Denver Broncos

Al Jazeera reporter stands by Peyton Manning HGH report

Published Dec. 28, 2015 6:24 p.m. ET

foxsports

Peyton Manning has taken an aggressive stance against allegations that he used performance-enhancing drugs, but the reporter who wrote the story for Al Jazeera has no intention of backing down from her work.

With Charlie Sly having recanted the statements he made in Al Jazeera’s undercover expose, reporter Deborah Davies said Monday that she believes what Sly originally said was true.

“Charlie Sly’s denial came something like three-and-a-half weeks after we contacted him to tell him precisely what was in the program. He didn’t reply to us,” Davies said, per ESPN’s Darren Rovell. “You have to question whether someone who’s spoken to you for twenty-plus hours, when they don’t know they’re being filmed, says one thing when they certainly have something to hide.

“You’ve seen drugs in his fridge. You’ve seen a baseball player turn up at his apartment. Do you believe what he said when he didn’t realize there was anything to hide, or do you believe what he says when he knows he’s about to be exposed?”

Dale Guyer, the founder of the Guyer Institute -- an anti-aging clinic in Indianapolis -- told Peter King of The MMQB that Sly began working as an intern at the clinic in 2013. Davies called the Guyer Institute asking for employment verification for Sly and was told he worked there in 2011, when Manning was recovering from neck surgery, and Davies provided the transcript to prove that is what she was told.

Manning has dismissed Davies’ report as “garbage,” and he almost seemed like he was on the verge of tears while defending himself in this interview.

It’s impossible to know who is telling the truth at the moment, but there’s no question it is strange that Sly would say all of that while he didn’t know he was being recorded and then retract it all after the fact. Sly claims he was “testing” Al Jazeera’s undercover reporter, Liam Collins, by dropping names of famous athletes. Why he would do that is a bit of a mystery.

Manning’s wife Ashley did, in fact, have a prescription from the anti-aging clinic.

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