AP
With Peyton Manning officially retired and his future plans unofficially in limbo, the investigation sparked by a December report from Al Jazeera that Manning obtained HGH through his wife from an Indianapolis clinic has faded.
But the issue has hardly disappeared, due to the other athletes mentioned in the same documentary. One of them, free-agent baseball catcher Taylor Teagarden, has received an 80-game suspension from Major League Baseball.
Via USA Today, a statement from the MLB announcing the move did not mention a failed drug test, referring instead generally to a “violation” of the sport’s drug prevention and treatment program.
The Al Jazeera documentary included Teagarden admitting, while being secretly recorded, the use of performance enhancing drugs. That’s the most obvious difference between Teagarden’s case and Manning’s. The evidence regarding Manning came not from him but from Charlie Sly, a former employee/intern/whatever of the Guyer Institute who claimed while being secretly recorded that HGH was sent in 2011 to Ashley Manning, with the clear implication being that it was intended for use by Peyton Manning.
Peyton Manning has strongly denied the claim, and he said during the 2015 football season that he’ll consider litigation after the season ends. The NFL said in conjunction with Manning’s retirement announcement that an investigation is “ongoing.”
Still, the NFL has no authority to obtain the information that would reveal conclusively whether Sly’s claims are accurate: Documents and other evidence directly from the Guyer Institute showing the full scope of treatment provided to Peyton and Ashley Manning.
Prior to the Super Bowl, Manning said that the NFL “can have whatever they want” from the Guyer Institute, but that statement from the Opening Night festivities is a far cry from legal documents executed by the Mannings affirmatively directing the Guyer Institute to produce the data.
It’s unclear whether that will ever happen, whether the NFL has ever asked for it, or whether the NFL ever will. With Manning retired, there’s a chance that the league will decide that nothing good comes from doing anything other than letting this one disappear.
