This piece by Shaun King on Peyton Manning and his sexual assault and subsequent attempts to ruin the life of his victim, along with help from his father, is your must read today:
On Feb. 29 of that year, Naughright, at that point the university’s director of health and wellness, was in a training room, examining what she thought might be a possible stress fracture in Manning’s foot. At 6 feet, 5 inches, his feet dangled off the edge of the table. Manning allegedly then proceeded to scoot down the training table while Naughright examined his foot. At that point, she said, he forcefully maneuvered his naked testicles and rectum directly on her face with his penis on top of her head. Shocked, disgusted, and offended, Naughright pushed Manning away, removing her head out from under him (see pages 14-15). Within hours, she reported the incident to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville (see page 18).
According to the court records, Manning initially denied the incident ever took place. It was a calculated risk. He was the star quarterback, a Heisman trophy hopeful, and a likely No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft. While Naughright was now a respected member of the staff, Manning was the star, the savior of Tennessee football. It was his word against hers.
When Rollo learned of the complaint, he allegedly concocted a story that Manning actually pulled down his pants to moon another student-athlete, Malcolm Saxon, who was nearby. According to Rollo, after mooning the student, Naughright just happened to move her head right into Manning’s pelvic region. Rollo acknowledged under oath that he was the first person to use the word “mooning.”
One person, though, could settle all of this: Malcolm Saxon.
And, in fact, he did settle it. In an affidavit, Saxon refuted Manning’s story and made it clear that Manning never mooned him. In a letter to Manning, Saxon, who stated that he lost his eligibility as a student-athlete over it, practically begged him to come forward and tell the truth (see page 20). Here’s an excerpt from the letter:
“First, I have stuck to my same story throughout this drama. I told Mike Rollo the next day and Coach Fulmer a week or two afterwards. I had nothing to hide at that point and I have nothing to hide today. I have never been on Jamie’s side or on your side (contrary to what the athletic department was telling you and telling her). I stuck to the truth and I lost my eligibility for it. My redshirt request sat on Mike Rollo’s desk for months as the process was going forward. I’m not angry about it anymore, just getting a little tired of it!!
“Peyton, you messed up. I still don’t know why you dropped your drawers. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe not. But it was definitely inappropriate. Please take some personal responsibility here and own up to what you did. I never understood why you didn’t admit to it….”
Saxon goes on to tell Peyton things like:
“Coming clean is the right thing to do.
Peyton didn’t come clean, though. Instead, he and his father dedicated the next 20 years to ruining this woman’s life.
‘
It’s appalling, and I can not believe it hasn’t been discussed in more detail.
debbie
Now remind me, who was the thug of Super Bowl L?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
Gives a whole new meaning to “Ballghazi”.
Trentrunner
This is a GREAT article by Rebecca Solnit on erasing men’s agency from rape and other violence. Excerpt:
Feathers
I must confess he has always been a bit too goddam smug for me.
Not surprised at all. For all the complaints about social media, that this sort of shit can’t be kept secret anymore is a true blessing.
John Cole
I wish all the court documents re: Ben would be released so we could dispel with the bullshit or condemn him like I feel I can Peyton.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
Aqib Talib. At least he was the one who was called for multiple personal fouls, including one he admitted was deliberate and intended to intimidate, and got a big fine.
Bob In Portland
But he seems like such a nice guy with Papa John, and on those Nationwide commercials.
M. Bouffant
Surprised? Not in the fucking least.
When the hell do we start killing the aristocrats?
JPL
At least he didn’t have deflated balls.
TaMara (BHF)
When, in what I hope is several decades away, my father passes, I will actively root for the death of football.
Gindy51
@Feathers: Me too . Here’s hoping this gets some traction unlike the human growth hormone thing. It’s about damned time. Of course look how long it took for Cosby’s victims to get recognition… I’d like to see his endorsement cash drop like Woods’ did after his cheating surfaced.
Steeplejack (phone)
Maybe Peyton could atone by teabagging Papa John. Or vice versa. Or both.
Felonius Monk
This kind of behavior is apparently condoned at Univ. of Tennessee, at least according to this lawsuit.
NobodySpecial
Wonder if this story ever comes to light without the Al-Jazeera investigation into other matters.
The Thin Black Duke
Meanwhile, Roger Goodell hides underneath his desk, ignoring the ringing of his phone.
p.a.
He, via Ari Fleischman I believe, sent a couple of ‘investigators’ to scare the HGH source into recanting. There’s a 911 call I’ll try to track down and link to. The HGH issue is only relevant here in New England for us Manning haters. His well cultivated relations with the national press has served him well, as well as his ascension years ago as NFL poster boy.
(The HGH stuff pales in comparison to sexual assault and character assasination, but it does provide further evidence of character’ or lack of.)
Doug R
@Roger Moore: I saw that facemask. He should have been ejected there. You can break a guy’s neck, that’s why it’s a penalty.
VFX Lurker
From the article John posted:
“According to court documents and affidavits, her boss, associate trainer Mike Rollo, perceived Naughright to be a lesbian. Rollo, who had just left working with a group of young women he also thought to be lesbians, allegedly began calling Naughright “c–t bumper.” This wasn’t a rare occurrence or something he said to her only in private; he allegedly called her that in front of others. For three years, until 1992, when Naughright built up enough courage to complain, she said she was almost exclusively called “c–t bumper,” or “bumper” for short, by a variety of staff members in the program (see court documents, pages 5-7; all subsequent references are to these).”
…
“Before she left, though, two staff members of the school, according to the documents, asked Naughright if she would consider blaming the entire incident not on Manning, but on another athlete — a black one. According to Naughright, the staff members (named as Mr. Wyant and Mr. Rollo), went so far as to actually name a specific black athlete she could blame it on. Of course, she refused (see pages 18-19).”
This is all kinds of awful.
ruemara
Hey, I was assured that Cam Newton was the bad guy because he didn’t give an interview.
p.a.
here is the call.
marduk
Just like with his HGH usage, the NFL media members have their narrative of Peyton Manning, apex of human decency, and no facts will be allowed to intrude.
trollhattan
@The Thin Black Duke:
Goodell is a worthless piece of shite for everyone except for 32 NFL owners; you know, the ones paying him north of 40 mil.
dr. bloor
Much of this is old news. It only looks new because Big Sports has labored to maintain his “Gee, golly gosh” image for so long. See also: Nantz, Jim.
trollhattan
@p.a.:
Jeez. I had no idea. The whole bunch are scum.
Germy
These people aren’t my heroes. One of the reasons why I skip the football threads here. I’m just not into the jock worship. They were assholes in high school, they were assholes in college, and they’re assholes playing pro ball. Fuck them.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
Newton is a schmuck, but that doesn’t mean Manning can’t be far worse.
Villago Delenda Est
@M. Bouffant: That’s what it boils down to. Assholes who think they’re entitled, and those who fulfill that entitlement.
Payton Manning is dogshit. His father is dogshit. Time to police it up and dispose of it.
Villago Delenda Est
@ruemara: Also, blah. Don’t think that has a hell of a lot to do with how Richard Sherman is treated by the media vermin.
D58826
TWO WORDS – WHITE AND WEALTH.
Roger Moore
@Doug R:
I noticed that Goodell is talking about making a second personal foul in a game an automatic ejection. That sounds like a good idea to me, though I’d also make any unsportsmanlike conduct penalty an automatic ejection for good measure.
SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel
@The Thin Black Duke:
Serious question, because I really don’t have a clue how this all works, but since the alleged incident happened while Manning was a college player, would Goodell/NFL actually have standing to do anything about it? (Even if he were so inclined which, I grant you, is unlikely.)
The Raven
Fuckin’ sociopathic stalkers.
Isobel
Im surprised this has not come out before now, considering he ruined this woman’s career for the most recent time in 2003. Al Jazeera has been good for US media and has done a lot of work on sexual assault stories. They were the ones who broke the Bob Jones story wide open a few years ago.
Adam L Silverman
@SiubhanDuinne, Annoying Scoundrel: The lawsuit in Florida occurred once Manning was in the NFL. Part of that settlement should have required that all future copies of the book be edited to remove the inaccurate and slanderous material. I’m curious as to why that wasn’t the case.
Adam L Silverman
Here’s the link to the full 74 pp court document:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2712091/Factsofthecase.pdf
Mike G
As with Wall Street and televangelists, so with the NFL — when the large majority of leading lights of your subculture turn out to be unethical ruthless scumbags, it’s time to take a serious look at whether you should continue to support such a subculture.
StellaB
@Villago Delenda Est: Richard Sherman thinks that he’s smarter than everybody else, ironically, due to the fact that he is smarter than everybody else. The fact that he chooses to scramble that brain playing football makes me ill.
RSA
@Germy:
In my opinion people who play sports don’t fall into the category of heroes by playing sports, even if they do it very well, or if they play for “us” rather than “them”.
scav
Heavens forfend the superbowl midgame whatever be anything other than family-friendly police-worshipping and obedient entertainment to better demonstrate the the ‘mercan xian values that the sport instills into the culture.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
If you looked up white male privilege in the dictionary, there would be very many pictures of seditionists, killer cops, hedge fund douchebros, sports stars and frat boys, but this gives Peyton his own special category. Fuck that guy.
Jewish Steel
Add this to the teetering pile of reasons why I have stopped watching football.
Joel
It took long enough for this to catch fire. Well, good.
This stuff popped up thirteen years ago, never to be heard from again.
geg6
He’s always given me the creeps and now I know why. Disgusting.
Frank Wilhoit
@D58826: We got where we are by letting people off the hook. It doesn’t matter who, and it doesn’t matter why. If you focus on the who, or on the why, you are setting up an infinite game of whack-a-mole. The problem is unaccountability — for any class of actor, for any class of transgression.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
Thanks for sharing this, Cole.
Steve in the ATL
Shocking behavior from a guy who maxed out donations to W and Jeb
Villago Delenda Est
@Frank Wilhoit: See: War criminals responsible for waging a war of aggression in 2003.
monkeyfister
I do wonder why anyone is ever surprised to learn– over, and over, and over again– that today’s football athletes have no character, and are simply highly-paid violent criminals in tight-fitting uniforms. Put them in a “You’re SPECIAL!” bubble, feed them up on steroids and booze and over-arching, ruthless competitiveness, smash their brains into mush every week, and expect them to keep their violence inside the sports arena? Yagottabekiddingme.
Football fanatics have a really serious blind spot when it comes to the very negative, wide-reaching social effects of this game, and the entire Grade School/NCAA/NFL scheme. Kids ape their sports heroes, not video game characters.
We all HATE the misogynistic beer commercials and the other ads related to the sport on TV, but no one seems to ever question that the ad agencies are simply targeting the football fans’ heavily focus-grouped and analyzed interests. We ponder forever about just WHERE folks like Gamergaters get their hate…
Thoroughly Pizzled
Fuck Peyton for this. Every time he made the wrong, contemptible choice.
patrick II
Peyton was one of those people I didn’t like, but didn’t know why. Now I know why.
Joel
Hey, now would be a good time for someone to dig some more into the legacy of Tom Osborne (R-Nebraska).
Is Shaun King up for the task of another monumental takedown? Might even be a harder job.
JPL
@Joel: It might last more than a day, because of twitter.
JPL
@Steve in the ATL: IOKIYR
The Other Chuck
There goes my hero. Watch him as he goes.
Actually, I never hold up sports stars as heroes. Admired Peyton for the longevity of his career and thus rooted for his Superb Owl win, but now I can’t imagine why that was a good thing. Fuck these gladiator pieces of shit.
Steve from Antioch
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: @JPL:
Sexual assault is perhaps not the best springboard for humor.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@John Cole: The Ohio stuff was an open secret during his entire college career. Coincidentally, reports of his disregard for the formalities, as he appears to view them, of consent followed him into the pros. Gobsmacking, ain’t it?
Not a bit surprised by the Mannings. Call me cynical.
@Gindy51:
Ironic that cheating will kill endorsements faster than sexual assault. Surely there’s no other reason.
Steve from Antioch
@monkeyfister:
This.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL: Belated thanks for the thoughtful High Country link. Is “Gentile” how Mormons refer to non-Mormons? I gather that it is, but I can’t for the life of me say why. See if Doug! gets that lyric reference, or anyone else for that matter.
JPL
Peyton’s rumored affairs were never investigated, and his possible use of HGH won’t be either.
If it takes a resurrection of a thirteen year old article, to tarnish his lily white reputation, so be it.
eclare
Year after he left UT, we won national championship with black qb. Who gets no love/respect. So glad we live in post racial world.
Frank Wilhoit
@Joel: I have a little story about Tom Osborne, having been at UNL early in his coaching career there. I also had a spy at the Board of Regents’ meetings (our department’s faculty rep, all aboveboard). Anyhow, the Huskers started off Osborne’s second or third season (I think it was 1982?) 0 for 2 and there was talk of canning him. The Regents’ discussion of that notion was as diffuse as one might expect, but included one gem. Osborne at the time was most notorious for conducting prayer meetings with the team before games; one of the Regents speculated that this had something to do with the loss of the first two games of that season, in words that were reported to me as: “He’s just too nice, the goddamn Christian sonofabitch!”
None of which, of course, might have happened or been said at any later date.
monkeyfister
@Steve from Antioch: Thanks.
monkeyfister
Fun free-time research project: DoD Branches’ Special Warfare Sponsorship of, and Recruitment at NFL Combines.
Not sure it’s any big eye-opening surprise, but a lot of money and effort there. I’ve always looked at it as a sort of Diversion Program.
Ruckus
John, your gob is smacked that entitled people act entitled?
I think @monkeyfister: goes a little far, that all football players are violent criminals but that many of them are should be no surprise, for exactly the reasons he states. It is no longer a simple game, it is big money. Very big money.
Emma Anne
Yuck. I hadn’t heard any of this. Takes some of the shine off the Broncos’ Super Bowl victory.
cokane
wow. I appreciate the link Cole
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): That was a good read. And yes, for members of the LDS even Jews are gentiles. This is why they perform posthumous conversions.
p.a.
Joel
@Frank Wilhoit: Wouldn’t surprise me in the very least that University admins would gaze longingly after the legacy of Barry Switzer…
Adam L Silverman
@p.a.: I always like: “character is what you do when no one is looking”.
p.a.
@scav:
Someone SB week had a list of halftime shows for every SB game. Traditional marching bands early on, Up With People several times, and in one of the earlier SBs, Ella Fitzgerald. That’s the halftime show apogee, no doubt!
raven
This is news huh?
p.a.
Surprised the show never went here.
monkeyfister
@Ruckus: My attempts at brevity sometimes, errantly, put the broadbrush in my hand, but I am glad you understand my angle, and my intent.
Mothra
Here in Tennessee Manning was idolized by all – we had no pro team at that point and UT football was IT. When this happened several of my rabid UT girlfriends laughed it up about how Peyton could moon them and they wouldn’t mind. I had no idea it was more than mooning but I never doubted that Manning did this to intimidate the female trainer. This is disgusting.
Manning continues to be held up as a standard for good behavior when black players do anything that Tennessee football fans don’t approve of –
bystander
@Bob In Portland: I thought the Nationwide commercials were heinous enough to earn my enmity. Everything else is just icing on the sh*tcake.
Capri
@eclare: UT fans and administration also ran off Cuonzo Martin, because he wasn’t dirty enough for them and wanted to build a basketball program the right way. UT is the bottom of the barrel in my book.
raven
@Capri: Big Orange sucks!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Adam L Silverman: I thought it was the lost tribes of Israel thing. The posthumous baptism thing offends me even more than it creeps me out. How dare they?
@raven: It wasn’t for me, but I’m not the best measure.
Mothra
Ok the full article is so much worse.
AnotherBruce
No word from CBS sports or ESPN websites. Maybe we can pretend it didn’t happen, as in HGH pretend.
The Lodger
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Yes, it is. This amuses some Jewish friends of mine no end.
AnotherBruce
Interesting, I went over to the SBN University of Tennessee website. They have a big story about a federal sexual assault trial the alleges a culture of assault going back 20 years. Zero mention of Manning either in the story or in the comments.
scav
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): “posthumous baptism” is just another of those all that matters is what I think of believe of do flavor of religion. Doesn’t matter what you or they think, my baptism of you/them saves you/them. God can’t be trusted to save or damn the individuals according to his/her/their own criteria or agency, some legitimizing action must be performed by The Believer. Just as now the Believer knows God has forgiven his sins, know he himself is saved, but You People are beyond redemption, you are sinners and damned. And now even that The Believer’s beliefs outrank obeying the laws or certainly larger cultural norms of civic politeness. but I guess that’s a mere bagatelle after usurping the power of eternal damnation from the hands of God himself.
Steve in the ATL
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I had no idea about the Gentiles thing. Mormons don’t have a noticeable presence in these parts. I did read the book “The Salamander Letter” out of curiosity and was horrified by the behavior of the church. Of course, growing up down here I had long been horrified by many other churches. The racism of the Southern Baptists is staggering. I hear Mormons are the same way, but I’m not sure how often they actually encounter minorities.
Steve in the ATL
@Capri: No way–Auburn is by far the dirtiest program in the SEC
Keith P.
@debbie: The guy who answered the question of “Why did you lose?” with “we didn’t play well enough” and left. I feared for my own safety, and I was watching it from a time-delayed video stream.
raven
@Steve in the ATL: Ding. . .from Athens!
Ruckus
@monkeyfister:
No worries.
I threw away the broadbrush some time ago. It takes work and effort to not be all inclusive but it is worth it to get there. SOB did keep showing up at the oddest times but I think I’ve finally learned to paint with a very small and fine brush, one that captures the point without painting everything the same. Unless I intend to do so.
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): that came out of the same Burnt Over district/revivalism that produced the Millerites and ultimately the Pentacostals. It’s an adaptation of what would become the British-Israelite concept of the Victorian period, and when fused with Pentacostalism in the 1950s would produce the racialized Christian Identity.
p.a.
@efgoldman: I in no way want to defend Peyton on the HGH issue, but looking at HGH as at ‘meta’ level, I have not heard much about its use being dangerous as steroids are. I’m sure given the knowledge base here I’ll be corrected tout de suite.
So my point is, if HGH merely aids recovery from injury, what’s the issue with it? If a trainer comes up with a new therapy to lessen the downtime from an ACL, that wouldn’t be banned. The surgeon who came up with Tommy John surgery wasn’t banned from using it even though technically it provided a competitive advantage to the players that got it.
Bad analogies?
raven
@p.a.: It’s the coverup not the crime.
p.a.
@raven: Yes, a coverup of what should not be a crime (again, I await correction on the dangers of HGH)
Do we have any Md or PT commenters?
Steve in the ATL
@raven: Unrelated, but did you ever get a chance to hear the Normaltown Flyers? Their rendition of “Orange Blossom Special” was legendary.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL: I think until recently Mormons believed skin any color other than white was a visible mark of G*d’s curse. So my sense is that they’ve given Southern Baptists a run for their money over the years. But I’m very weak on the religious history stuff, especially in the US. I know what little I know about LDS primarily as ancillary to the study of Native history in undergrad.
Steve in the ATL
@efgoldman: You get some of that in the Middle East: “Are we going to make it to the airport in time?” “If Allah wills it….”
raven
@Steve in the ATL: Heck yes, I live about 100 yards (as the crow flies) from the old Allen’s. Orange Blossom is played by David Blackmon and we were lucky enough to have him play our wedding party.
Steve in the ATL
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): So, like the Southern Baptists, their god is a real asshole
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Steve in the ATL: Indeed. Just had more of a different shade of skin to kill than in the south.
As for Protestant Xians, what the hell happened to the kindness I’m given to understand Jesus preached? I hear Papa Francisco is trying to remind lots of Romans of it, but I still don’t get the anger and tribalism of Xianity.
Uncle Cosmo
@StellaB: Mmm…Sherman is smarter than almost everybody else.
Have a gander at the Wiki entry for Baltimore Ravens guard/center and MIT PhD candidate John Urschel. Which fails to mention two notable facts:
1. He presented the results of that 2015 Journal of Computational Mathematics paper in a seminar at No Such Agency last year.
2. He drives a used Nissan Versa because it was cheap, it gets great gas mileage, & rarely has trouble finding a parking space for it. Read more here. Including a photo of the Urschelmobile in the parking lot at the Ravens’ facility.
raven
Athens Rockin’ Roots Revisted: NormalTown Flyers
Including Dance with me and the great White Trash song,
A man come ’round this morning,
Wanting to paint my barn
Paint it “See it Rock City, US Highway 41”
Steve in the ATL
@raven: Awesome!
Felonius Monk
Fat Tony has died. Obama gets another appointment before he leaves office.
Neil
@JPL: Sadly, I have a strong suspicion that “Deflategate” will remain a bigger and more well-known scandal than this. “Peyton Manning sexually assaulted a woman? Eh, at least he didn’t cheat!”
I’m pretty positive this will do little to tarnish him or show how anti-women these people are. Maybe I’m pessimistic, but I can see people remembering Super Bowl 50 more for Cam Newton and his press conference than for how its winning quarterback was revealed to have sexually assaulted a woman and covered it up for more than a decade with his father’s help.
WaterGirl
@Felonius Monk: I am officially a bad person for hoping this was true as I went to google it. Of course, the article I found said that in this political climate, he wouldn’t be replaced until we have a new president.
Just One More Canuck
@Felonius Monk: I just listened to CBS talking about this and they said that the Senate may wait out Obama’s term, rolling the dice on who wins in November. That just reinforces what so many here have said – it’s the Supreme Court, stupid
Ella in New Mexico
@Germy:
Well, not all of them. It’s about the culture of the school’s athletic program and it’s coaches, and which sport you’re talking about.
But the ones who go on to become famous like this dirtbag? Too often THIS kind of shit is what it takes. They treat their fellow players like shit, they get special favors and bailed out by coaches and stage parents. They never learn the best lessons athletics can teach them.
I’m so over pro sports. No real good comes from it anymore.
Please, please, let this come out and totally take down this pig once and his piggy father and anyone else who acted like pigs just to advance a football career.
Hope
sport, as constituted in both the US and world-wide, is a cancer on society. Any redeeming feature is canceled by its pernicious influence.