Ex-Tenn. football player's presence in Manning incident in dispute
A former University of Tennessee football player came forward this week to say he witnessed an incident between Peyton Manning and a female trainer 20 years ago, but his presence is not corroborated in hundreds of court documents reviewed by Outside the Lines or by another teammate who has long been identified as having been in the training room.
In a 2002 defamation lawsuit, Tennessee trainer Jamie Naughright accused Manning of pressing his bare buttocks and genitals against her face while she examined his ankle in a training room in 1996. Manning described in the incident in 1996 and again in the 2002 lawsuit as a "mooning," and said he did not make contact.
In a story published Wednesday, Greg Johnson, Manning's teammate and roommate in college, gave Sports Illustrated's Monday Morning Quarterback an account that largely backed Manning's version of events. Johnson spoke to MMQB "after being put in touch with The MMQB through Manning's representatives," the story said.
But another teammate of Manning's, former football player Kevin Horne, identified in several court documents as having been in the training room during the incident, told Outside the Lines that Johnson's presence was news to him.
"I never saw him," said Horne, who has never spoken publicly about the incident. "I saw that story and I'm like, 'Greg Johnson?' I like Greg, but, sorry, I don't remember that."
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/14892241/former-tennessee-football-player-presence-peyton-manning-training-room-incident-not-corroborated-documents-witness