In honor of Peyton Manning’s “last rodeo, ” we rewind back to 1996 when he dropped his pants and put his naked nut sack in the face of a female trainer. It was eventually deemed sexual harassment after a suit against the University of Tennessee surfaced a few years later.
Here’s the story:
To wit, way back in 1996 when Manning was a junior at the University of Tennessee, he allegedly sexually harassed a female trainer. According to this excerpt from the university’s investigative report, Jamie Ann Naughright (then Whited) was treating Manning’s foot when he began “asking me several personal questions” including whether she “hang(s) out with people she works with.” When Naughright rebuffed Manning, he decided to drop trou. Naughright had her head down, but upon hearing the chuckles and guffaws, she looked up only to find herself face-to-face with Manning’s exposed ass and testicles.
“It was the gluteus maximus, the rectum, the testicles and the area in between the testicles. And all that was on my face when I pushed him up, ” Naughright would later say in a court deposition in a suit against the University of Tennessee (more on this in a bit). “To get leverage, I took my head out to push him up and off.” (DailyBeast)
What seems like a stupid college kid prank, took a very serious turn. Naughright and the university ended up agreeing to a $300, 000 settlement. The terms remained confidential.
It was reported that the University disciplined Manning at the time by removing his access to the dining room and making him run at 6am for two straight weeks, so it didn’t go unnoticed.
Manning later said in a book that he thought his actions were “inappropriate” but never expected the legal reaction he got from Naughright. He expected her to just “play it off” especially since he was attempting to moon another athlete, not Naughright. According to him.
Malcolm Saxon, a track and field athlete who was in the room during the incident, wrote a letter to Manning to say that no, he was not the intended moon-ee (as Manning had written in his book), imploring him to “maintain some dignity and admit to what happened… Your celebrity doesn’t mean you can treat folks that way… Do the right thing here.”
After hearing this, Manning once again spoke out about the incident to defend himself. He was also taken to court again.
Two years later, Naughright again took Manning to court after he violated the terms of the agreement by babbling about the incident “on network television nationally in a documentary entitled ESPN Classic Sports Century: Peyton Manning.”
There’s more to the story you can read here.
This poor woman’s life will be forever attached to Manning’s testicles, and he continues to use every available microphone to discredit her for an “inappropriate” action he took.
Fast forward to 2016 and Manning is currently getting investigated by the NFL for taking human growth hormones, an accusation originally made by Al Jazeera America. What did Manning do when he first heard the news? Ran to a microphone and told everyone the story was “complete garbage.”
Shortly after that he hired George Bush’s former press secretary, Ari Fleischer, to bash Al Jazeera until the website shutdown.
Makes you wonder if he really did take the human growth hormones or not.
The NFL is still actively investigating that, but there’s no debate about his inappropriate naked bean bag. That move resulted in paying $300k.
