I come from a family that has been exposed heavily throughout the years to alcoholism in all its forms, which is probably why this resonates so much with me.
Like most of you, it's easy to fell, "What an idiot." But the underlying issues are that people who drink like that have issues that need attention.
Let's just forget about the football aspect for one moment and focus on two important isues:
(1) Tim Smith is a human being; a young man who, even without football in his life, has the sky itself as his limit to reach; and (2) the football club itself is filled with his friends and people who are, for all intents and purposes, as good as family to him as he can get.
For those two very reasons I deem it as crucial that people do whatever they can to help him. Tear up his contract if you truly feel it is the best course of action for the club - but do not let the guy out in the cold. He's devoted years to the club, and the club likewise has invested years into him. Tim Smith is a friend to the Eels and the Eels a friend to him - as good friends should do, they should extend a helping hand to him in his time of need.
It's all too easy to criticise his immaturity, his arrogance, his seeming lack of intelligence...But what is harder, and definitely more helpful, to do is to stand back for a second and ask yourself, "OK - why does he have this problem? And because we care about him, how can we help him?"
The only instance where help cannot do much is when the subject themself doesn't want help. Using my experiences as an example, they do tend to want help - but beating this particular addiction is so, so demanding and so, so tough that at times they are defeated by their addiction and us folks trying to help them lose our tempers and believe that they do not want our help at all.
Sorry - I was rambling. But the bottom line is that the kid obviously has issues that are life - and career - threatening ones, and to call him names and question his principles is not a productive measure to be taken in guiding him through this journey.
