outside the lines is even jumping in!
gag order be damned!
http://espn.go.com/espnw/voices/art...aid-peyton-manning-sexual-assault-allegations
Thing is, the real reason this Manning stuff is news again 20 years later is because people are just now learning the extent of the allegations -- and just now realizing that for years
the story had been treated with kid gloves.
I remember hearing about Manning's so-called college "prank" a year or so ago. It was a footnote in a larger story, an almost throwaway mention of an alleged 1996 "mooning" incident when he was a junior quarterback at UT. I'm never one to shrug off reports of alleged sexual assault, but this seemed like just a joke gone wrong, an immature student-athlete who accidentally mooned a female trainer while attempting to bare his backside to a fellow male athlete. That's how Manning spun the incident, that's how most writers reported at it the time, and that's how most writers have reported it ever since.
If reporters can write about Manning's alleged 1996 sexual assault incident with so much detail 20 years later,
why wasn't the same care and attention given to it years ago? And why weren't those more-detailed allegations made clear until now, when he may have already played his final game? Was Manning's incredible football pedigree too intimidating? Was it simply easier to ignore athletes behaving badly before the days of social media? Was the "boys will be boys" mentality of that era so pervasive that women like Naughright were simply expected to keep quiet and take it? Did both fans and reporters create a narrative for Manning they were too scared to disrupt?
The truth is, it's probably a combination of all of those things. Manning was, to fans and media alike, one of the good guys. His football legacy, "aw shucks" attitude, legendary football IQ and fantastic comedic timing made him an easy guy to root for. And once the book has been written on a guy, no one wants to take the time to rewrite it, especially if the edits spoil the happy ending. It's easier to deny, deny, deny than to admit that a player might be great at football, great on TV, great at children's hospitals and charity events, but still be very flawed.