The NCAA bans eye black messages in 2011 (Ok. State QB Zac Robinson's message in support for suspended WR Dez Bryant)
NCAA football’s governing body just approved rule changes earlier today that will take effect starting in 2011 to include no eye black messages, no wedge blocking, and no major taunting. We first reported the proposed rule change back in February, but now it’s official. Players wearing eye black will be forbidden to write any messages on their glare blocking accessories. While eye black has always been a part of football, the trend of writing messages on them really took off when USC’s Reggie Bush started personalizing his with mini messages.
This past football season, Florida’s Tim Tebow made a habit of writing a different Bible verse on his eye black before every one of his games. Not to be outdone by Tebow, Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor showed his full support of disgraced NFL QB Michael Vick by sporting the dog lover on his eye black for OSU’s season opener against Navy.
Plain and simple, the eye black rule is dumb. The NCAA has made a name for itself for enacting and enforcing silly rules so this isn’t really all too surprising. One would think that the NCAA has better things to do with its time rather than worrying about what a player writes on his eye black as long as it’s not obscene. Let kids be kids and let them express themselves as long as their actions are not offensive. As for the other rules, it makes sense, but every rule enacted only takes away from the spirit of the game.
