KING: Peyton Manning’s squeaky-clean image was built on lies, as detailed in explosive court documents showing ugly smear campaign against his alleged sex assault victim
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. Yet USA Today never released those documents for reasons I can't explain.
KING:RACIAL DOUBLE STANDARD BETWEEN CAM NEWTON AND PEYTON MANNING
Mel Antonen, now a baseball writer for Sports Illustrated, wrote about the documents for the paper on Nov. 3, 2003. Three days later, Christine Brennan, longtime sportswriter for USA Today wrote an op-ed about Peyton Manning and the documents entitled, “Do you really know your sports hero?†but the scandal pretty much died right there.
But as his career winds down, we're left to grapple with the reality that there is credible evidence that Peyton and the Manning family knowingly, willingly, wantonly ruined the good name and career of Dr. Jamie Naughright, a respected scholar, speaker, professor, and trainer of some of the best athletes in the world.
On the morning after Super Bowl 50, I posted a picture on my Facebook page of Cam Newton smiling and embracing Peyton Manning after the game and simply asked why that warm photo wasn't being talked about instead of Cam being frustrated at the post-game press conference. It has since been shared more than 234,000 times and seen by more than 20 million people. It now has nearly 6,000 comments, but on that morning, just one leaped out at me, which mentioned something to the effect of
"Peyton sexually assaulted a girl in college."
I decided, on a whim, to Google "Peyton Manning sexual assault University of Tennessee." That's how I discovered the two old USA Today articles about the case. Later that day, when I wrote an article on the racial double standards in the media between Peyton Manning and Cam Newton, I decided to mention the sexual assault case, and how the allegations had somehow slid right off of Peyton like virtually every other mistake he has ever made in his career.
Less than 24 hours later, a source who claimed to see my article on the racial double standard, sent me a 74-page court document from Polk County court in Florida.
Titled "Facts of the Case," and submitted to the court by the plaintiff's lawyers, the document, which warrants many more takes and reflections than what I will offer today, is simultaneously shocking, disgusting, painful, and infuriating. It offers us the living, breathing human names and faces of the individuals the American sports machine is willing to mow down in the name of profit and fame.
To begin with, Dr. Jamie Naughright was not "a girl" sexually assaulted by Peyton Manning; she was an esteemed professional widely admired by students and peers alike at the University of Tennessee, where she was the Director of Health & Wellness for the Men's Athletic Program. Originally from New Jersey, Naughright had made Knoxville her home away from home.
As an undergraduate in 1989, Naughright, who had interned for a year with the women's athletic programs (including the world-famous UT women's basketball team), was transferred to the men's programs. According to court documents and affidavits, her boss, associate trainer Mike Rollo, perceived Naughright to be a lesbian. Rollo, who had just left working with a group of young women he also thought to be lesbians, allegedly began calling Naughright
"c--t bumper." This wasn't a rare occurrence or something he said to her only in private; he allegedly called her that in front of others. For three years, until 1992, when Naughright built up enough courage to complain, she said she was almost exclusively called "c--t bumper," or "bumper" for short, by a variety of staff members in the program (see court documents, pages 5-7; all subsequent references are to these).
On Feb. 29 of that year, Naughright, at that point the university's director of health and wellness, was in a training room, examining what she thought might be a possible stress fracture in Manning's foot. At 6 feet, 5 inches, his feet dangled off the edge of the table. Manning allegedly then proceeded to scoot down the training table while Naughright examined his foot.
At that point, she said, he forcefully maneuvered his naked testicles and rectum directly on her face with his penis on top of her head. Shocked, disgusted, and offended, Naughright pushed Manning away, removing her head out from under him (see pages 14-15). Within hours, she reported the incident to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville (see page 18).
According to the court records, Manning initially denied the incident ever took place. It was a calculated risk. He was the star quarterback, a Heisman trophy hopeful, and a likely No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. While Naughright was now a respected member of the staff, Manning was the star, the savior of Tennessee football. It was his word against hers.
One person, though, could settle all of this: Malcolm Saxon.
And, in fact, he did settle it. In an affidavit, Saxon refuted Manning's story and made it clear that Manning never mooned him. In a letter to Manning,
Saxon, who stated that he lost his eligibility as a student-athlete over it, practically begged him to come forward and tell the truth (see page 20). Here's an excerpt from the letter:
"Peyton, you messed up. I still don't know why you dropped your drawers. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe not. But it was definitely inappropriate. Please take some personal responsibility here and own up to what you did. I never understood why you didn't admit to it...."
You have shown no mercy or grace to this lady who was on her knees seeing if you had a stress fracture.
You might as well maintain some dignity and admit to what happened.
Your celebrity doesn't mean that you can treat folks this way."
Instead, the school asked Naughright to leave. Having poured her heart and soul out to the University of Tennessee for nearly 10 years, she agreed, as a part of a settlement agreement, to part ways.
It appears that Peyton and Archie Manning thought Naughright would accept what they did to her quietly. They were wrong. This time, she did file suit against Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, the ghostwriter John Underwood, and the publisher Harper Collins. Manning and his lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed, but Polk County Circuit Judge Harvey A. Kornstein not only denied the motion but put Peyton Manning, his father, and the others on blast. In his statement, he said:
"Even if the plaintiff is a public figure, the evidence of record contains sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that a genuine issue of material fact exists that would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, the existence of actual malice of the part of the defendants.
It appears that Manning, who was under oath, completely concocted this story out of thin air. Again, just as he expected the student athlete, Malcolm Saxon, to go along with the story of his mooning Naughright, he assumed that the plethora of witnesses in Virginia would also go along with his new lie. Unfortunately for him, they didn't (see page 26).
Until this very day, have you ever seen a single interview with Dr. Jamie Naughright trashing Peyton Manning? Me neither. I never knew that any of this happened until last week. My understanding is that she has not worked in college athletics since being let go from Florida Southern.
The defamation suit was settled in 2003 but terms were not disclosed. Naughright settled her suit againt the University of Tennessee for a reported $300,000.
The book, which trashes the character of Dr. Jamie Naughright, continues to be sold to this very day, while Peyton Manning continues to benefit from his reputation not only as a superstar quarterback, but also an individual of high moral character. In fact, he has reaped tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals based on a fraudulent mystique he's cultivated as a good guy, an upstanding citizen, the ideal professional athlete.
This document alone puts the lie to all this. He hasn't come close to apologizing for sexually assaulting Dr. Jamie Naughright. Quite the contrary, he besmirched her stellar reputation and character. The price he should have paid for what he did her — at very least — she has ended paying over and over again, both at the University of Tennessee and, later, at Southern Florida.
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