Football Visor Rules

Football visors are a newer addition to the sport. Although they offer different styles, colors and manufacturers, leagues spanning almost all age groups create rules against them. Traditionally used as a means to protect healing eye injuries or—harboring a prescription—play without glasses or contacts, football visors are now an aesthetic addition to a helmet, rather than a useful one.

  1. Clear Visors

    • Clear-lens visors, defined as any visor with the same visual quality and aesthetic appearance as glass, are the only football visors permitted throughout high school, college and professional football leagues. The visors provide several beneficial qualities. First and foremost, playing with a clear visor helps reduce the likelihood of eye injury drastically. Fingers don't have access to players' eyes, and there is also a potential decrease in face masking, which prevents neck injuries. Besides safety, a clear visor, when prescribed by a doctor, offers the same benefits of sports goggles or contacts without interfering with the players' face or eyes.

    Construction

    • Even if a visor uses a clear lens, it must have a specific construction or else it's unusable. Polycarbonate lenses are the only acceptable football visors in all leagues. All other material types, such as glass or plastic, cannot be used. Those banned materials have a propensity to shatter or splinter upon hard contact, which deems them unsafe for play. The construction of a polycarbonate visor prevents it from shattering, which keeps the eyes safe, even under extreme pressure on the lens, according to A Sight for Sport Eyes.

    Tinted Visors

    • Tinted visors are strictly prohibited in almost all levels of football. A doctor’s prescription that demands the use of a tinted visor, which is the only exception to this rule, is given out only in rare, extreme circumstances. Players who suffer from sensitivity to sunlight, through conditions such as albinism, can sometimes be prescribed a tinted visor, according to JSonline. However, players without conditions must use a clear visor.

      Some players try to sneak tinted visors on the field. To thwart their efforts, referees carry a special note card that has a font only seen through legal visor tints. The league can make the player take off the visor or sit out the game if the visor is deemed illegal.

    Lightly-Tinted Visors

    • A visor that features a minor tint can pass the card test administered by referees, even though it's still considered illegal. A visor with a tint of 5 percent or less will go undetected by the examination; however, these standards are only acceptable in high school football.