In “Steroids: Peyton Manning Caught on the “Dark Side,” December 29, 2015, I relegated this Football superstar to the rogues’ gallery of athletes who used steroids to fuel their way to fame, glory, and fortune. Here is an excerpt.
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I watched Al Jazeera’s “The Dark Side: Secrets of the Sports Dopers.” And, I must say, 60 Minutes could not have presented a more compelling report…
Finding out that Peyton Manning cheated in Football is rather like finding out that Jimmy Carter cheated on his wife. [And] having Tom ‘Deflategate’ Brady defend his professional integrity is rather like have Vladimir Putin defend Bashir Assad’s democratic values…
Even before Manning’s Armstrongesque denial, I asserted in text messages to an old friend that there’s too much smoke in that Al Jazeera report for there to be no fire. More to the point, I warned that it would constitute consciousness of guilt if Manning throws his wife under the bus.
Sure enough, that’s exactly what he did [insinuating that steroid deliveries to their marital home were for her]. [Never mind that] his wife would be hard-pressed to provide any legitimate reason for receiving steroids for her personal use.
That said, I’ve been in the vanguard of those calling for the legalization of all performance-enhancing drugs.
Steroid use has flourished in … professional sports pursuant to an open conspiracy among players and team owners. This, to feed the gladiatorial lust of fans who want to see stronger, faster athletic cyborgs perform for their atavistic enjoyment. And, of course, the more fans revel in their steroid-fueled feats of athleticism, the bigger the players’ contracts (and even bigger the owners’ bottom line) become.
(“Barry Bonds Is a Steroid Junkie … Duh,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 8, 2006)
This Al Jazeera report merely provides more compelling evidence to help us make the case for legalizing steroids in all professional sports. Only legalization will stop making liars and cheaters of naturally gifted athletes like Armstrong, Jones … and Manning.
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Unsurprisingly, I took a lot of flak from nincompoops for whom Football is a religion and Manning a demigod. But there was no denying the injury that Al Jazeera report inflicted on his saintly reputation. This is why Manning protested his innocence with such vehemence, which included an indignant threat to sue to reclaim his “good name”?
Now comes this:
When Manning was linked to human growth hormone use by Al Jazeera in late 2015, the NFL great described himself as angry, disgusted, sickened — and likely to sue. Not anymore…
The change of heart for the record-breaking quarterback was apparently motivated by Manning’s decision to dodge the amount of time and money needed for a lawsuit.
(Daily News, May 26, 2016)
Think about that folks. Peyton has retired and is reportedly worth half a billion dollars. Yet this celebrated role model can’t be bothered to spend the time and money necessary to defend his “good name”.
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls…
He that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
(William Shakespeare, “Othello,” Act 3, Scene 3)
As I noted in my original commentary, something stinks in the state of Manning’s mind. After all, backtracking on suing Al Jazeera only reinforces his consciousness of guilt.
Granted, there’s something to be said for not following the precedent Lance Armstrong set. Because all Armstrong has to show for suing L’Equipe, the newspaper that outed him, is legal confirmation about the frankensteinian nature of his steroid use. Not to mention a debit of millions in legal fees in his bank account. But this only proves that Armstrong is as big a fool as Manning is a coward.
Manning apologists insist that he’s just waiting to see how the other cheaters Al Jazeera outed fare with their defamation lawsuits. But this “bandwagon litigation” strategy further reinforces his guilt and cowardice.
After all, if a newspaper implicated you and two friends in a gang rape, and alibis could place you thousands of miles away when it occurred, would you wait for your friends to file defamation lawsuits to clear their names, before doing so to clear yours?
Whatever the case, Manning should suffer the same fate that has befallen Baseball superstar Barry Bonds; that is, having sports writers put an asterisk next to his professional accomplishments and advertisers treat him like the plague. He should end up bemoaning his fate that way Bonds was quoted bemoaning his:
There’s no such thing as an asterisk in Baseball.
(ESPN, December 7, 2007)
Except that racism in America is such that, where the MLB seems determined to blackball Bonds, the NFL seems determined to whitewash Manning. Nothing dramatizes this quite like Manning riding off into retirement this year as a Football champion, and Bonds being forced into retirement in 2008 as a Baseball pariah.
In “Jones Admits Using Steroids,” October 12, 2007, I posed the rhetorical question: If Marion Jones wasn’t clean, who in Track and Field is? Hence, with even greater cynicism I ask: If Peyton Manning wasn’t clean, who in Football is?
President Obama is scheduled to host Manning and his Denver Broncos teammates, this year’s Super Bowl champions, at the White House on Monday. Obama would do well to bear this question in mind when he roasts them.
Related commentaries:
Peyton Manning…
Armstrong confesses…
Bonds blackballed…