What does black grease under the eyes actually do for football players?
In: Chemistry
When I played tennis, sometimes my face sweat enough that the sun would hit my cheeks and go into my eyes. The black makes it so that doesn’t happen.
From what I understand, it helps prevent light from bouncing off their cheeks and into their eyes. When is really bright out, reducing glare is really important so you see that football coming at you from far away.
It reduces the glare to allow people to see better when playing sports under bright sun.
Mythbusters did this on an episode!
It gives light a place to concentrate so it is not as harsh on your eyes. Myth busters did an experiment with it and determined that it was effective.
Black things are black because they absorb the most light, meaning they reflect the least light. Football players need to be able to see what they are doing, and light bouncing off their cheeks and into their eyes can make it harder to see. Putting black paint or stickers under the eyes reduces the amount of light bouncing into their eyes
Football players and others believe it reduces glare from the sun reflecting of the players’ cheekbones, making it easier to see.
The effectiveness of this has not been demonstrated, and some people think it is really just because it looks cool.
Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_black)
* Bright sun-light can reflect off the skin on their face and into their eyes.
* The eye black absorbs most of that light making it easier for the players to see.
* This might not seem like a big deal to the average person, but when you job is to look up into the sky and track a football, you need every bit of help you can get.
Latest Answers