It takes a village to make an idiot.

The NFL reminds me of basketball players who pass on opportunities to score on an uncontested layup, instead clanking it off the rim trying to score points with ESPN with spectacular, turnaround, tomahawk slams, creating a fast break the other way.

If the NFL wanted to deliver a firm message to Ezekiel Elliott that it won’t suffer his mistreatment of women, it didn’t have to rely on suspect he-said/she-said testimony of Elliott by his ex-girlfriend who claims he abused her.

The NFL had incontrovertible, video evidence that he doesn’t know right from wrong, vis. a vis. women, seven months ago, March 11, to be exact, when Elliott, at a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dallas, pulled down the shirt of an unsuspecting woman, exposing a breast.

Why Elliott, full-scholarship Ohio St. man, wasn’t arrested for sexual assault, I don’t know. Perhaps it was a hometown team call. Or maybe Elliott made an honest mistake, confusing a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dallas with Mardi Gras nights in New Orleans.

But if the NFL had chosen to suspend Elliott six games or even eight for such a repugnant and indefensible public act, there would have been little-to-no fan, media and NFLPA resistance, given the indisputable evidence.

But the NFL didn’t choose to bark up the right tree; it instead dispatched its hounds to sniff for a scent. And now it’s submersed in legal hassles.

That’s the bag we’re in. Social activism and justice have become matters of selective, misdirected, unbalanced indignation and prosecution.

To quote Henny Youngman, take ESPN, which has taken political correctness — not always a bad thing — to such a ludicrous level that it has voluntarily surrendered its credibility to become a national bad joke, a “Kick Me” sign self-fastened to its back and front.

ESPN removed Asian-American play-by-player Robert Lee from a Virginia football assignment because he might be tethered to the name, if not the descendants, of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Before that, ESPN fired and defamed tennis analyst Doug Adler for noting Venus Williams’ “guerilla tactics,” claiming Adler, suddenly and for no discernible reason, decided to call her “a gorilla” — as she delicately poached the net.

ESPN has been so idiotic in such matters one wonders why it didn’t protest the Mets’ decision to start Matt Harvey, Saturday in Houston, as an intentional slap to those who suffered Hurricane Harvey.

But for all of ESPN’s social sensitivities, when they collide with finances, ESPN grabs the hush money.

A major sponsor of college football on ESPN has been Chick-fil-A restaurants, whose owners are devout, old-church Southern Baptists, thus their eateries are closed on Sundays. And its owners have had publicized problems with same-sex marriages — I’ve been stuck in one for years — and LGBT agendas.

So then why doesn’t ESPN dump Chick-fil-A for cause as opposed to sacking Adler for no logical cause? Silly question.

In 2012, Duke condemned Chick-fil-A’s faith-based convictions by terminating its contract to sell on campus.

But guess who came to chicken dinner? A year later, Duke played in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on ESPN. The ACC’s take was $4 million, from which Duke eagerly took its cut. Oh, those Blue Devils!

When it comes to business — especially big business — matters of social sensitivity and activism are nobody’s business.

When YES’ David Cone isn’t delivering needless speeches about the obvious — the Yankees need to “get something started, build on this single, follow it with more hits” — he’s a superb analyst.

Friday during Red Sox-Yanks, Cone spoke wheat-from-chaff sense about CC Sabathia’s plaint about Boston bunting against his bad legs:

“If you’re in a playoff run, or if you’re in a World Series or a postseason game, all bets are off. Your No. 1 priority is to win the game. … So Sabathia better be ready, because other people are going to bunt on him.”

Cone added that Walter Johnson, 417-279 from 1907 through 1927, retired, not because he could no longer pitch, “but because he said he no longer could field his position.”

Left unsaid was that Sabathia, since becoming a Yankee in 2009, often left first and second basemen ready to throw to a pitcher who didn’t make the trip to first.

As for Sabathia’s schoolyard dare to meet offending Red Sox “in center field,” why such an inconvenient spot for a man in his condition? How would he arrive, by taxi or gurney?

The fabulous nonsense spoken on football games grows. A small sample from the weekend’s college football menus:

Late in Rutgers’ loss to Washington, analyst Joel Klatt said RU “is a team potentially competing for a bowl game.” Fascinating.

During Maryland-Texas on FS1, analyst and ex-Oregon coach Mark Helfrich said a Terps’ RB “went vertical, north and south.” Short a compass or sextant to chart the RB’s course, that RB appeared to be running in the direction of the Texas end zone.

With Wyoming losing at Iowa, BTN’s Matt Millen applied modern say-anything filler: Someone on Wyoming, he concluded, “has to step up.”

Eight minutes into the second half of NBC’s Temple-Notre Dame — opener for both — ESPN-trained Mike Tirico said the INT just thrown by ND QB Brandon Wimbush was, “the first time he has turned it over, this year.”

Chuck Long, on BTN’s Nevada-Northwestern: “You want to have the lead at halftime.” Who knew?

ESPN Stupid Stat of the Week goes to … (open envelope) … ESPN!

ESPN reported that Michigan is projected “to win 8.4 games.” Reader Scott Scovin: “Was that determined by the guy who has 2.3 children?”

Other outstanding numbers included Fordham’s domination of Army in what Howard Cosell often told “Monday Night Football” audiences is the most important stat: time of possession. Fordham romped, 34:31 to 25:29. Army won the game, 64-6.

Sunday’s say good night, Gracie, Yanks 9, Boston 2, 3:46 8 ½-inning ESPN number? Friday’s Angels-Rangers, 8 ½-inning, 10-9 By The Bad Joke Book ran 4:33. Fifteen pitchers, four pulled despite not allowing a base runner, three black coffees and a partridge in a pear tree. To save time, there was one automatic base-on-balls.

Saturday, Cards’ starter Lance Lynn was pulled with a 1-0 lead after eight innings of one-hit pitching. Cards lost to the Giants, 2-1.

In Minnesota, Div. III St. John’s beat St. Scholastica, 98-0. SJ made it 70-0 with its last of six TD passes.

Finally, 10 Florida players were suspended before Saturday’s game versus Michigan. Coach caught ’em in the library.