Peyton Manning goes down as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, but there was a time when he was mired in controversey surrounding his neck injury.Peyto
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The whole neck injury itself had a lot of misinformation around it, regarding when it started, when it was identified, and how severe it was.
It all really started in 2006 when Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts took on the then Washington Redskins in a regular season matchup. Manning was hit hard in the neck by Andre Carter and his helmet came off. The hit must have done something has in 2010 the disk in his neck began to do nerve damage, and that’s when things became serious. Manning would undergo several surgeries, and the Colts, uncertain about his future wouldn’t re-sign him, leading him to play for the Broncos.
Reports started to come out later that Manning had used Human Growth Hormones to assist in his recovery, something that’s definitely illegal. Al Jazeera did an exposé on Manning which he ripped to shreds later.
Peyton Manning hated Al Jazeera’s report that he used HGH to recover from neck injuries
The Al Jazeera undercover probe ran a story that Manning was using PED’s from an anti-aging clinic to assist him in his comeback. They used claims from a man named Charlie Sly who was speaking to an Al Jazeera undercover agent.
Manning was interviewed by ESPN, and he remained defiant in his rejection of the claims made by the report. He would say:
“Absolutely not, absolutely not. What hurts me the most about this, whoever this guy is, this slapstick trying to insinuate that in 2011, when more than less I had a broken neck — I had four neck surgeries. … It stings me whoever this guy is to insinuate that I cut corners, I broke NFL rules in order to get healthy. It’s a joke. It’s a freaking joke.”
He also added:
“I think I rotated between being angry, furious. Disgusted is really how I feel, sickened by it. I’m trying to understand how someone can make something up about somebody, admit that he made it up and yet somehow it gets published in a story. I don’t understand that. Maybe you can explain it or somebody else can. It’s completely fabricated, complete trash, garbage — there’s more adjectives I’d like to be able to use. It really makes me sick.”
The Al Jazeera report also came after his wife, something Manning definitely did not appreciate at all saying whatever treatments she received was her business and had nothing to do with him.
You can watch the full interview here:
