NFL Hall-of-Famer Shannon Sharpe. (Screenshot: YouTube)

Commenting on the NFL protests sparked by the politically leftist quarterback Colin Kaepernick, three-time Super Bowl winner and NFL Hall-of-Famer Shannon Sharpe said people need to stop complaining because the Star-Spangled Banner apparently is racist and the U.S. Flag, Old Glory, is just "a piece of cloth and nobody fights for a piece of cloth."

Sharpe, 49, is a former NFL tight end who played for the Denver Broncos and the Baltimore Ravens in the 1990s. He retired in 2003 and is now a co-host of the Fox Sports program, Skip and Shannon: Undisputed, also co-hosted by Skip Bayless.

During the Sept. 29 show, Shannon Sharpe said, “The flag, see, to a lot of people, with symbols, patriotism but what does that symbol actually mean? What does, okay — you keep telling me that the flag means so much and it’s opportunity and freedom and liberty. Okay. Can you honestly say that everybody in America has freedom and liberties and opportunity?”

Skip Bayless then said, "no," and Sharpe continued, “Well, if you can’t answer that then we’ll have a problem and we would like to have it addressed. And stop trying to sweep it under the rug."

"But, see, as long as you paint that narrative, oh, it’s the anthem, I can’t, no -- anybody that does something to the anthem -- well, we know what the anthem was originally written for and who it was written by, okay?” said Sharpe.

U.S. Marines raise Old Glory on a mountian on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. (legendsrevealed.com)

“The flag, okay?" he said. "We understand what the flag -- what does it represent? When did this narrative come to be that the military and the police own the flag and only them? I can go buy a flag and I can hang it up in my backyard.

"We need to stop this, Skip," said the three-time Super Bowl winner. "We need to — the flag is a piece of cloth and nobody fights for a piece of cloth.”

At that point, Bayless said, “Yeah, they do. Don’t say that. That’s the symbol of this country, what it represents.”

Shannon: “So they’ll fight for a pair of jeans? They’ll fight for a pair of jeans?”

Skip: “If that’s what we had chosen in 1776 to represent our nation, you better believe they would.”

Shannon: “Skip, the symbol, the symbol.”

Skip: “It’s the symbol of our country. What are you talking about?”

Shannon Sharpe played professional football with the Broncos and Ravens for 14 years. He has an estimated net worth of $12 million.