IN THIS CORNER

“It’s clear Al-Jazeera America is going trophyhunting. They are going after Peyton Manning whether they have credible evidence or not.” — Victor Conte, head of the Bay Area Laboratory Co- operative, the centre of the doping scandal that rocked the sports world back in the early 2000s, speaking to USA Today about the news documentary that claimed Peyton Manning and other pro athletes had taken various illegal substances during their careers. Conte, wellversed in creating and providing athletes with performance- enhancing substances, was asked by the documentary producers to put them in touch with sprinter Tim Montgomery, a former client of BALCO. Montgomery told USA Today he declined to participate in the hiddencamera attempts to purchase drugs. Said Conte: “I was led to believe at the beginning they really wanted to explore performance- enhancing drugs, which has been one of the biggest topics in sports for years. Obviously, they decided to go in another direction.”