Peyton Manning, who is on the short list of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL, has been tied to a doping ring by an Al-Jazeera documentary to be released later today, titled The Dark Side: The Secret of the Sports Dopers.
The documentary alleges that in 2011–the same year the league banned the use of the particular performance-enhancing drug–Manning’s wife, Ashley Manning, was sent human growth hormones that her husband allegedly used to help him recover from an injury that required surgery. As it turns out, 2011 was Manning’s final year as an Indianapolis Colt, as Colts ownership felt more comfortable beginning a new era at quarterback with 2012 #1 pick Andrew Luck, as opposed to relying on an aging Manning’s full recovery from a serious back injury.
The report specifically states that the hormones were administered by an anti-aging clinic by the name of The Guyers Institute, which is based in Indianapolis, and a British hurdler, Liam Collins, went undercover with clinicians from the institute during his training period for the 2016 Summer Olympics. In recordings from Hurdler’s time undercover from the documentary, Sly can be heard discussing his role as a member of a team of people that helped Manning recover from his back injury in 2011, even mentioning that the hormones were sent to Ashley Manning so as not to raise the red flags that would be raised if it was ever discovered that Peyton was the recipient of the PEDs.
This morning, Manning interviewed with ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown crew, and vehemently denied the accusations, calling them “slapstick lies.” Manning admits to being involved with the Guyer Institute, but says that all transactions with the agency were above-ground morally, and involved legal recovery methods, including nutrient IV therapy. “The allegation that I would do something like this is complete garbage and totally made up.”
