I love that the Wall Street Journal's David Biderman, as part of his job, spent a few hours clicking through every headshot of every player currently on an NFL roster for the sole purpose of writing this post: "More NFL Players Are Letting Their Hair Down." Rupert Murdoch must be spinning in his grave. But out of Biderman's work comes some interesting findings. Like this: NFL defensive backs have longer hair than any other position. Or this: Quarterbacks are among the cleanest cut.
And finally: "If hair length made a team more likely to win (call it the Samson effect), the Packers would win the Super Bowl, led by legendary longhairs like Al Harris, A.J. Hawk and Atari Bigby. By this same measure, the Lions, with only one, would be the worst team-a title they're probably used to."
Biderman concludes that "Of the 164 players with long hair, 104 play defense. And for good reason: Defensive players don't have to fear being dragged down by their hair while carrying the ball, which is not a penalty in the NFL."
And for the most part that's true, notably excepting this, from 2006:
By the way, Jim Schwartz should probably institute a "no haircut policy" for the rest of the season. Just in case.
