Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was poised to go down as one of the greats after his record breaking Super Bowl win set himself up for a “story book” retirement. It argues that the athletics department has a history of such behavior dating back to the mid-1990s, which is when Manning enters the picture.
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The case was largely forgotten until last weekend when the New York Daily News ran an article based on *one document from the case file. And I’m wondering why self-important critics who chastise the petulant quarterback are giving Peyton Manning a pass for new revelations about a sexual assault allegation against him from 1996.
Naughright’s sexual harassment states Manning exposed his buttocks as Naughright, then known as Jamie Whited, bent over to examine his foot in a training room. A document in which Naughright’s attorneys laid out their side of the story. And all that was on my face when I pushed him up….
Another settlement with Naughright was reached. He had his mouth wide open and he was in shock.
Silverman also reported that Manning, in a book he co-wrote with his father, described his actions as inappropriate but felt Naughright should have laughed off the up-close display and viewed it as “crude, maybe, but harmless”. The suit also cites an unnamed current UT football player accused of sexual assault, an unnamed non-student athlete accused of sexual assault following a party in which the woman was served alcohol by a UT football player, and former football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams, who face separate trials this summer in the alleged sexual assault of a female student athlete. The details of this incident were sealed. Manning has denied the accusation, claiming that he was “mooning” a teammate, not assaulting the trainer.
I don’t know Peyton Manning, but I know he’ll outlast this. The case was settled out of court, with Manning claiming he was merely “mooning” a team-mate.
Two months before the book came out, an excerpt was sent to Naughright at Florida Southern.
The subject of Manning was of course brought up during the edition of First Take, and as you would expect Stephen A. Smith had some thoughts about all of this.
Manning has not commented on the incidents that have resurfaced. “But this is a document that was an advocacy document, allegations, if you will, that were made by the person’s lawyer years ago about an incident that took place 20 years ago and has now surfaced obviously at the behest of that lawyer or his client when Peyton is in the news and arguably receiving lots and lots of positive press”. “The court further finds that there is sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendants entertained serious doubts as to the truth of the passages in this case”. The longer Manning let’s this story build without making a statement about it, the worse it makes him look. Instead of airing out the issues that may have existed, they went full “politics of personal destruction” on Dr. Naughright’s character and credibility. Still, Naughright hit the University with a suit in 1997, which was later settled.
All these years later, what should one make of the details of the Naughright case? The 74-page document is, necessarily, one-sided.
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The future of the team starting in 2016 is Osweiler, the team’s second-round pick in 2012 who showed plenty of promise last season while going 5-2 as the team’s starter as Manning dealt with a painful plantar fascia injury, and the semantics of talking turkey and actually hammering out a deal in advance of free agency is just that.
