin Kaepernick.

Then the media led the charge demanding that NFL owners hire the guy every time they had a starting quarterback that’d get injured, and none of the NFL owners wanted the hassle. Nobody wants somebody anti-American on their team, certainly not as starting quarterback. The media does, though! The media wants Kaepernick starring… Not starring. He’s not capable of that. They want him playing for some team so that they can carry the narrative through every NFL game he’s playing — and then, of course, he’ll get other players to join him ’cause they’ll want to shine in the spotlight.

The NFL then can be presented as an anti-American institution and the people leading the anti-Americanism will be made heroes. We’ll be told that they are very courageous.