The Peyton Manning sexual assault saga has taken various twists and turns over the past few weeks, most of which have surrounded his accuser, Dr. Jamie Naughright. She has reasserted that Manning assaulted her and spoke to Sports Plus Show producer Tom Stokes to try to explain why the Manning family has tried to discredit her claims, but a new witness has come forward that backs Manning's side of the story.
The alleged incident happened in the University of Tennessee's training room. Manning claims he was mooning a fellow athlete near Naughright, but Naughright claims that Manning put his testicles on her head, which has been mentioned in numerous lawsuits, including the current one being brought against the university.
In an interview with MMQB.com, Manning's former teammate Greg Johnson said that the alleged assualt "just didn't happen."
Johnson was a senior linebacker at the time of the incident in 1996, said he was in the training room during the incident. He told the MMQB that Manning was laying on the training table and Naughright was examining his foot when Malcolm Saxon, a member of the track team, walked in. Saxon was thought to be the only other person in the training room at the time of the alleged incident, and the account he gave in a 2002 letter seemed to corroborate Naughright's claims.
Johnson disputes that notion, saying he never saw any physical contact between Manning and Naughright.
“I was in the training room fairly often. I don’t know why I was in there that day,” Johnson told the MMQB. “Saxon walks in, and Peyton was the kind of guy who had to be friendly with everyone; he wanted to include everyone, from his teammates to the cross country guy. He says hey to Saxon and pulls down the back of his shorts, and I saw one butt cheek, and then he pulled his pants up. And Jamie said something like, ‘Aw, you’re an ass.’ Then I left. Thought nothing of it.”
Naughright gave a very similar account of the incident in a 1996 affadavit, saying Manning “pulled his pants down and exposed [his buttocks] to me.” The affadavit was filed during an employee discrimination complaint.
“Later someone in the administration asked me what happened," Johnson continued. "They asked if Peyton mooned somebody. They said you can’t do that with a female trainer present. Next thing I know, Peyton is banned from the chow hall. He took his punishment; as 20-year-olds we understood that you can’t do that.”
Johnson said he was surprised that anything was made of the incident, but it has been rehashed and resurrected numerous times in two lawsuits filed by Naughright against Manning in 2003 and 2005. It was most recently brought up in a New York Daily News piece following Super Bowl 50.
Back to the Tennessee Volunteers Newsfeed