Senior running back Andiel Brown laughed the first time a classmate offered him a cigarette.
“I was like ‘I’m good,’” Brown said of his experience in the sixth grade. “It never intrigued me.”
But long before his first highlight-reel return or autograph request, Brown was just a kid looking to avoid anything that might slow him down.
So smoking? It’s just never fit anywhere in his life.
“My whole deal is I don’t do it because it could affect the way I play,” Brown said. “But if you are not an athlete, it is still your choice. I know of a lot of people who are health conscious and who aren’t athletes. They just want to stay healthy.”
It seems obvious, not sucking in deadly poison. But millions of people do: More than 400,000 people in the United States die each year from tobacco use, according to the American Cancer Society.
Brown’s a college football player, so he needs to take care of himself. It would seem completely backward for him – or any other Oregon athlete – to smoke.
And by and large, it seems the vast majority don’t use tobacco.
But it’s just as pointless, just as wrong and just as harmful for non-athletes to smoke.
“Basically, you are killing yourself,” strong side linebacker Jerome Boyd said, a life-long nonsmoker. “I think the thing about us, we train so hard to keep our body in shape and stay healthy, so why would you do something like that? I think everybody wants to live as long as possible. So why smoke?”
Good question.
Jonathan Stewart, one of Oregon’s biggest stars, will be a professional football player and earn millions of dollars.
But he also said he wants to be healthy all his life – and when Stewart’s 70 years old, he’ll likely care less about his playing career and more about his general health.
Emphysema, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease – I don’t think anyone wants those.
“With something that addictive, it’s going to lead to trouble in the future,” said men’s basketball player Maarty Leunen, who added he’s never been offered a cigarette and would decline if he was.
When Leunen is a grandfather, his basketball statistics will be covered in dust, but he’ll still be able to shoot hoops with his grandchildren.
And current smokers? They’ll look much less cool if they are smoking through a hole in their throat.
“It does the same thing to everyone,” said Leunen, a senior forward.
Stewart will pass. He relieves stress by playing the piano at Oregon’s treatment center, and knows arpeggios and glissandos better than cigarette labels.
“Smoking’s gross,” Stewart said. “There is no excuse to do it. People do it because they are addicted or because they want to fulfill something else that they are lacking.”
As an integral part of Oregon’s offense, Stewart also realizes he’s a role model.
But aren’t we all?
You have brothers and sisters who look up to you. So do athletes.
You both have younger friends. Athletes have fans; you have classmates, co-workers and neighbors.
They play sports on television, but you also live out your lives in front of people who take note.
The Ducks have athletic scholarships. So? Do you need an award not to smoke? Why slowly kill yourself because you aren’t going to school for free?
“We all know the risk,” Leunen said.
Don’t get me wrong: Oregon athletes aren’t perfect. I’m guessing there are plenty of Ducks who’ve smoked marijuana and drank in excess.
But if they’ve gotten one thing right, it’s this: Smoking is bad. Of course, a seemingly obvious statement is not so clear to everyone.
“People can do what they want to do with their bodies,” Boyd said. “Most people who want to stay healthy and live a long life – they are not going to smoke.”
Makes sense to me.
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Smoking, tobacco have no place in athletics or life
Daily Emerald
September 27, 2007
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