Cleft palate Manning retires, but ’95 scandal refuses to.

      WARNING: Some may find the details provided in the story below offensive or graphic.

“NEW YORK — A bombshell new report went viral Saturday after it uncovered disturbing allegations against Peyton Manning.

Journalist Shaun King of the New York Daily News penned an article detailing sexual assault allegations — as well as an alleged cover-up —  against Manning that began when the two-time Super Bowl champion was at the University of Tennessee.

King shared his story around 7 a.m. and it has since received more than 6,000 retweets and was picked up by several media outlets and prominent NFL writers.

In his piece King wrote that his research began after a simple Facebook post. A couple of weeks ago, King shared a picture on his page that showed Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton smiling and embracing Manning after Super Bowl 50, which Manning’s Broncos won 24-10. King wrote that he wondered why people chose to discuss Newton’s postgame interview rather than that scene. That’s when the journalist says someone commented by implying that Manning had been accused of sexual assault.

Wrote King:

I decided, on a whim, to Google “Peyton Manning sexual assault University of Tennessee.” That’s how I discovered the two old USA Today articles about the case. Later that day, when I wrote an article on the racial double standards in the media between Peyton Manning and Cam Newton, I decided to mention the sexual assault case, and how the allegations had somehow slid right off of Peyton like virtually every other mistake he has ever made in his career.

The “two  old USA Today articles” King referenced were examples he had used earlier in his report to outline how he himself had not uncovered the allegations, but rather that they existed all along, just before social media could have taken hold of them. (He notes that the stories were written before the days of Facebook and Twitter.)

King reported that a source later sent him court documents outlining a case between Manning and Jamie Naughright, a former doctor at the University of Tennessee. It was a case that, as King said, was reported on more than a decade ago, but that later fell out of the public view. It was also brought up again in 2014 by The Big Lead, which compared the Manning allegations to the public’s knowledge of allegations against Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston.

King, citing court documents, outlined the allegations against Manning, which began in 1996. [WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT]:

On Feb. 29 of that year, Naughright, at that point the university’s director of health and wellness, was in a training room, examining what she thought might be a possible stress fracture in Manning’s foot. At 6 feet, 5 inches, his feet dangled off the edge of the table. Manning allegedly then proceeded to scoot down the training table while Naughright examined his foot. At that point, she said, he forcefully maneuvered his naked testicles and rectum directly on her face with his penis on top of her head. Shocked, disgusted, and offended, Naughright pushed Manning away, removing her head out from under him (see pages 14-15). Within hours, she reported the incident to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville

Manning initially said it never happened, according to the report, which also included details on false stories concocted for the football star, including that he was “mooning” another athlete at the time, and that some even asked the doctor to later blame it on a black athlete at the school. She refused.

As part of a settlement agreement, King wrote, Naughright later left the school.

A few years later Manning and his father Archie wrote a book, “Manning: A Father, His Sons, and a Football Legacy,” in which Naughright was described as “vulgar.” Naughright sued for defamation saying the depiction of her cost her job opportunities. The defamation suit was settled in 2003.

King’s long, expansive report goes on to interject opinion, such as that Manning has duped the American public into thinking he’s a good guy in sports.

King offers his viewpoint toward the end of the article:

The book, which trashes the character of Dr. Jamie Naughright, continues to be sold to this very day, while Peyton Manning continues to benefit from his reputation not only as a superstar quarterback, but also an individual of high moral character. In fact, he has reaped tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals based on a fraudulent mystique he’s cultivated as a good guy, an upstanding citizen, the ideal professional athlete.

King’s story immediately drew attention on social media, with other reporters chiming in with their thoughts.

Manning’s side of the story.

Here’s Dave Gartland’s summary of Manning’s version of what happened: