Hey, NFL brats, stand up!

Stand up and salute the flag, you spoiled brats. By taking a knee during the national anthem you preen with an ignorant bravado and spit on the nation that made you rich.

It's pathetic that strong, skilled NFL athletes have succumbed to a lie. You've swallowed the false assumption that this remarkable country purposely robs its minorities of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Exercise some intelligent independence, awareness and gratitude for your privileged existence. Stand up!

Usually, I love autumn's brisk air, pumpkins and football. Initially, for me as a girls' school grad, football was an excuse for growling, moronic lugs to crush and stomp each other, with an occasional forearm shiver.

After some 48 years in a houseful of men folk who have played, now play, or will play football, I'm reformed; I recognize it as a muscular contest of strategy, strength and wits – a brutish, sweat-soaked form of checkers, if you will. Pretzels and beer are at the ready.

But this season, enthusiasm is squelched by overpaid "Kaepernick Klones" who, egged on by the ratings-driven media, take a knee and pout over oft-perceived injustice.

"It would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people [police] getting paid leave and getting away with murder," says former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick who received a measly $39 million of his $126 million 2014 NFL contract. Others, likewise ill-informed, drop down or sit while our colors are raised.

Media sound bites imply white police target African-Americans for brutality. But according to a Pulitzer Prize winning study, the Washington Post found that police most frequently kill armed white males. Drug use and mental instability, not race, account for most police shootings. "In 74 percent of all fatal police shootings, the individuals had already fired shots, brandished a gun or attacked a person," the Post writes.   Have Kaepernick and recent NFL contrarians read for themselves the final analyses in police/black-suspect shootings?

The 2014 "Hands up. Don't shoot" mess in Ferguson, Missouri, ignited riots ginned up by anarchists spoiling for a fight. Officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown who was portrayed as an innocent, cherubic kid.

But truth be told, blood-spatter evidence, bullet trajectory and the officer's head wounds revealed a different scenario. The aggressive teen reached into the police cruiser, punched Wilson and lunged for the officer's gun. Frightened unnamed black witnesses provided such testimony to a St.Louis County grand jury.

Earlier in the evening, convenience-store surveillance footage shows the 18-year-old, 6-foot-4, 289-pound Brown menacing a terrified store employee during a grab for cigarillos.

The confusing events surrounding the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher by white police officer Betty Shelby, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, seem to reinforce the unsubstantiated narrative of white-on-black police brutality. More riots.

Dash-cam footage shows an unarmed and silent Crutcher with his hands repeatedly up and down, up and down while walking toward and away from Shelby. Odd body language suggested to the officer that he was on PCP.

"His chin is resting on his chest. … I wonder if he's on PCP," said Shelby. She added that training had taught her that people on PCP could turn violent. Crutcher also kept reaching into his pockets. When Crutcher again approached the officer, he refused to comply with her initial requests, which soon became commands.

His hands came down and seemingly reached into a car for what Shelby thought was a gun. The officer immediately shot Crutcher as fellow officer Tyler Turbnough, seeing the same threat, simultaneously fired his Taser. Helicopter video and the cruiser dash-cam did not provide clear views of the moment Crutcher was killed.

"If he would have communicated with me, if he would've just done as I asked him to do, we would not be here," Officer Shelby told CBS correspondent, Bill Whitaker. Autopsy results revealed PCP and a second hallucinogen in Crutcher's body. But no gun was found in his car. A 12-member jury, including three African-Americans, found Shelby not guilty.

Yes, America has at times served up grave injustice. Human nature can be cruel. But by taking a knee, "Kaepernick Klones," you mimic the posture forced on your forefathers, one of degrading subjugation.

So, I say to every NFL sourpuss who insults this homeland, Stand up! Don't be duped by the rants of anarchists who show up to riot. Overcome petulant thoughts and the race-baiting screed that rips the American rainbow apart.

Place your hand on your heart. You, who are gifted by God with athletic prowess and stunning opportunity, give thanks for a nation that has failed some, but lifted and blessed an immeasurable multitude of others.

We are family who celebrate your accomplishments. We want to cheer and be proud of you, our children. Stand up!