Denver Broncos quarterback and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning may have an asterisk placed next to his name in the record books once this pro athlete doping documentary is released before the end of this month.
The special news report is titled The Dark Side: The Secret of the Sports Dopers, and it's set to air on Al Jazeera network this Sunday, December 27th. Peyton Manning, along with many other high-profile pro athletes, has been name checked in this months-long investigation by the network. It alleges that he used a human growth hormone administered by The Guyer Institute, an Indianapolis-based anti-aging clinic. This was during his time with the Indianapolis Colts in 2011, when he was injured and required surgery for his recovery. The performance-enhancing drug was banned by the NFL in 2011 as part of the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league. Manning left the Indianapolis in 2011 to sign with Denver, and players were not tested for the PED until 2014. No player has ever tested positive for this PED.
Liam Collins, a British hurdler, went undercover to consult one of the pharmacists, Charlie Sly, as part of his training for the 2016 Olympics. In the documentary, there are multiple candid recordings discussing Sly's participation as “part of a medical team that helped [Manning] recover” from the surgery he had in 2011. Sly contends that the clinic mailed the growth hormone and other drugs to Manning’s wife, Ashley Manning, to exonerate him from being linked to the drug.
The pharmacist states in the film:
"All the time we would be sending Ashley Manning drugs. Like growth hormone, all the time, everywhere, Florida. And it would never be under Peyton’s name, it would always be under her name.”
The clinician also alleges that Manning and his wife came for intravenous treatment after the clinic's normally scheduled business hours. And here's what Peyton himself had to say about all this:
Of course, Peyton Manning's lawyer cried foul on the allegations against his client, calling Sly's claims as "outrageous and wrong." You can see the trailer for the documentary film here.
