In some sports, you need to be skilful; in some sports you need to be smart; and in some sports, you need to be as big, tough, and ugly as possible.
Of course, many sports require combinations of all three as well as other unnamed attributes, but one sport that certainly belongs in the big, tough and ugly category, is American football.
When you are deliberately crashing into other people and attempting to slam them to the floor, it pays to look a bit mean and scary.
Some American football players are frightening enough to look at without any help (just ask Tony Siragusa), others are more like male models than grizzled tough guys (get over yourself Tom Brady), but a lot of them choose to wear black make up on their faces, and this gets many people wondering why?
Well, while it does have the added benefit of making them look really scary – nothing says ‘fear me’ like a face full of make-up, right? – intimidation is not the reason behind American football players wearing black make-up.
If it’s not that, then why do they wear it?
Face Make-Up in American Football
Once all the rugby players reading this have finished laughing, we will continue.
So we’ve established that American football players aren’t doing their best Braveheart impressions when they draw black make-up on their faces, but there must be a very good reason, right?
There is a reason, but whether or not it is a good one remains to be seen.
Firstly, the real name for this stuff is not make-up, but ‘Eye Black’, which is not very creative but it does an excellent job in describing the product.
It is most often applied directly under the eyes in two short horizontal strips, but some players go further with it, and occasionally players have been known to get very imaginative indeed.
Those who wear it under their eyes though, are doing so because they are attempting to stop the sun reflecting light from their cheeks into their eyes.
Eye black is being used to counteract the glare from the sun; it’s supposed to stop players having to squint, and therefore improves their field of vision allowing them to play better.
For this reason, they are also called ‘glare strips’ by some people.
Depending on who you asked, you might also find out that the black eye paint is there to stop sweat forming under the eyes. The black grease would help it roll away down the face.
Again though, this is only important because of the idea that sweat, a liquid, would reflect the sun more than a player’s skin, so you don’t want it gathering under the eyes in case it ends up impairing vision. So although there are a few different answers to the question, the reasoning behind wearing eye black ultimately doesn’t change.
It’s not just the black grease paint they use though; for players who find that a bit too close to wearing eye shadow, there are some much more manly sticky strips which come with a plastic backing that peels off to reveal a tacky surface that can be stuck to the skin.
The downside here is that sweat can make the stickiness fail so they can end up falling off when players have been running for a while.
However, that might not really matter, because as you are about to find out, black make-up or black sticky strips aren’t scientifically proven to work anyway.
Does Eye Black Work for Deflecting Sunlight?
Unsurprisingly, the company that makes eye black tell us that yes, it does work. They even explain the ‘science’ behind why.
It’s not backed up very well though, and that’s probably because although 3 studies have been done, no conclusive evidence has ever been found to prove or disprove the idea that black eye make-up reduces glare.
The first was in 2003, in which participants either wore eye black, anti-glare stickers, or petroleum jelly. They were then exposed to natural light and asked to read an eye chart.
The results showed that eye black had some effectiveness in that it improved contrast sensitivity, but that the other two methods were ineffective. The thing is though, the participants were reading the same chart each time so learning bias was a big issue, basically rendering the study useless, not to mention the fact that everyone’s eyesight is slightly different.
The second study took place in 2005, seeking to improve on the methodology, but the sample size was too small for it to be useful. Nevertheless, it found that eye black reduced glare for women, and people with eyes that were not blue.
The eye test had the same learning bias issues and testing also took place under different lighting conditions, as well as being far too close to the eye chart, so again, pointless.
Lastly, popular TV show Myth Busters took on the challenge in 2008, and although this was not a proper scientific study they concluded that eye black does not reduce glare, but it can perhaps help differentiate between light and dark, so in theory, it could make it easier to track a ball flying through the air.
Still, there is nothing conclusive that proves black make-up would improve an athlete’s performance, and any effect it did have would likely be so minor that it would not be noticeable.
Pro American footballers will know all of this though, so the reality is that most of them probably wear it because they think it makes them look cool, with perhaps a handful really believing in it or willing to give it a go just in case.
In reality, it’s an affectation and doesn’t serve a genuine purpose.
A History of Eye Black Make Up in American Football
Although these days it is arguably best associated with American football, black make up has been used in other sports.
Baseball legend Babe Ruth is one of the first documented cases, apparently using a version of eye black in the 1930s to reduce glare from the sun.
Lacrosse players sometimes wear it too.
Andy Farkas, a well-known American football player in the late 1930s and early 1940s is credited as the first NFL player to ever wear eye make-up, giving it a go in 1942. He was a legend with the Washington Redskins and they became NFL Champions in the same year.
There is even a brand of eye-black called ‘Farkas Eye Black’, such was his connection with the stuff.
It is perhaps no coincidence that the idea of eye make-up caught on if some of the most famous, successful and well-loved sportsmen of the time took to wearing black make-up under their eyes – people always imitate their idols.
Back then though, they didn’t have the option of using sticky strips, and even black grease paint wasn’t yet being used for the job.
It is thought that the ash from burned cork was the original material used to create eye black strips, so that definitely wouldn’t have lasted very long on a hot summer’s day.