The Huffington Post received an advance screening of a documentary named The Dark Side set to premiere Sunday and, according to its story, a pharmacist named Charlie Sly claims drugs were sent to the Mannings "all the time" addressed to Peyton's wife, Ashley, while Peyton Manning was recuperating from neck surgery in 2011. Manning missed that entire season and was released by the Colts the following spring.
“All the time we would be sending Ashley Manning drugs,” Sly says in the video. “Like growth hormone, all the time, everywhere, Florida. And it would never be under Peyton’s name, it would always be under her name.”
But according to an ESPN report, Sly said that he recanted his story to Al Jazeera when he realized that it had used information he had "made up" to Liam Collins, a British hurdler and the undercover reporter who he says was trying to get into the supplementation business.
In the ESPN report, Sly said he was a student intern at The Guyer Institute in 2013 rather than 2011 as the Al Jazeera story alleges and that he was "testing" Al Jazeera's undercover reporter by dropping "names like Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard and James Harrison."
According to the Huffington Post, Manning's agent did not deny any rumors of Ashley Manning receiving medicine through the mail.
“Any medical treatment received by Ashley is a private matter of hers, her doctor, and her family,” the agent said.
Peyton Manning's agent vehemently denies a report linking the QB to HGH. (USATSI)
One of the pharmacists involved in the documentary claims he can turn an average human into a world-class athlete through the use of his mailed medicinals.
“No one’s got caught, because the system’s so easy to beat,” Robertson, the pharmacist, brags to Collins. “And it still is, that’s the sad fact. I can take a guy with average genetics and make him a world champion.”
The allegations in the documentary are, quite obviously, shocking. Manning released a statement Saturday night through the Broncos, calling the report "garbage" and "totally made up."
