In 2015, Peyton Manning completed the transformation from incredible quarterback to one of the worst in the NFL, and a new documentary that links him to an Indiana anti aging clinic, which means saying Manning used HGH to recover from his neck injury in 2011, and makes him a user of banned performance enhancing drugs.
This wouldn’t be that big of a deal on normal circumstances, which means a different player. The NFL suspends players left and right for PEDs. It’s quite common in the league to get caught, and usually not get punished too harshly for it. But when it’s a quarterback? When it’s someone who owns almost every passing record in the books? When it’s Manning, the most marketable NFL player in the last decade or more, who will be in the hall of fame, has won a number of MVPs, a Super Bowl and is one of the best of all-time? That’s not an easy thing to digest.
The Al Jazeera documentary says that steroids and other drugs were shipped to the home address of Manning in 2011 in the name of his wife, Ashley, so that the quarterback’s name was never attached to the shipments. Manning has already denied ever using HGH or over PEDs, and says the allegations are complete garbage and completely made up. Manning admits he has received treatment from Dr. Guyer (the clinic is called the Guyer Institute), but never anything that involved banned substances.
The smoking gun in this case is Charlie Sly, a pharmacist then employed at the anti-aging Guyer Institute (2011, when Manning was recovering from his neck surgery) who allegedly spoke to an undercover reporter working for the network. Sly mentions other athletes as well in the report, like Ryan Howard, Ryan Zimmerman and Mike Tyson as someone who received HGH shipments from him while he worked at the clinic. Sly no longer works at the clinic, but has accused Manning and his wife for going to the clinic after work hours in order to get intravenous treatments.
Testing positive for HGH, according to the CBA, would trigger a four game suspension, but no one has tested positive since the league and the NFLPA agreed on testing in 2014. Not that it matters at this point: Manning has missed five consecutive games and yet still leads the NFL in interceptions with 17, while Brock Osweiler is starting for the Denver Broncos, and probably not giving up the quarterback job to Manning anytime soon. There’s a good chance, suspension or not, that Manning has played his last NFL game over a month ago.