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Blazing a Trail From a Reservation Into Ownership 

Curt Styres sat in the grandstand here at Ohsweken Speedway talking above the roar of a tractor grooming the dirt track. He recalled a night this May when he had been driving the tractor, as he usually does before stock car races.

And how afterward he put on a suit and boarded a flight for Chicago, where he was to be approved as the newest American Hockey League owner. . . .

In 1991, he co-founded Grand River Enterprises, a tobacco operation. Its success led to the Dreamcatcher Fund, which helps First Nations people across Canada pay for education and athletics.

In 2002, Styres bought a stake in the Six Nations Arrows Express, a junior lacrosse team. He built the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena, a 2,600-seat facility in Ohsweken, then hired trainers, nutritionists and tutors for the teenage players.

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Allen parked firmly in the smoking section  

For a guy who trains intensely and has become exceedingly careful about what he puts in his body, it's interesting how prominent a role tobacco plays in Jared Allen's hunting.

On the drive to the hunting lodge, Allen stops at no fewer than three gas stations before finding one that sells the chewing tobacco he wants, Red Man.

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DM to rope in sports stars to help stub out smoking 

All private and public sports clubs and stadiums in the emirate will become 'smoke free' from September this year, Ahmad Saad Al Shareef, secretary-general of the Dubai Sports Council (DSC), said.

Further, smoking will also be banned in sports activity halls, sports goods shops and amusement and games centres, he said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a function held to mark the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the council and the Dubai Municipality, Shareef said both the bodies would initiate steps through which smoking could be completely curbed in stadiums, sports clubs and other sports-related outlets and centres.

Hussain Nasser Lootah, Acting Director-General of the municipality, said with the youth brigade idolising famous personalities, they would be roping in popular local and international sports stars to

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Wayne Rooney and the Top 10 footballers who smoke  

Socrates

The legendary Brazilian captain and World Cup winner got through two packets a day during his playing career and continued to smoke after he retired. He's now a medical doctor.

Gazza and Teddy Sheringham

In the run up to Euro ’96 both Gazza and Teddy Sheringham were spotted with tabs on the go. . . .

Robert Prosinečki

Ex-Crotaian international Robert Prosinečki was famous in his homeland for being a heavy smoker. . . .

David Ginola

The French love a smoke - if it was an Olympic sport they’d take gold in Beijing - which is probably why ex-Spurs head-turner and shampoo hawker David Ginola enjoyed the odd Gitanes during his playing career. Who says smoking isn't sexy?

Zinedine Zidane

Another Frenchie caught with a salmon between his lips . . . Maradona

Maradona, one of the most prolific footballers in history, began to smoke after he retired from the game.

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• Wayne Rooney's honeymoon goes up in smoke 

Pictures of the England player having a crafty pool-side wheeze on a cigarette are bound to dismay Ferguson.

This, of course, is not the first time Rooney's vices have courted media attention, but the sight of one of the country's leading professional sportsmen sucking on a cancer stick is likely to baffle as much as disappoint.

Surely, the casual viewer might think, if your livelihood depends upon good health as well as natural talent, to risk it for a nicotine hit makes no sense. . . .

Such is his media profile that Rooney is likely to come in for stern criticism for his habit. Fair or not, Rooney is charged by many to be a role model for his adoring young fans.

And, surely, smoking is incompatible with a successful career as a footballer. Well, not quite. Though smoking rates amongst footballers are lower than the general population it is still prevalent.

Rooney is on his honeymoon and generous observers might suggest that he could be forgiven a relaxing drag after certain exertions. . . .

Whilst at Liverpool he smoked freely, as did his colleagues, on the team bus and in the players lounge - no one complained.

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Food, drink rule Euro 2008 TV commercials 

Get energized with food and drink or a friend's call, rather than with a cigarette, is the message television viewers in Indonesia have received during the midnight broadcasts of Euro 2008 soccer matches over the past few weeks, a study shows. . . .

Mobile phone service providers Indosat and Mobile 8 were third and fourth on the list of top advertisers, beating cigarette companies Djarum Super and Sampoerna Mild. . . .

Break times during Euro 2004 were filled by Gudang Garam cigarette, Krating Daeng energy drink, telecommunications company Telkom, LG television and Garuda roasted peanuts.

On normal evenings, cigarette ads are missing from the TV, leaving the space to be dominated by McDonald's, Mobile 8, Clear shampoo, Molto fabric softener, Top and Pop ice creams, and Sunsilk shampoo.

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• In Auerbach-style, Celtics fans celebrate the day with cigars  

In the middle was the object they had come to honor: The life-size, bronze statue of legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach seated on a bench - and, naturally, holding a cigar. The cigar was Auerbach's trademark; when it looked like the Celtics had won the game (even if the clock hadn't run out), he'd light one.

Once he was as close to the statue as he could get, 18-year-old Jiaan Hyland pulled the cigars he had bought minutes earlier from his pocket. He handed one to his friend, Sam Macasay, 17, and then lighted his own.

Hyland had a couple of things to celebrate yesterday - his birthday, for one - but the cigar, he said, was "actually for the Celtics, to honor the tradition."

Cigars, it seemed, were the accessory of choice along the parade route and throughout Boston yesterday.

Signs shouted "Have a cigar," and fans were happy to oblige. Outside TD Banknorth Garden, people puffed on cigars, so did a couple players as they rode by. Once the crowds dispersed, along with green and white confetti, cigar butts littered the roads.

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Tobacco ban at rec areas grows 

It might be slow, but it's a success nonetheless. And it's growing.

Almost a year after the Luzerne County chapter of Steps To A HealthierPA offered to help municipalities craft ordinances banning tobacco products in parks and playgrounds, six of the county's 76 municipalities have signed on, said Carol Hussa, the chapter's program manager.

Plains Township publicly began its program on Wednesday. Two other municipalities are working on such ordinances.

"What has happened is as municipalities implement this, and people see it in the paper, they get interested and want to know if they can do it," Hussa said.

The program, called "Young Lungs at Play,"

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UG considers smoking ban, but other areas of state, metro already have policies in place 

Some businesses in Wyandotte County already have self-imposed smoking bans, but others that allow smoking at least in some capacity will surely be waiting anxiously to see if the Unified Government pursues a city- or county-wide smoking ban.

Two areas of interest after a smoking ban would be The Legends at Village West shopping center and the Kansas Speedway.

Kelly Hale, manager of public relations at Kansas Speedway, said the racetrack would follow the Unified Government's lead. . . .

Wyandotte County and its three cities - Kansas City, Kan., Edwardsville and Bonner Springs - are among the last holdouts in the Kansas City metro area without a smoking ban.

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South Madison proposes crackdown on athletes who smoke 

Student athletes caught smoking could be suspended from competing if the board of the South Madison Community School Corp. approves a proposed policy change.

The new rules, which the board reviewed Thursday night, forbid a student athlete from using, selling or distributing tobacco products at any time.

A student would be suspended from 20 percent of the athletic season after one offense. Three offenses would suspend a student from athletics for the duration of his or her enrollment in the school district.

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• Cold turkey  

CIGARETTE brands in China used to be endorsed by athletes, including by the heroic Olympic and world champion hurdler Liu Xiang, who carries the same weight of expectation at the Beijing Olympics as Cathy Freeman did in Sydney in 2000.

So not surprisingly, China is a world champion at smoking, with cigarettes as cheap as 30c for a pack of 20.

About 57 per cent of Chinese men smoke regularly. Last year China smoked about 2.1trillion cigarettes.

But that world supremacy is going to be challenged at the Beijing Olympics, which start on August 8. These Games will not be as green or as human-rights promoting as they set out to be. But they are going to deal China's powerful tobacco industry a serious setback and provide another nail in the coffin of big tobacco . . .

When health professionals urge higher taxes, Yang says the tobacco industry responded by presenting findings from so-called experts that an increased price would lead to increased sales, on the grounds that smoking would be reinforced as a more valuable pastime.

Xu Guihua, another formidable anti-smoking campaigner, is secretary general of the China Tobacco Control Association, a non-government organisation that receives much of its income from conducting campaigns on behalf of the Health Ministry. She operates from an office with an energetic team of volunteers. . . .

"The fight against tobacco is just getting going in China," Xu says. And she's counting on the Olympic spirit to play its part.

Liu Xiang is being a good sport. He said recently he regrets being part of the cigarette industry. But whether his many millions of fans follow his lead remains to be seen.

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Rivalry Aside, Marlins and Rays Team Up To Fight Tobacco 

together the top-ranked Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays are leading a campaign to educate Floridians about the dangers of tobacco. Tobacco Free Florida, an initiative of the Florida Department of Health, has teamed up with FSN Florida/Sun Sports to reach Floridians with its messages of smoking and smokeless tobacco prevention and cessation. Both Major League teams are seeing phenomenal success on the field and will be matched against each other in an Interleague series from June 24-26 at Dolphin Stadium.

With the start of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, eight players from both teams delivered the "I care. I don't chew. I don't dip. I don't smoke." message on video, and the finished product is showcased both in- stadium and on statewide television. By having hometown sports heroes voluntarily speak out publicly against smoking, chewing and dipping, and by showcasing those testimonials during live game action, fans hear loud and clear that the players care about this issue. The players featured on the "I Care" player IDs from the Marlins include Luis Gonzalez, Kevin Gregg, Matt Lindstrom, and Ricky Nolasco, Rays Manager Joe Maddon and players Jonny Gomes, Jason Hammel, and Carlos Pena. The videos can be viewed at http://www.tobaccofreeflorida.com/english/campaign/athletes/.

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Findlay makes park playing fields tobacco-free 

A new rule prohibits tobacco use on all playing fields and courts in Findlay parks, including ball fields, playgrounds, basketball and tennis courts, skating ramps and other facilities.

The policy forbids smoking or chewing tobacco on all recreational surfaces owned or operated by the township, including associated dugouts, benches and some concession stands.

Tobacco will continue to be permitted in pavilions, spectator stands and general areas of the park, such as walking trails.

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Astro one of medicine's biggest guinea pigs 

Doug Brocail is a fierce competitor. His pitches regularly hit speeds in excess of 90 mph. He is a standout athlete, but he also has heart disease.

"He's definitely a medical marvel," Dr. Jim Muntz said.

Doctors found a 95 percent blockage in an artery coming off his heart in spring training two years ago when he was playing for the San Diego Padres. . . .

So Brocail, who stands at 6 feet 5 inches tall, has to be one of the biggest living guinea pigs. He takes 26 pills a day and never once forgets how fortunate he is. . . .

"I wasn't worried about it until I fully understood," Brocail said. "Once he focused in on my arteries, he said, 'how much do you smoke a day?' I said, 'wrong answer.'"

But what Brocail did tell the doctor is that he dipped tobacco for close to 30 years, and his father had heart disease.

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• Yellow card? Never for sparking a butt 

BASEL, Switzerland–It's fifteen minutes before kickoff at the opening game of Euro 2008 and I'm having trouble seeing the field through the haze.

The Albanian journalist sitting in front of me is tearing his way through a pack of Marlboro Lights. He's not the only one. Though smoking is forbidden in Switzerland's sports stadiums, it's not actually. . . .

The menu of one high-end restaurant in Zurich's picturesque city centre asks guests to: "Please refrain from cigar smoking until after 1:15 p.m." . . .

After losing nicotine havens like France and Ireland in recent years, European smokers can still count on Switzerland . . .

Earlier generations of players took less trouble to hide their habit. Two of the greatest of all time, Dutchman Johan Cruyff and Argentina's Diego Maradona, were unapologetic smokers. Maradona, who has been hospitalized with heart problems, is rarely seen without a cigar in his hand. A list of puffing greats includes blockbuster names like Italy goalkeeper Dino Zoff, Brazil legend Gerson and English talisman Bobby Charlton. . . .

A poll of 1,559 professional soccer players in England revealed that 5 per cent smoked. That's lower than any national average, but still curiously high inside a culture that makes its living on physical endurance.

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