A story that made major waves in late 2015 has suddenly resurfaced. But the new twist to the 2.5-year old tale is more ambiguous than inculpatory.
The Hollywood Reporter, which isn’t quite known as a bastion of hard-hitting sports journalism, has obtained court documents from the litigation spawned by an Al Jazeera America documentary accusing former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and other prominent athletes of PED use.
The report cites the unsealed court papers as suggesting that Manning’s lawyer “confirmed” the allegation from former Guyer Institute intern Charlie Sly that Peyton Manning used HGH that had been sent to Manning’s home, but that had been addressed to Manning’s wife.
Here’s one of the key quotes, from a court filing made by Al Jazeera: “In their communications with [Al Jazeera’s outside law firm], the Mannings’ lawyers confirmed much of what Sly had said.”
In another filing, Al Jazeera claims that the Mannings’ lawyers served as "[t]he second, corroborating source for some of Sly’s statements was the Mannings, who voluntarily communicated facts to Al Jazeera through their lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.”
Al Jazeera first claimed that it had a second source to corroborate Sly’s contentions, which had been secretly recorded without his knowledge, when Deborah Davies of Al Jazeera appeared on CNN in the aftermath of the original publication of the report.
“[W]e had a second source,” Davies said in early January 2016. “Absolutely impeccably placed, knowledgeable, and credible, who confirmed exactly what Charlie Sly said. Shipments of HGH were repeatedly, repeatedly sent to Ashley Manning in Florida and other places in the U.S. . . . There are different kinds of sources. There are some you can name, there are some you can’t. This is a source we cannot name. We could not name. The value of that source was to add to the level of confidence we already had in what Charlie Sly was saying.”
Although she “could not name” the second source then, Al Jazeera now contends that this second source was the Mannings’ lawyers.
PFT contacted Manning’s long-time agent, Tom Condon, for comment earlier on Friday, but Condon did not respond. A Manning representative has subsequently supplied this statement to The Hollywood Reporter: “Al Jazeera’s self-serving claim that Peyton Manning’s attorneys ‘confirmed’ Al Jazeera’s allegations about Peyton Manning is absolutely false. In fact, information was provided to Al Jazeera that confirmed the Al Jazeera allegations about Peyton Manning were unfounded. In addition, the sole source for Al Jazeera’s allegations has publicly recanted them. Moreover, the NFL conducted an extensive investigation of the claims raised in Al Jazeera’s programs and found no evidence to support them. This is a desperate move by Al Jazeera to distract the courts from its own wrongdoing.”
The report also points to the notion that Sly recanted his claims of HGH use by Manning only after being visited by persons working for Manning, suggesting that this is a new revelation. It’s not; that information was first revealed by the Washington Post in February 2016.
Manning threatened to sue Al Jazeera, but he never did.
