Smoking at weekends, 1 a day or even 40 a day will not impact on your performance at 21, and unlikely to impact on your performance at 31, it will however have start to impact your quality of life at 41 and beyond. Jack has broken no laws and this whole thing has been blown out of proportion for me, he hasn't let anyone down other than the kids who idolise the player who may now believe smoking is OK, AW reaction I thought was over the top too.
I think from the club and AW point of view it is justifiable to be annoyed as they are paying him a lot of money and putting a lot of faith in him and i dont think it's too much that he follows the rules the club set out for the players e.g. not smoking. From a general point of view it's really no big deal. Guy in early twenties smokes *** outside pub with girl - hardly ground breaking news.
Maybe 40 was an exageration but I think the effects of smoking, regular smoking, take years to take hold. I'm guessing that 95% of sportsman in the 40s and 50s smoked and there will still be many who play at the top level who do...
In the 40s and 50s sportsmen were no where as fit as they are today to be honest ... look at the difference in world records etc and not all of it is simply down to better equipment. I do take your point in some ways but can't help thinking that anything that restricts the bloods ability to transport oxygen around the body, which affects the lung ability to work at full capacity and puts harmful and in some cases poisonous chemicals into your body must have some negative effect and even if it is only 0.5% that on occasions is the difference between success and failure
As an ex smoker I can say within a week of giving up my ability to run increased within a week of giving up. You might not notice much of a difference in speed but you stamina increases within days. I was fairly fit as a smoker and as a kid would play football for 10 hours a day sometimes in the school holidays, but my ability to keep running without stopping to get my breath back increased hugely. 1 *** wouldn't make much difference but being a smoker certainly does
So a bit like Joey Barton? Why he was allowed into the leaders in football conference I'll never know.