They spiked this political football.

The NFL is refusing to run a veterans group’s Super Bowl ad asking people to “please stand” for the national anthem because the message is too political.

AMVETS sought to place a $30,000, full-page print ad in programs for Super Bowl LII that will be handed out to fans at Minneapolis’ US Bank Stadium when the New England Patriots take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 4.

A mock-up of the sacked ad features soldiers holding aloft Old Glory beside the message “#PleaseStand.”

The issue of players kneeling during “The Star-Spangled Banner” to protest racism has become a thorny issue, with the left defending athletes’ rights to protest, and right-wingers — including President Trump — claiming that kneeling is a slap in the face of veterans.

The NFL had hoped to sidestep the matter by taking a pass on the ad, a decision AMVETS boss Marion Polk called “reprehensible and totally beyond the pale” in an open letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

The Super Bowl program has “never been a place for advertising that could be considered by some as a political statement,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in a statement, adding that the NFL has “long supported the military and veterans.”

But AMVETS rep John Hoellwarth said the group is only advocating patriotism and that it does not believe the ad is political — even though Trump decried the league for not firing any “son of a bitch” players who kneel.

“It’s a First Amendment issue,” Hoellwarth told The Post. “If [the NFL] wanted to run an ad that said, ‘Please kneel,’ I don’t think ­AMVETS would have had a problem with that.”

The NFL allowed a VFW ad that said, “We Stand for Veterans,” because it was not a “direct statement on the issue,” McCarthy said.

The league has been mired in controversy over the issue since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling in 2016, but really got heated over the past summer when Trump waded into the fray.

A Seton Hall Sports Poll published in October found that 30 percent of self-described NFL fans were watching less football, and half of those blamed the anthem controversy for their waning interest.

A Gallup poll released two weeks later found that just 57 percent of Americans are interested in pro football — down from 67 percent in 2012.