December 27, 2015 – Al Jazeera America suggets Peyton Manning may have joined “The Dark Side”

NFL: Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos

The culmination of months of various rumors about Peyton Manning came to an ugly head the night of December 27. For over six weeks he had been subject to a range of trying reports – that he didn’t intend to play in Denver in 2016, that the Broncos had no intention of playing him ever again, that he would refuse to play a backup role to Brock Osweiler – but the most egregious came in the form of an Al Jazeera America investigative report, The Dark Side: Secrets Of The Sports Dopers, which suggested Manning may have used performance enhancing drugs in 2011 when he was recovering from multiple neck surgeries. In an interview with ESPN, Manning called the report “completely fabricated, complete trash, garbage.” The source in the report claiming knowledge of Manning’s use had recanted his statements even before the report aired.