Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning launched a swift and furious campaign to deny a report from Al Jazeera that he had received shipments of human growth hormone in 2011, while he was recovering from a series of neck surgeries.
Manning, first in a statement released Saturday night, and then in a seven-minute interview with ESPN on Sunday morning, said the story was a “complete fabrication” and said it made him “angry,” “furious” and “disgusted.” Manning also hired PR guru Ari Fleischer to help manage the fallout of the explosive report.
The report, released on Sunday, alleged that Manning had shipments of HGH sent to his wife, Ashley. Charlie Sly, a former employee of the Guyer Institute, an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic, was secretly filmed making the allegations by former British track athlete Liam Collins.
“All the time we would be sending Ashley Manning drugs,” Sly is seen saying in the video. “Like growth hormone, all the time, everywhere, Florida. And it would never be under Peyton’s name, it would always be under her name.”
Sly later recanted his statements, both to Al Jazeera, and later to ESPN. Sly told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that he was an intern, not a pharmacist, at the clinic in 2013, and that he did not work there in 2011.
Still, the Al Jazeera report is a significant blow to the reputation of one of the NFL’s most respected players. Manning has won five MVP awards, including one in 2013 with the Denver Broncos, two years after the neck surgeries forced him to miss the entire 2011 season and contributed to his release from the Colts.
Manning, 39, signed a five-year, $96 million contract with the Broncos in 2012, and his rapid ascension back to MVP level — he broke NFL single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns in leading the Broncos to the AFC championship in 2013 — only enhanced his legacy as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history.
An allegation that he cheated in order to get healthy could tarnish that.
As part of his waves of denials, Manning on Sunday morning admitted that he was a patient at the Guyer Institute in 2011 but strongly denied ever using HGH.
“Absolutely not. Absolutely not,” he told ESPN.
He said he received 35 days of treatments in a hyperbaric chamber at the clinic, and also received IV nutrient therapy there, all under the supervision of doctors from the Indianapolis Colts. He said he had never met Sly, or even heard of him, before the Al Jazeera report.
“It stings me that whoever this guy is is insinuating that I cut corners, that I broke NFL rules in order to get healthy,” Manning said.
As part of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, the NFL and the NFL Player’s Union agreed to test for the banned substance HGH, though the sides did not agree on testing protocols until 2014. No players have tested positive since testing began last year.
Manning could not have been tested for the drug in 2011, when he was alleged to have received the drug from the clinic.
The Al Jazeera report hinges on allegations that shipments of HGH were sent to Ashley Manning as a way to shield the quarterback from suspicion.
Manning, in his interview with ESPN, said his wife was also a patient at the Guyer Institute, but said their treatments were unrelated. He did not specify why she visited the clinic. He said he never shared any medication with her.
The couple’s twins, a boy and girl, were born in the spring of 2011.
“It makes me sick that it brings Ashley into it, her medical history, her medical privacy being violated,” Manning said.
Dr. Dale Guyer of the Guyer Institute, issued a statement to the Denver Post on Sunday in which he called Sly a liar. He said Sly was an unpaid intern for three months in 2013 and was never involved in Manning’s treatment.
“I have no reason to believe these allegations are based in fact or have any truth. In fact, I can say with absolutely certainty they are not,” Guyer said in his statement. “I find it extremely disturbing that the source of Al Jazeera’s story, a former unpaid intern named Charles Sly, would violate the privacy of Mrs. Manning’s medical records and be so callous and destructive as to purposely fabricate and spread stories that are simply not true.
“I would emphasize that Mr. Sly was never an employee of the Guyer Institute and his brief three-month internship occurred in 2013 during which time Peyton was not even being treated or present in the office.”
Manning was not the only NFL player or professional athlete included in the report. It includes three Green Bay Packers, Mike Neal, Julius Peppers and Clay Matthews; Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison, and baseball players Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals as players who received various drugs from Sly.
William Burck, an attorney who represents both Howard and Zimmerman, issued the following statement on Sunday morning:
"It’s inexcusable and irresponsible that Al Jazeera would provide a platform and broadcast outright lies about Mr. Howard and Mr. Zimmerman. The extraordinarily reckless claims made against our clients in this report are completely false and rely on a source who has already recanted his claims."
The NFL declined to comment on the report, though the league will likely conduct its own investigation into the allegations made against Manning and other players.
The Broncos on Sunday morning issued a statement in which the team strongly supported Manning.
“The Denver Broncos support him 100 percent. These are false claims made to Al Jazeera, and we don’t believe the report,” the team said. “Peyton is rightfully outraged by the allegations, which he emphatically denied to our organization and which have been publicly renounced by the source who initially provided them. Throughout his NFL career, particularly during his four seasons with the Broncos, Peyton has shown nothing but respect for the game. Our organization is confident Peyton does things the right way, and we do not find this story to be credible.”
The Colts, too, issued a statement in support of Manning on Sunday, calling the report a “crude attempt to besmirch Peyton’s reputation.”
“We are thoroughly familiar with Peyton's tireless work habits, his medical history, and, most importantly, his integrity. Peyton played the game in Indianapolis for 14 years the right way. He never took any shortcuts and it would be absurd to suggest he would have taken prohibited performance enhancing drugs,” the statement said.
Those statements, while using some strong language, basically amount to both teams deferring to the judgment of the quarterback, while allowing Manning to issue his own strong denials.
“There are no shortcuts in the NFL. I’ve done it the long way, the hard way,” Manning said. “It’s defamation, and it ticks me off.”
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