AVOID PEY DIRT
NFL in rush to clear Manning
ROGER Goodell threw the book at Tom Brady — the Wells report was an astounding 243 pages of convoluted logic — and then tossed just a measly four paragraphs at Peyton Manning to exonerate him from HGH allegations. A going-away present along with the Lombardi Trophy to the beloved Manning? No. Super-duper punishment handed to Brady for being an extension of Bill Belichick’s evil empire and a makeup call for Goodell not suspending the hoodie for Spygate back in 2007? Could be.
It took a $5 million investigation and all of Ted Wells’ 243 pages to declare Brady was more likely than not a guilty party in Deflategate, leading to Goodell suspending him four games.
Even if the NFL had concrete evidence that Brady did something wrong — a league attorney admitted in court such evidence was lacking — this was nothing more than an equipment violation and Brady should have been told to donate $10,000 to Goodell’s favorite charity.
Did the punishment fit the alleged crime? Only if you hate the Patriots.
Goodell then dismissed in 242 fewer pages the shaky allegations against Manning last December in an Al-Jazeera America report that HGH was shipped to his wife, Ashley, at their Miami home with the inference being Peyton used it in 2011 to help him recover from career-threatening neck surgery, his fourth procedure in just a couple of years. At the time, HGH was a banned substance but the NFL didn’t start testing for it until 2014, when it finally came to an agreement with the NFLPA.
Before Deflategate ruined their relationship, Goodell had great admiration for Brady. He had strong feelings for Manning as well, but not because the QBs were company men. They always represented the game well, although Brady and Manning were two of the 10 players who put their names on the lawsuit against the NFL at the start of the 2011 lockout.
The veins were popping out of Manning’s surgically repaired neck in December when he vehemently denied the Al Jazeera report, calling it a “freaking joke.”
Considering the extent the NFL went to bury Brady, a little more detail than was provided in those four paragraphs clearing Manning should have been required. He’s maybe the most famous player in NFL history. What witnesses did the NFL interview? What did the Mannings say? What information was presented that led the NFL to dismiss the allegations? The NFL puts out longer press releases about its new business partners than it did about Manning. Just 90 minutes before the Manning news, the NFL came up with nine paragraphs to explain a new venture with PlayStation.
Al-Jazeera America, which has since gone out of business, lost a good deal of credibility when its informant, Charlie Sly, a former clinic director of patient services at the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis , a clinic Manning had visited, recanted his story before it even aired. There has not been one media report in the last seven months that has backed up Al-Jazeera America’s report. Goodell suspended Brady on circumstantial evidence by connecting the dots. After the initial four-game suspension, Brady filed an appeal. Then, five days before the appeal was heard last June, Brady revealed to the NFL that he had destroyed his cell phone right around the time Wells had interviewed him. If Brady had not destroyed the phone, Goodell was prepared to cut his suspension in half.
Brady finally surrendered and will serve his four-game suspension to open this season after first winning an appeal that tossed out his suspension last September and then losing in April after the NFL appealed.
Manning, of course, never had to worry about a suspension. He retired in March. Even if the NFL’s seven-month investigation had found him guilty, there wasn’t much Goodell could have done. He wasn’t about to vacate the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 championship. But using HGH, even to help heal an injury and not to gain a competitive advantage, is a lot more serious than supposedly leaking some air out footballs.
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This was all about legacy for Manning. The NFL said its investigation “found no credible evidence that Peyton Manning was provided with or used HGH or other substances prohibited by the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.”
It also said, “The Mannings were fully cooperative and provided both interviews and access to all records ought by the investigators.”
The investigation was conducted by the NFL’s security and legal teams with input from consultants. “The investigations involved witness interviews, a review of relevant records and other materials, online research, and laboratory analysis and review.”
It was interesting that the NFL’s press release subhead pointed out, “Mannings Fully Cooperated with League Investigation into Allegations in Documentary.” If you want to connect the dots like the NFL did in the Brady investigation, then you can connect that headline to the league not being happy that Brady destroyed his cell phone. Brady may have won more Super Bowls, but Manning sure was more cooperative letting the NFL look at his medical records. he NFLPA has been fighting the league’s insistence of interviewing Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers and James Harrison, also implicated in the Al-Jazeera America report. “As a former player, Peyton Manning is free to do whatever he believes is in his best interest,” the union said. “The Union knows that he understands the rights of players under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and would never do anything to hurt or undermine active players in support of those rights."
Manning now can get on with his post-career life without HGH rumors following him. Maybe he can hang out with Brady the first four weeks of the season.