I love it when onetime brash young athletes emerge as critics of “kids these days”.

Whether it is Charles Barkley going on and on how he and other players back in the day (the 1990s, I suppose) would handle LeBron James … to Jeff Kent being driven to distraction by the antics of a young Matt Kemp when both played for the Dodgers …

In this case?

It is retired quarterback Michael Vick, now 37, suggesting that unemployed quarterback Colin Kaepernick needs to cut his hair if he wants to get with the program. Anyone’s program.

Vick had some issues, you may recall. Top of the list was his deep involvement in a dog-fighting ring. That led to him serving 21 months in prison and losing two seasons (and millions of dollars) in the middle of his career.

At any rate, Vick seemed confident he could help Kaepernick get back in the NFL –  which seems indifferent to Kaepernick’s availability, perhaps because he has been awful for a couple of seasons and because of the national anthem protest thing.

Kaepernick, 29, also wears his copious hair in an enormous Afro, and that came in for extra attention by Vick in an appearance on an FS1 talk show.

Said Vick: “First thing we’ve got to get Colin to do is cut his hair. Listen, I’m not up here to try to be politically correct. Even if he puts cornrows in there I don’t think he should represent himself in that way in terms of just the hairstyle.

“Just go clean-cut. You know, why not? You’re already dealing with a lot of controversy surrounding this issue. The most important thing that he needs to do is just try to be presentable.”

Vick said he paid little heed to “presentation” during his first six years in the league, when he was considered one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

That changed later in his career, he said, after his conviction and prison spell. He said he “didn’t listen until the end, until I was going through the turmoil and the hardships.

“I’m just going off my personal experiences. Listen, I love the guy to death. But I want him to also succeed on and off the field. This has to be a start for him.”

Perhaps, 10 or 15 years from now, a graying Kaepernick will be giving career advice to some other young guy who has reached a rough patch.

Age giving unsolicited advice and youth ignoring/rejecting it … it is perhaps a universal aspect of the human condition.

It makes me smile.