Nick Piccone
Peyton Manning came out swinging this morning as ESPN spoke with him during one of his throwing sessions, asking him questions about the Al Jazeera undercover doping investigation report that broke last night. Manning looked visibly pissed off and didn’t pull any punches when talking about Charlie Sly, referring to him as a slapstick.
Manning never said his wife, Ashley, didn’t take HGH, but I guess that’s really none of our business, anyway. He denied using it, and he seemed legitimately upset that someone would question the work he’s put in to come back from four neck surgeries.
Absolutely not, absolutely not,” Manning said. “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.”
Manning repeatedly referred to Sly as a “slapstick” during his interview with ESPN and said his plan remains to make a healthy return from a nagging foot injury that has sidelined him since mid-November.
“I’m not going to lose any sleep over this report, this slapstick’s lies,” Manning said. “Keep my head up above it, keep pressing on, trying to get healthy, trying to get back onto the field next week, practice with the team and go from there.”
Slapsticks indeed. Watch Manning’s response below.
Now, would it be a lot easier to come back from four neck surgeries on HGH? Yeah, probably. But now people will ask themselves, “Well, he did some back and look better than ever, so…” and that’s probably not fair to Manning at this point. But the investigation will continue, I’m sure.