April Fool’s Day.

The time has come to name my Sports Fool of the Year.

The year of eligibility for this rather dishonorable honor covers from April 1 of last year to April 1 of this year. And, as usual, there are a number of viable candidates.

The sports world is filled with fools at times.

Take the Miami Dolphins, for example. While time will tell whether this was a foolish move, the feeling here is that the Dolphins gave up way too much to acquire speedy receiver Tyreek Hill, then gave him a long-term contract on top of it.

Hill is a game-breaking type of talent, for sure. But he’s 28 with a lot of tread on the tires. Once his unique speed advantage begins to dissipate, his value will sharply decrease — and Miami will still be footing the bill.

Antonio Brown has become an annual contender for Fool of the Year. His latest episode was walking off the field in the middle of a game with Tampa Bay, yanking his jersey off as he made his theatrical exit.

Brown cost himself a few million dollars and the chance to return to the Super Bowl.

Foolish, indeed.

And how about Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley. He couldn’t resist placing a bet on his team to win — a show of confidence, actually, but quite illegal as an active professional athlete — and cost himself a suspension for the 2022 season.

Ouch.

Football doesn’t get all of the fun here. Let us consider the small-market owners of Major League Baseball. Our beloved Bob Nutting is among them.

After going through a lengthy lockout that further alienated fans from baseball, the eventual collective bargaining agreement did nothing to improve the competitive balance of the game.

Ahh, well, there’s always’s trading for more prospects — and sending Oneill Cruz back to Triple-A Indianapolis to delay the start of his arbitration clock.

Hmm.

My brother says anyone who buys a ticket to a Pirate game should be a Fool of the Year candidate. I’m not willing to go that far.

But let’s get right down to it.

My choice for Fool of the Year is former Pirate first baseman Will Craig.

Once a power-hitting prospect in the Pirates’ farm system, Craig’s winning of this award has nothing to do with his bat. It has everything tyo do with his thought process on a simple play at first base.

In a game against the Chicago Cubs, Craig had the ball in his glove near first base and the Chicago batter was giving himself up, backing up toward the plate as another Cubs runner was heading home. There were two outs and all Craig had to do was walk a few steps and step on the first base bag to end the inning.

Instead, he makes a wild throw to the plate. The ball gets away, the Cubs siored a run and extended the inning. Players in the Chicago dugout were openly laughing.

Craig is now playing baseball out of the country — and is Fool of the Year.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle