Peyton Manning’s doping scandal just took a turn for the worse

Has there ever been a single doping scandal in which the athlete was eventually cleared? Let me know.

In a report published yesterday by the Washington Post, a few new facts have come out about the doping scandal spreading around Peyton Manning’s alleged use of human growth hormones (HGH):

1. For the first time Manning admits that drugs from the Guyer Institute were shipping to Manning’s home. Earlier Manning claimed this was preposterous and false. Turns out, nope, drugs were sent after all.
2. Manning hired private investigators to look into Charles Sly’s¹ background before the original report was published by Al Jazeera.
3. The private investigators showed up at the home of Sly’s parents; they threatened to call 9–1–1 as the investigators appeared menacing. According to the parents the PIs claimed to be police officers.
4. Charles Sly recanted his report two days after meeting with these investigators.

What this means: this means the story of Manning’s HGH use (or not) is not going away. While Al Jazeera’s story is a little wonky in places the question remains: has there ever been a doping scandal in sports where the athlete was eventually cleared?

Sports comment: wow, how bad would Manning be *without* the juice? Manning has been on a rapid decline the past two seasons. He is known to have used a stem cell treatment in his neck several years ago to provide more years in his career.

Snarky comment: if they let Ray Lewis use deer antler spray and kill a guy, what’s the big deal? Ray Lewis was a player for the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. In 2012 Lewis recovered surprisingly quickly from an injury; there were allegations he had used a banned substance in “deer antler spray” to do so. In 2000 Lewis either assisted his friends in killing a man in his limo or watched it happen and said nothing. Yet he is on TV as an announcer every weekend.