Peyton Manning, Denver Broncos, 2016

BROWNSBURG, Ind. — Five days before a documentary alleged that quarterback Peyton Manning and other star athletes had used performance-enhancing drugs, two men hired by Manning’s lawyers visited the parents of the documentary’s key witness. Both men wore black overcoats and jeans and, according to a 911 call from the house that evening, one initially said he was a law enforcement officer but didn’t have a badge.

After they told their daughter to call 911 the night of Dec. 22, Randall and Judith Sly stepped outside to talk to the strangers, who clarified they were private investigators, not cops. They had come to this red brick house with a well-manicured lawn looking for the Slys’ 31-year-old son, Charlie, a pharmacist who was the primary source in the upcoming documentary.

The revelation of the visit to the Slys’ home in this rural, upper middle class suburb is another in what has been a series of strange twists and turns since the Al Jazeera documentary, “The Dark Side: The Secret World of Sports Doping,” first aired. In the documentary, Sly boasted about helping pro football and baseball players cheat. In one scene, Sly implied that Manning took human growth hormone prescribed by an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic and shipped to Manning’s wife, Ashley.

Continue reading Inside Peyton Manning’s secret investigation into Al Jazeera documentary