ESPN analyst Mike Ditka is absolutely right about one thing: When you're an NFL quarterback, your image matters. You're seen as a leader and with that responsibility you have to command respect inside and outside the locker room.
The problem is that Ditka has clearly become out of touch with current generations to such a degree that he no longer understands what type of criteria impacts one's image in a negative fashion. As a result, he says things like this (via the Detroit Free Press) about Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford:
“I think he can make all the throws. He’s a smart kid. I wish he’d put the baseball cap on frontwards instead of backwards all the time. …
“If you’re the leader of the football team, I think you’ve got to stand up and be that leader, assume that role. A lot of it is what you do on the field, certainly. But I think a little of it has to do with appearance, too. You know, respect the game, respect your team. That’s all.
“I’m not knocking him. I’m just saying that’s the first thing I would tell him if I inherited him. When you’re going to go do an interview, put it on like it’s supposed to be on, not backwards, sidewards, whatever way they put them on anymore.”
It's 2014. Nobody who Stafford needs to have on his side cares about the direction of his hat. He does need to maintain a positive image in some circles, but none of those circles include people like Ditka. If Stafford were going through the draft process, where curmudgeon front-office types might still possess such archaic biases, this criticism might hold SOME water. But now that he's already made it, it should merely be important for him to maintain his image among his peers, none of whom have qualms with such silly trivialities.
The worst part about this criticism is that it's also a lazy one. First, there are many instances of Super Bowl-caliber quarterbacks — guys like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger — wearing backwards hats. But when Sal Maiorana of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle ripped Colin Kaepernick for his backwards hat earlier this year, at least he was acknowledging a trend.
The reality in this case is that Stafford rarely even wears a backwards hat. We scanned over 350 pictures of him from this past season via USA Today and found four instances in which he was wearing a front-facing hat, with only a single shot in which he had it on backwards.
So yeah, stupid.
