You see athletes every day on TV etc with the sports black under thier eyes to supposedly cut down on glare. Is this really true?? What is the theory on that?? i really dont think that the black spots are enough to bend the light coming directly to your eye and i have my doubts that there is any significant reflections coming off your cheecks that having black spots on them would prevent so whats the deal???
You know…I wonder about this too. When I was very young I was told that it kept the sun out of your eyes and that just stuck with me. I recently thought about it and realized that it sounds pretty far fetched!
What is even better now is that they have black strips like band-aids that you can stick on your cheeks if you don’t want to use the grease. You see these in the NFL all the time now.
I was playing football when the idea first started. It started when the coaches would have the quarterback and the receivers wear it. Well, hell, even we dumb lineman wanted to look like we were good enough for the face paint. Soon the bench warmers (I also belonged to this group) wanted to keep from being readily identified. Today, I think it is mostly part of what they call getting your game face on.
crazy hypothesis:
A subsequent effect is that the contrast benefits running backs and receivers beyond glare reduction.
Since running backs and receivers must look where they are running (or look at the ball to receive it) defenders often look at their eyes. If the running back looks left, he’ll cut left, etc. With the contrast of the grease (or stick on) the defender’s quick glance will move to the black stripe and not at the ball handler’s eyes, thereby helping to “disguise” the handler’s intent.
So, any merit to this? (I just thunked it up.)
Well the last poster sounds good in theory but baseball players use the black as well and its not really important where they look or why <eye reading wise> But i would still be interested in the physics of the situation if it does indeed work
IIRC, the glare of the sun off of your upper cheekbone is blinding when you are looking up to catch a pass or a baseball.
The lampblack or whatever they use now, cuts down on the reflection.
Ding! We have a winner. Good work, The Great Gazoo!
Upper cheeck bone glare huh?? well i cant see my upper cheeckbone ever really. i DO see my nose…how come they dont black thier nose too?? ive never ONCE seen glare come off my skin…ever see sun glare off your elbow or your foot?? me either…still skeptical 
Well, I guess the difference is that your cheek bones are right under your eyes.
My feeling on the nose is that it blocks more glare than it reflects. There is really no angle there to reflect sunlight into your eyes.
New twist: I saw a player the other day that had on sports black eye pads that merged into the Breathright nasal strip and, thus, a big stripe all the way across his face.
It did not look unlike, ironically, a perpendicular labotomy.
shit.
is there nothing worse than misspelling lobotomy?
Interesting article on the subject. Seems that there is no evidence that it works as advertised and that it’s a psychological benefit, if any, but it’s never really actually been tested.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue44/xtra.leftfield.html
Hmmm… so nature got it right when she put our eyebrows above our eyes?
Imagine that.
Exactly what I said. The idea started in the late 50’s and what the hell did they know about testing to see if it worked. It caught on like a fad and has been one of the longest fads, I have known.
So… kniz… did you play better with it?
I know I did
Pyschological or not, it seemed to work. I’m pretty sure the Nasal Strip things are the same type of thing. Same as not washing the jockstrap, eating a certain food before a game etc…
I would think that grease, even if black, would still reflect light. I can still see the reflection of the sun on the suface of a pail full of dirty engine oil; so if the light were shining at the right angle, you’d still get that annoying little pin-point glare. If it’s supposed to cut down on general glare, well, I’ve never noticed any to speak of when walking in the sun myself (you don’t have to be making big bucks on a football field for the sun to shine off yer cheekbones - it should affect us all:D). The only things I’ve found that noticably reduce glare from bright light are the hand over the brow, sun glasses, cupping your hands around your eyes, and so on. Any cut down of glare from a thin colored film over your skin would be so small you’d need to be TOLD it makes a difference before you’d notice it… and these guys aren’t exactly trying to catch flys with chopsticks here - If you can’t see 300lbs of beef charging towards you or a ball falling through the air, a dirty face sure ain’t gonna make it much easier.
((besides, if it the effect was actually measureable, I think we’d see more threads discussing the evolutionary advantage that blacks would have over whites))
Black players wear it too tho……
I can see (if it does indeed work) that quarterbacks, receivers and running backs (possibly even cornerbacks) may need this as they often have to spot tings i.e. the ball coming down from the sunlit sky, but why the hell do lineman were it? I could find, hit and tackle a 20stone guy (ok, so the tackling bit may have nothing to do with my eyesight!) a 250-300llb guy with a little sun glare in my eye.
And if sun glare is such a bloody problem, why don’t more people wear visors? Mind you, I hated the damn thing when I had one.
IANAn expert on this, but, IIRC, the original was lampblack, which is very absorbent of light (not reflective at all, no grease). I just assumed that what they use now was similar, but in a new improved formula that stays on longer than lampblack.
It does appear to be greasy, though, when you look at it now. And it also appears to be a bit reflective, but maybe with the new, improved formula they have figured out how to do make it greasy and still stop the reflections. But, on the other hand, this is the same group that uses nasal strips, so it probably is just superstition at this point.
With sweat and oil on a black player’s skin, it would be almost as reflective as a white player’s skin at a low angle, which I am assuming is what happens when you look up for a fly ball or a pass.
Don’t confuse color with relective ability.
*Originally posted by The Great Gazoo *
No kidding, look at marion Barry.