Peyton Manning attacked for the sake of being attacked

Peyton Manning just won the 2nd Super Bowl of his NFL career…and of course the attacks have come pouring in. Here’s a real knee-slapper from the NY Daily News, digging up one of the skeletons in Manning’s closet…

A fly in the soup.

Have you ever had that happen to you? It sucks. It’s like, “Man, I got this fly in my soup so I can either be gross and pick it out and continue to eat the soup, or I can just throw away the soup, which would suck too…”

It’s a real annoyance, having a fly in your soup. Imagine having a whole family of flies constantly reproducing themselves and trying to get into your soup all the time. Wouldn’t that be awful?

That’s basically the story of Peyton Manning’s life, though he’s learned how to cope with it. A story — nay, a short novel — was recently published by Shaun King of the NY Daily News, basically slamming Peyton Manning for a sexual assault case that happened 20 years ago. Does time heal all wounds?

Absolutely not. What is alleged of Peyton Manning from his days at Tennessee is disgusting, horrifying if we’re being honest. Nobody has seen that side of Peyton Manning since the event, but he published some very harsh comments in “The Book of Manning” basically smearing the alleged sexual assault victim, Dr. Jamie Naughright.

There’s no denying the ugliness of that situation and if you want to embark on an incredible journey, feast your eyes on the whole story King wrote about Manning. The story published by King makes the Manning’s look absolutely terrible, as it should since it includes a 74-page document from the lawyers representing the alleged victim in the case with absolutely no attempt to contact Peyton, his family, or his representation.

Basically, the piece by King is an attempt at an ‘eye for an eye’ with Manning, an opportunity to use his platform to smear the name of Manning, which he thinks is far too ‘squeaky clean’ for people to continue to be led to believe.

I don’t blame people for wanting a reason not to like Peyton Manning. Heck, when he was with the Colts, I hated his guts. He’s now helped (even marginally) bring a Super Bowl championship to Denver, making his time here completely worth while.

I cannot and will not excuse the actions of Peyton Manning…20 years ago…

I will, however, stand up against the fact that there is a clear racial agenda in this article because of the way people were up in arms about Cam Newton’s attitude at press conferences, his body language on the football field, and how somehow everyone thinks he’s some sort of villain right now, even though that story is overblown.

Cam Newton is awesome. He has a bright future. He’s fun to watch. Anyone who doesn’t think that is a moron.

But he lost the Super Bowl, and he acted like a teenager who got their cell phone taken away. We’ve all moved on. Not Shaun King. He felt the need to attack Peyton Manning, who wasn’t attacking Newton at all, and make sure we all knew that there were skeletons in Manning’s closet and that he’s been smearing the name of this woman through the words he wrote in a book years and years ago.

Congratulations on a successful Wikipedia search, King.

There’s no excusing what Peyton Manning did 20 years ago. It’ll be exciting to see what happens if King gets ahold of the Ray Lewis story, or the O.J. Simpson case. Maybe there’ll be a TV show about that…

Oh wait.

As much as people want to find a reason to hate Manning, digging into his past and re-hashing this story is the most pathetic way to do it. Manning has given a way millions upon millions of dollars. He has made countless visits to hospitals, he has flown veterans of our military to Broncos games on a whim. He has provided joy to countless numbers of young people and shoot if you ask Russell Wilson, he’s been downright life-changing…

Manning is not a perfect person. No one is. No one thinks he’s ‘squeaky clean’ and if they do they are just being ignorant to the fact that every single one of us has things about our lives that we wish never happened, things we wish we’d never done.

This article here further confirms — just in his time in Denver — what Manning has meant to the community.

Nobody thinks Peyton Manning is perfect. In fact, we know he’s not. But why attack him just for the sake of attacking him? Because people with a huge platform are the subject of scrutiny everywhere they go. Over the last 18 years, Peyton Manning has become one of the most respected figures in professional sports, and there will always be people trying to bring him down.

But that story won’t sell, or get clicks, because people are more inclined to jump at the chance to bring others down than they are to build others up.