Why do american football players wear (what appears to be) black greasepaint stripes on their faces? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk

THIS SPORTING LIFE

Why do american football players wear (what appears to be) black greasepaint stripes on their faces?

Swen Anton, Vienna, Austria

Supposedly to attract the sunlight away from the eyes, but I suspect that the real reason is that it makes them look mean motherf*****s who aren’t to be messed with.

Philip Keegan, Graz Austria

To dull the reflection from sweat that gathers on the cheak below the eyes: wearing both gloves and a helmet that shields the face, it’s hard for the already porcine fingers of the average football player to wipe the glistening face.

steve, eastbourne uk

It’s not just American football players who wear it now; some goalkeepers are also doing so. It’s designed to keep the sun out of one’s eyes.

B Allason, London UK

I don’t know much about American Footballers, but the Turkey and Barcelona goalkeeper Rustu Recber also sports this ‘war paint’ under his eyes. He claims the reason is that the paint lessens the glare of stadium floodlights which can be dazzling, although I suspect it’s really just to look scary…

Huw Rees, London UK

I play football and i wear eyeblack because it helps the glare from the lights to stay out of my eyes.
The looking like a mean MF is just a bonus.

Andrew, California, US

They wear it to keep the sun out of their eyes and it’s like their war paint – as if they were going to battle.

Richard King, Fort Myers, Florida USA

I played football and we put black greasepaint or black stripes under our eyes to keep the glare from the sun or field lights out our eyes, allowing us to see the ball when it’s in the air. GO SAINTS!!!

F Martin, Bassfield, United States of America

2 main reasons from a practical pov, the first is to take the glare reflection off the skin which can distort depth perception (hence why the new strips are called “glare strips). The second is to give the QB a second set of “eyes”, defensive players watch the QB/WR’s eyes to see where they are focusing to try to anticipate the play direction. The strips acts as a distraction (many have light points in the middle) to confuse or distort people looking at the QB’s eyes.

John, Austin Texas

I think its more of an ego trait than a scientific theory. They should wear shades to go with the rest of the unnecessary over the top American regalia….eeehhhhh rugby!!

Simon, Chichester, UK

The Laws of Optics state that with specular reflection (smooth surfaces such as a mirror)the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. Thus if a football player’s check was struck by light from above it would be impossible to reflect that light back up into his eyes. However, the player’s check is not a smooth surface but rather is an organic irregular surface. Dealing only with the irregularity of that surface the reflections would be at multiple angles from the multiple irregular surfaces. However, each surface would still be governed by angle of incidence/reflection rules.
In the case of human skin, the light can pass through skin surface and be reflected from the internal surface resulting in diffuse reflection consisting of multiple angles of reflection. Multiple internal reflections CAN cause the incident light to be reflected as a Reflex angle of 330-358 degrees that COULD reach the human cornea.
This would amount to at most 1% of the incident light and thus would be insignificant to sportsmen or women. The black paint/patches on the cheeks are an affectation only.

Kenneth Hansen, MD, Seattle USA

They wear it because they secretly like wearing make up. In ancient times it was professed by that great Egyptian prophet that there would one day once again be grown powerful men wearing makeup he called them fagqis hence where the modern day gay term FAG comes from.

Andy, Melbourne Australia

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