If I spit in your face do you really want to hear what I have to say?

Of course not.

The same tactics used by the Alt-Left, ANTIFA, Democrats and Leftists of all shapes, colors, sizes and genders are taking hold in the National Football League.

Please don’t be confused. NFL players are not self-motivated to #TakeAKnee. They are tools of the Alt-Left.

This is the same Alt-Left who attacked through the entertainment industry at the 2016 Academy Awards, infecting many black actors and entertainers who chose to boycott the award ceremony.

One black actor who chose to attend, despite the hubbub, was Oscar Winner Louis Gossett, Jr., who, when asked on the red carpet before the ceremony what he thought of the protest, simply said, “We are all part of the same family, the American family.”

I have a feeling that if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., were alive today he just might say something similar. Although Dr. King was famous for civil disobedience, he never shamed his country by taking a knee in anything other than prayer.

I can’t help but recall Dr. King’s famous quip: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

The content of their character.

Dr. King’s dream may not be yet fully realized, but it won’t get there any quicker by what’s going on in the NFL today.

There was a time when the American flag represented freedom and liberty to all Americans. Dr. King never marched without it, and it was a symbol of love, togetherness and justice for all.

Adrian Cronauer, American Entertainer once said: “Martin Luther King, Jr., didn’t carry just a piece of cloth to symbolize his belief in racial equality, he carried the American flag.”

But the objective of the Alt-Left is to divide and conquer.

Now that everyone is in the middle of visceral and passionate responses to #TakeAKnee, few can see clearly to help us understand and then pull us out of our collective cultural nose dive.

Like any politically charged issue, we are talking past each other and not to or with each other, and no one is listening because everyone is right, in their own subset of political thought.

When someone pushes, there is push back. When someone is told what to do, they resist. Exactly what the Alt-Left thrives on.

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys (a.k.a. “America’s Team”) tried the linked arm, #TakeAKnee before the National Anthem, and then stand for the Anthem ploy. Nope. We weren’t having it. Compromise did not work. Who is more important, your players or your fans? Because you can’t have it both ways.

Mike Tomlin, Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, tried sequestering his team for the Anthem. Nope. Alejandro Villanueva (Address: P.O. Box 6763, Pittsburgh, PA, 15212), a former Bronze Star decorated US Army Ranger snuck out of the tunnel, put his hand over his heart and sung. He sung like a hero, a patriot, a true American.

Coach Tomlin’s goal of trying to protect his players from having to make a political choice (“Do I stand or do I kneel?”) by keeping them inside during the National Anthem was based on a false premise: that standing for the Anthem is a political statement. It is not; it is a patriotic statement.

Trouble was, the Alt-Left influenced Tomlin, who promptly made Villanueva apologize for not being a good teammate or player, and for being so personally selfish as to color outside the lines of what is acceptable . . . to the Alt-Left. The forced apology reminded me of fake confessions produced by ISIS and al Qaeda of their captives before beheading them.

Villanueva’s Pittsburgh Steelers football jersey (#78) is now the number one seller among all NFL jerseys (let’s all keep it that way), even better than Odell Beckham, Jr.’s, jersey. That’s right, OBJ, the multi-millionaire twenty-something superstar receiver for the New York Giants, who, after scoring a touchdown recently got on all fours like a dog and then lifted a hind leg as if to take a pee. He said it was in defiance of a statement made by President Trump.

In contrast, last year, during the Colin Kaepernick controversy, Rashad Jennings, a black athlete who plays for the NFL’s New York Giants, channeled Frederick Douglass (who loved to play the Star Spangled Banner on his violin) in his support for the National Anthem and the American flag. Jennings told the Daily News he was “proud to stand” for the song.

President Trump at a speech in Alabama, wondered aloud what a patriotic NFL owner might say to a “son-of-a-bitch” football player who disrespected the flag and Anthem. “He’s Fired,” he said, “He’s FIRED!”

That of course threw gasoline on the Alt-Left fire.

No one who supported Trump before that statement had much bad to say about it. No one who hated Trump before he said that had much surprising to say about it. But emotions and rhetoric erupted. NFL ratings went down.

It used to be that the NFL went to commercial during the National Anthem. Then things changed after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which included a rule that said everyone would stand, helmet in the left hand and right hand over the heart, facing the flag, not talking and showing respect. In fact, NFL Rule A62-63 states just that.

As a business model it’s never a good idea to alienate your customers. But it appears that the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell (and the Owners) are betting the fans will return after all of this blows over. If they alienate their players they may strike, refuse to play, or refuse to play well. Then they would lose . . . money. And losing money would be very bad for business.

Remember, standing for the National Anthem to honor America is not a political statement, and it’s not about oppression, free speech or Donald Trump, it is a display of patriotism, togetherness, you know, like the national motto: “E Pluribus Unim;” From Many, One.

The Civil Rights battle was won. Civil Rights law was passed in 1964. That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect, or ever will be, but if we take a phrase from our own Declaration of Independence, “In order to form a more perfect Union,” we understand that the Framers knew that striving for perfection, aiming for excellence, would force us to keep getting better. And that’s what we’ve done, despite the forces of evil that oppose our progress.

There is one culture in the United States, the American culture. And anyone who would divide us for any reason is un-American.

Unfortunately, the Alt-Left has a history of shunning the American flag and patriotism. Opening night at the 2016 Democrat National Convention (DNC) saw not one US flag on display. Not until that fact hit the national news and social media like late summer hurricane did several flags finally appear on the DNC stage, but virtually nowhere else. Not one delegate displayed the flag nor were there any flag-like clothing or hats worn, nor any flags on signs or posters. The flag has always been about politics to the Alt-Left.

In contrast, there was hardly a corner of the 2016 Republican National Convention without a US flag, and various versions of red, white and blue seemed to be everywhere.

Message imagery.

To the Alt-Left, the American flag has become a symbol of the Right, by default; another tactic of the Alt-Left to easily identify the enemy. That’s right, law abiding, gun toting, bible thumping, flag waving Americans are the enemy to the Alt-Left. If you wear the flag in any form you are a target.

Our battle is a moral battle, it’s right or wrong, good vs. evil, not black or white.

In solidarity – black, white, brown; man, woman; young, old – stand proudly for the flag and Anthem. After that, speak with your American brothers and sisters about whatever you want. Just please avoid spitting in their face or peeing on their shoe to get their attention.

True Americans are better than that.

Politicizing standing for or properly respecting the National Anthem, our flag or any patriotic public tradition is simply part of the manipulative agenda of the Alt-Left aimed at controlling the thinking of the People. Not this time, and not these People.

The Alt-Left says you have to pick a side, a “Yes” or a “No.” I say, be like Louis Gossett, Jr., and remember who you are, a member of the American Family. You are not who the Alt-Left says you are or should be. We’ve all come too far for anything else to make sense.