NFL clears Manning of doping allegations

The National Football League on Monday dismissed accusations that Peyton Manning had used banned substances seven months after a news report suggested that the star quarterback had taken human growth hormone.

The allegations made in December in a documentary broadcast by Al-Jazeera sent shock waves through the NFL, which was already embroiled in an acrimonious dispute with Tom Brady, another of its top players.

The league’s statement that it had “found no credible evidence” that Manning received or took prohibited substances closed the book on the awkward scandal, and came just two weeks after Brady ended his fight to overturn the four-game suspension he received for his role in an alleged scheme to deflate balls used in the AFC Championship Game in 2015.

The league, however, said it would continue to investigate other allegations against other players made in the Al-Jazeera report, which included suggestions many big stars in Major League Baseball and the NFL had been taking designer steroids and other banned performance-enhancing drugs.

One specialist, Charles Sly, a pharmacist at the centre of the AlJazeera report, said that the Guyer Institute, an anti-aging clinic in Indianapolis where he had worked, had sent shipments of human growth hormone to Manning’s wife, Ashley. Sly later recanted his accusation.

Manning vigorously denied the report, saying it was “complete garbage” and “totally made up.”

Sly also linked James Harrison, Clay Matthews and other NFL players, as well as Major League Baseball players Ryan Howard and Ryan Zimmerman, to performance-enhancing drugs. All deny the charges, and Howard and Zimmerman sued Al-Jazeera for libel.

MLB player, Taylor Teagarden, was suspended 80 games.