Shame on Zeke

B Y NOW, you probably have seen the replay on TV or on the Internet. It was damning. It screamed the worst word an athlete — particularly in a team sport with others depending on him — can hear: quitter.

The evidence was as clear and evident as that ubiquitous star logo on the Cowboys’ helmets: Ezekiel Elliott quit. He quit on two plays in the Cowboys’ lopsided, 42-17 loss to the Broncos last Sunday, which means he quit on his team.

That cannot be tolerated and should not be enabled, which is exactly what the Cowboys’ brass seemed to do in the aftermath of his egregious on-field behavior.

The first play on which Elliott turned from running back to dog came when Broncos cornerback Chris Harris intercepted Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott and began what would become a 23-yard return. As soon as Harris intercepted the ball, while his Dallas teammates scrambled to try chasing him down, Elliott made no effort to give chase. He stood alone with his hands on his hips.

Later, on an INT by Aqib Talib, who would return this one 103 yards for a TD, Elliott again made no effort to try to run down Talib while teammates — most notably Prescott — tried in vain to catch Talib.

How dare Elliott dog it. The guy should be thankful he even is playing, considering he was supposed to be suspended for the first six weeks of the season for a domestic abuse allegation.

He was stoned by Broncos — 8 yards on nine carries — so surely he was frustrated. No excuse. Nor was there for owner Jerry Jones’ excuses.

“I think if you look at everybody’s reaction to that [Harris] interception … you can point to Zeke, but you really have to look at the general effort to chase that ball down by most of the people that were on the field,’’ Jones said in a Dallas radio interview.

Ugh. No other players on the Cowboys stopped running. And not one other Dallas player stood alone with his hands on his hips.

To his credit, Elliott on Thursday copped to his quit job.

“I was just very frustrated, but that’s no excuse for the lack of effort I showed on tape,” Elliott told Dallas reporters.

The Cowboys better hope so, or this problem can have a debilitating affect on the locker room going forward.