A new report from Al Jazeera's investigative division contains a claim that Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was involved in a doping ring with a number of other professional athletes.
The report follows Liam Collins, a hurdler who went undercover posing as an athlete willing to do anything and everything to get one last chance at glory in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Collins contacted a number of pharmacists, including Charlie Sly, who claimed that he had worked with a number of athletes in football and baseball that were taking performance enhancing drugs.
In the report, Sly claims that during his time at the Guyer Institute, an anti-aging clinic based in Indiana, he mailed human growth hormone to Peyton Manning's wife Ashley in order to avoid the star player's name being attached to the product.
Manning, for his part, has released a statement denying any involvement in the situation, refuting all allegations and claiming that "whoever said this is making stuff up".
Personal statement from Peyton Manning released by the Broncos ... pic.twitter.com/O5pJuwzWGF
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 27, 2015
Manning's career has spanned 17 seasons to date, and he plans to continue despite reports that he was struggling to regain fitness and may be forced out through injury as soon as this weekend.
After the story broke on Saturday night, ESPN contacted Sly to get his comments on the report, and he recanted his remarks, claiming that he had made it all up.
He stated that "I was trying to determine whether this guy [Collins, the reporter] was legitimate or just trying to steal some knowledge about the business. He had been talking about how he could get players from the Premier League. I was testing his knowledge so I dropped names like Peyton Manning, Derek Jeter, Ryan Howard and James Harrison, and none of those guys were clients".
For their part, the Denver Broncos have also issued a statement in support of Manning, saying that "knowing Peyton Manning and everything he stands for, the Denver Broncos support him 100 percent. These are false claims made to Al Jazeera, and we don’t believe the report. Peyton is rightfully outraged by the allegations, which he emphatically denied to our organization and which have been publicly renounced by the source who initially provided them".
They also stated that they "do not find this story to be credible", and have confidence that Peyton has "shown nothing but respect for the game" throughout his career.
While both parties are now denying involvement, there may be more to this story yet to emerge in the coming days and weeks.
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