There were a lot of things Carson Wentz was criticized for during his tenure as the Eagles’ quarterback. In 2019, an explosive article labeled Wentz as “selfish,” “uncompromising,” and “egotistical.” In 2020, Wentz practically fell apart on the field. Yet, it was his hat that drew the ire of Colin Cowherd.
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In September 2020, Cowherd rebuked the quarterback for his podium fashion. He ripped into the then-Eagles’ quarterback for wearing his hat backward on the podium during a press conference.
“I saw Carson Wentz with his hat on backward after another bad performance and bad loss, standing in front of the proud Eagles’ banner and I didn’t like it.” Cowherd’s distaste was intense and obvious. But why?
His reasoning for disapproving of a backward hat was simple: it is disrespectful. According to the analyst, there are certain things one simply shouldn’t wear when representing a franchise, especially when in front of team banners and corporate sponsors.
He contrasted wearing a hat backward in private settings—like one’s garage, yard, or at the gym—with doing so as the “face of the franchise” during a formal press conference.
“If you are a quarterback and you have your once-a-week podium discussion and the Philadelphia Eagles are brilliantly owned, respectfully built, and smartly designed and you have the Eagles banner behind you with a major corporate sponsor Toyota behind you and you’re telling me this [backward hat] for a $5 billion face of the franchise is okay, I think you’re wrong,” he continued.
To Cowherd, the backward hat was indicative of the attitude problems many had already accused Wentz of. Here, Cowherd is referring to Wentz’s Week 1 press conference of the 2020 season, a year after the internal reports about his behavior were leaked by PhillyVoice.
Carson Wentz’s disastrous 2020 season
The presser came after a Wentz-led Eagles were pummeled by the Washington Commanders in Week 1 of the 2020 season, despite the Eagles having a 17-point lead going into the second half.
During that game, he put the ball on the ground twice; he missed open receivers and threw two picks. He single-handedly handed Washington at least 20 points in the 27-17 loss. That game was, in fact, the beginning of the end of his stay in Philadelphia.
The 2020 season was a hard one for Wentz. He went from being a top-four quarterback in the league, to unequivocally the worst. He led the league in all the statistics you don’t want a quarterback to lead in. Despite playing only twelve games, he led in interceptions thrown (15), total turnovers (19), and sacks taken (50). He had a career-worst completion percentage of 58.4.
Unfortunately, since then, he’s not had an opportunity to either prove himself again or at least record another career-worst performance. His 2020 season culminated in Week 13 against the Green Bay Packers, when he was benched in the third quarter for Jalen Hurts after the Eagles were trailing 20–3.
On December 8, the Eagles named Hurts their starting quarterback and Wentz was subsequently traded to the Indianapolis Colts. In the four years since his goodbye to Philly, Wentz has been in four teams—the latest being the Eagles’ 2024 Super Bowl opponents, the Chiefs.
