Source: Getty
According to ESPN, Al Jazeera’s documentary, posted online early Sunday morning with it set to air on TV later in the day, reports that Manning was given a supply of human growth hormone in 2011, while he was recovering from his 2011 surgery, from a man identified as a pharmacist then employed at the anti-aging Guyer Institute in Indiana. The report cites the pharmacist, Charlie Sly, who allegedly spoke to an undercover reporter working for the network for an undercover report into doping in global sports. Sly later recanted his story, first to Al Jazeera and then to ESPN.
In the documentary, Sly also mentioned Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, Nationals infielder Ryan Zimmerman and boxer Mike Tyson as other athletes who received HGH shipments from him while he worked at the Indianapolis-based Guyer Institute.
In the report, titled “The Dark Side,” Al Jazeera says in an article shared in advance with The Huffington Post that steroids and other drugs were shipped to the home address of Manning in 2011 in the name of his wife, Ashley, so that the quarterback’s name was never attached to the shipments.
Sly, now based in Austin, Texas, also accused Manning and his wife in the undercover video of going to the clinic after its normal business hours for intravenous treatments.
In a statement to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen Sunday night, Manning vehemently denied the claims: “For the record, I have never used HGH. It absolutely never happened. The whole thing is totally wrong. It’s such a fabrication, I’m not losing any sleep over it, that’s for sure.”
He added, “the allegation that I would do something like that is complete garbage and is totally made up. It never happened. Never. I really can’t believe somebody would put something like this on the air. Whoever said this is making stuff up.”
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