NY Daily News: Peyton's Image Built On Lies

I've previously discussed how the New York Daily news is one of the few major news organizations that have dealt with the allegations of HGH use by Peyton Manning with any seriousness. Certainly, the fawning Indianapolis media has done next to nothing to look at the Indianapolis physician and his unconventional medical practices at the center of those allegations. Today, one of the NY Daily News' reporters, Shaun King, tears into the Gannett-owned USA Today for failing to bring forward 74-pages of court documents it's had in its possession for more than thirteen years about a sexual assault Manning allegedly committed as a young college quarterback at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In a scathing assault on Manning's carefully-crafted and built public image, King vilifies Manning with the damning evidence he sexually assaulted a young, female athletic trainer for the university and then led a campaign of intimidation and harassment aimed at discrediting her reputation within the community.

To be fair, the case has been discussed in the past, primarily in the context of a defamation lawsuit the victim filed against Peyton, his father Archie and the ghost writer of a book self-promotion book for the Manning football family. Dr. Jamie Naughwright formerly worked as the Director of Health &Wellness for the University of Tennessee's Men's Athletic Program. In the fall of 1994, Naughwright was examining Manning's foot for a possible injury when Peyton allegedly exposed his private parts and forced Naughwright's face against them, causing his anus, scrotum and penis to come pressed against her face before she angrily pushed him away. Naughwright immediately complained about the incident, but Manning, who initially denied the allegations, went with a story concocted by one of the team's managers, who claimed he was simply trying to moon another teammate when his private parts inadvertently found their way into Naughwright's face. The only other eyewitness, a fellow teammate, disputed Manning's account and saw his football career come to an end.

The facts laid out in the subsequent court talked about an accepted environment of harassment and sexual abuse within the men's sports program. Naughwright claimed she had been labeled falsely as being a lesbian, "Lady Licker" and other sexually derogatory terms by both the university's sports' program professionals and players. Manning, in particular, harbored anger towards her after she complained about what amounted to a criminal sexual assault committed by him. The incident was actually reported within hours by Naughwright to the Knoxville Assault Crisis Center. Of course Manning was never charged with a crime, and the school forced Naughwright to leave the university's athletic program after a decade of solid service to the organization as part of a confidential settlement agreement. On two separate occasions subsequent to the sexual assault, Manning re-enacted the incident in Naughwright's presence by dropping his pants and sitting on the face of another teammate as a way of taunting her.

The public would have never known about the incident had Archie and Peyton Manning not opened up their mouths about the incident in their book where they attempted to portray Naughwright as a vulgar-talking woman, who wanted to be one of the guys and liked slipping into the dorms to have sex with black athletes. Her defamation lawsuit brought the lurid allegations to the forefront and, not surprisingly, the Manning's, their book's publisher and the University of Tennessee all quietly settled the lawsuit out of court."Thirteen years ago, USA Today obtained 74 pages of explosive court documents on Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, the University of Tennessee, and Florida Southern College that revealed allegations of a sexual-assault scandal, cover up, and smear campaign of the victim that was so deep, so widespread and so ugly that it would've rocked the American sports world to its core," King writes. "Yet USA Today never released those documents for reasons I can't explain." King obviously hasn't lived in a city where a Gannett newspaper is the primary source of news; otherwise, he would know the answer to his question.

The image of Manning portrayed by Naughwright is not new to people who lived in Indianapolis during the Peyton Manning years with the Colts. His relationship with his wife has frequently been described as strained. He had a luxury condo as a get-away pad in downtown Indianapolis in addition to his spacious Meridian Hills home. During the off-season, he seemed to enjoy going on the road with his best pal, Kenny Chesney, rather than spend time with his wife, at least until the twins came along. The twins' birth was another one of those awkward moments. Nobody seemed to know Ashley was pregnant, let alone expecting twins, before the loose lips of one of her cousins down in Mississippi let it out news of their arrival. When the media inquired about it, Manning's spokesman declined commenting on it at first, describing it as a personal family matter. The belated recording of the twins' birth led to speculation a surrogate mother may have been the mode of their delivery, something frowned upon by the Catholic affiliation of the children's hospital that bears his name.