When I say Manning may not be as great as he appears, I'm not talking about his football career. He's arguably the greatest quarter back to ever play the game. His accomplishments speak for themselves. What I meant by saying Manning may not be as great as he appears is that his character may not be as great as we once thought it was.
This past week a story broke in USA Today that ten women are in a lawsuit against the University of Tennessee for allowing a culture of sexual harassment against women employed by the University. In the lawsuit, it was mentioned that in 1996 Peyton Manning, allegedly, purposely forced his genitals into the face of a female trainer for the football team at Tennessee. Peyton's side of the story is that while the female trainer was checking his foot, he attempted to moon another teammate who was across the room as a gag and that what happened was a complete accident. The female trainer ended up leaving her job at the University of Tennessee and sued the University. They ultimately settled the suit and all parties involved signed a confidentiality agreement. Then, in 2003 in a book that he wrote with his father, Manning brought up the incident in what looked like an attempt to discredit the woman involved. So because he broke the confidentiality agreement and in his book he said some pretty unflattering things about her, she sued Manning for defamation and again they settled. Now there is a suit against the University involving 10 other women employees and because of it this story about Manning as been brought to the forefront.
If there is any truth at all to the woman's version of the story that Manning purposely forced his genitals into her face then there is cause to pause and rethink some things involving Manning. I mean, Manning, to a lot of people, was class personified. He was squeaky clean and we never heard of any transgressions against him. For some reason, though, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this whole story for one reason. Why now? Why, after 20 years are we just now hearing about something potentially awful that Manning may have done in college? It just doesn't make sense to me. When any other athlete does something, it sticks with them and we hear about it continually. Why not this?
What do you guys think? Should we rethink the way we view Peyton Manning? Does this affect his legacy? Why are we just now hearing about it? Was the media protecting him or is this a convenient smear campaign after he won the Superbowl and is about to retire? Let me know your opinions.
This past week a story broke in USA Today that ten women are in a lawsuit against the University of Tennessee for allowing a culture of sexual harassment against women employed by the University. In the lawsuit, it was mentioned that in 1996 Peyton Manning, allegedly, purposely forced his genitals into the face of a female trainer for the football team at Tennessee. Peyton's side of the story is that while the female trainer was checking his foot, he attempted to moon another teammate who was across the room as a gag and that what happened was a complete accident. The female trainer ended up leaving her job at the University of Tennessee and sued the University. They ultimately settled the suit and all parties involved signed a confidentiality agreement. Then, in 2003 in a book that he wrote with his father, Manning brought up the incident in what looked like an attempt to discredit the woman involved. So because he broke the confidentiality agreement and in his book he said some pretty unflattering things about her, she sued Manning for defamation and again they settled. Now there is a suit against the University involving 10 other women employees and because of it this story about Manning as been brought to the forefront.
If there is any truth at all to the woman's version of the story that Manning purposely forced his genitals into her face then there is cause to pause and rethink some things involving Manning. I mean, Manning, to a lot of people, was class personified. He was squeaky clean and we never heard of any transgressions against him. For some reason, though, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this whole story for one reason. Why now? Why, after 20 years are we just now hearing about something potentially awful that Manning may have done in college? It just doesn't make sense to me. When any other athlete does something, it sticks with them and we hear about it continually. Why not this?
What do you guys think? Should we rethink the way we view Peyton Manning? Does this affect his legacy? Why are we just now hearing about it? Was the media protecting him or is this a convenient smear campaign after he won the Superbowl and is about to retire? Let me know your opinions.
