Woe is me. I have to catch a football that is in the air and I can't see very well looking into the light. So let me create a solution...I will wear "eyeblack" which is traditionally a grease that consists of "beeswax, paraffin, and carbon."Alright...so lets give you some wikipedia info on the eyeblack...According to our friends over at the Wik, the earliest known instance of a player wearing eye black is Washington Redskins fullback Andy Farkas, who came up with the idea out of thin air in 1942.
Now I would guess that Mr. Farkas wasn't exactly doing it for looks, but since then the eyeblack phenomenon has spread to basically every sport under the sun. One interesting twist back in the 1990's was Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle John Randle, who would paint almost his entire face in the material for an imposing look. The funny thing about the paint job is he was eventually fined by the NFL for "excessive eyeblack"--who would've thought that was even possible.
Anyways, all was well and good until some genious decided that painting your face was too hard and they wanted to use stickers. Seriously. Many people point to the trend beginning when RB Reggie Bush, then just an AMATEUR athlete with USC, adorned his stickers with his AREA CODE--just in case he forgot the 3-digit prefix to his home number. Others have followed and now an entire industry is based on these stickers which are mass-produced and can have logos, family crests and, of course, area codes written on them.
Gross.
One other twist: THEY DONT WORK!!!!!! Mr. Farkas used them and tests have proven that black surfaces can actually do reduce glare. The stickers: DONT DO ANYTHING!!!
According to the wiki:
"A 2003 study by Brian DeBroff and Patricia Pahk tested whether black eye grease actually had anti-glare properties. The subjects of the study were divided into three groups: wearers of eye black, wearers of antiglare stickers, and wearers of petroleum jelly. The subjects' vision was tested using an eye chart while being exposed to natural sunlight. The study concluded that eye black reduced glare of the sun and improved contrast sensitivity, whereas commercial antiglare stickers and petroleum jelly (the control substance) were found to be ineffective."
Fucking Reggie Bush.
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