Colin Kaepernick was named the face of Nike's "Just Do It" 30th-anniversary campaign earlier in September, but the company very nearly let him go in 2017.
Nike executives debated last summer whether to cut ties with the quarterback due to potential bad press, sources told Julie Creswell, Kevin Draper, and Sapna Maheshwari of the New York Times.
The company ultimately decided to allow his contract to quietly expire in 2019.
Nike's ad agency, Wieden & Kennedy, "urged" the company to use Kaepernick in its 30th-anniversary campaign despite the potential for pushback from the NFL, one of Nike's most important business partners.
Its stock price hit an all-time high at $83.47 less than two weeks after the ad campaign announcement.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback received widespread praise for his involvement in the campaign with many also celebrating Nike for prominently featuring him in the series.
