Al Jazeera reporter: No allegations Manning actually used HGH

An Al Jazeera reporter clarified Tuesday that the controversial report involving Peyton Manning and HGH makes no allegations that the Broncos quarterback actually used the drug.

An Al Jazeera reporter clarified Tuesday that the controversial report involving Peyton Manning and HGH makes no allegations that the Broncos quarterback actually used the drug.

Deborah Davies, the reporter behind the documentary, which includes a claim that Manning was sent the drug via his wife for use in recovery from neck surgery, said on NBC’s Today show Tuesday that the report never alleges Manning used the drug.

“Let’s make it clear what the allegation is,” Davies said. “The allegation in the program is very simple: that when Charlie Sly worked in the Guyer [Institute] doing part of his training . . . the clinic was sending out not one shipment but repeated shipments of growth hormone to Ashley Manning in Florida. That’s it.”

The accusations in the documentary were made by Charlie Sly, who was an intern at the Guyer Institute, an Indianapolis-based anti-aging clinic tied to providing the drugs. Sly has since recanted all claims featured in the film, titled “The Dark Side: Secrets of the Sports Dopers.” The initial news broke through the Huffington Post in conjunction with Al Jazeera, in which Sly originally said the HGH shipments “would never be under Peyton’s name, it would always be under her name,” implying Manning was the intended recipient.

“I can promise you this is a total fabrication,” Manning told The MMQB’s Peter King this week in response to the allegations. “I simply do not understand how somebody makes up something like this and it becomes a story. And then the guy admits he made it up and it’s still a story. How exactly does that work?”

• MMQB: Manning responds to HGH allegations

Dale Guyer, the founder of the Guyer Institute, told King that Sly was an intern, never an employee, and that he worked there in 2013, not 2011 as the report details. Davies and Al Jazeera continue to stand behind the report.

- Jeremy Woo