Shock waves were sent through the sports world Saturday night when The Huffington Post previewed a documentary by Al Jazeera, which links Peyton Manning, Ryan Zimmerman, James Harrison and a number of high-profile athletes with human growth hormones.
You can watch the full documentary, “The Dark Side: Secrets Of The Sports Dopers,” above.
Manning, who is accused of receiving HGH shipments in 2011 while he was recovering a series of neck injuries that kept him out the entire season, responded to the claims via a statement released by the Denver Broncos:
The allegation that I would do something like that is complete garbage and is totally made up. It never happened. Never. I really can’t believe somebody would put something like this on the air. Whoever said this is making stuff up.
Sunday morning, he met with ESPN’s Lisa Salters and further discussed the accusations:
What hurts me the most about this is whoever this guy is, this slapstick, trying to insinuate in 2011, when I had more or less a broken neck. I don’t know — four neck surgeries, broken neck, I’m sure there’s a difference in there. I busted my butt to get healthy. Put in a lot of hard work. I saw a lot of doctors. Went to the Guyer Clinic to a hyperbaric chamber. Time ended up being probably my best medicine along with a lot of hard work.
The Broncos have backed up Manning, but this is surely a story that will continue to rage on for quite some time.