No, Caitlin Clark did not turn down millions of dollars from Nike. Claim is satire

Four hundred million dollars would be hard to turn down. Is that what basketball star Caitlin Clark passed on over an issue with a football star?

“BREAKING: Caitlin Clark Rejects $400 Million Deal From Nike, ‘Not With That Kaepernick Clown,’’ read a June 21 Facebook post. It included an image of Clark and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

(Screenshot of Facebook post)

The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

Social media users were directed to get the “full story” at a link in the Facebook post’s comments; the story claims Clark rejected a “lucrative” endorsement and called Kaepernick a “clown.”

But this claim originated as satire.

The story appears to have started on SpaceXMania.com and its affiliated website Esspots.com — the same network of satire websites that gave rise to two stories we rated False about the Kansas City Chiefs refusing to participate in Pride Month and the Pittsburgh Steelers coach calling the celebrations “woke crap.”

Caitlin Clark has been named to the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team after Brittney Griner was released for “undisclosed reasons.”

Most of the satire stories currently featured on both websites combine controversial political topics with figures from pop culture, such as athletes, chefs or actors.

When the Clark story was initially shared June 18 on Facebook, the image had a “Rated Satire” watermark on the left side, and the linked story has a satire disclaimer. But as the image was reshared and the story reposted, the watermark and disclaimers were removed.

(Screenshot of Facebook posts)

In April, it was widely reported that Clark was nearing an eight-year endorsement deal with Nike worth more than $20 million. PolitiFact could not independently confirm the final details of Clark’s Nike contract, but her website features Nike and other partnerships, and Clark wore rare Nike x Tiffany & Co. shoes for her WNBA debut.

We found no credible reporting that said Clark had turned down the Nike deal, or that she has any issues with Kaepernick, who made headlines in 2017 for kneeling during the national anthem before National Football League games in protest of police violence against Black Americans. Although he no longer plays in the National Football League, he has had a continued partnership with Nike, with his most recent collaboration released in October 2023.

We rate the claim that Clark rejected a $400 million deal from Nike, and called Kaepernick a clown, False.