Manning and his father, as well as their ghost author, John Underwood, and publisher, HarperCollins, were sued for defamation in May 2002 by Jamie Ann Naughright, a former Tennessee assistant trainer. She claims that Manning's characterization of her in the book as having a "vulgar mouth" is false and cost her a subsequent job. In pursuing that claim, she has challenged Manning's version of what he called "the 'mooning' incident," alleging a more offensive act occurred. She also has raised questions about the conduct of Tennessee's associate head trainer at the time, who has said he was the first to term the incident a "mooning."
Court documents raise questions about Manning's veracity. In denying Manning's request for dismissal, Polk County Circuit Judge Harvey A. Kornstein wrote, in part: "Even if the plaintiff is a public figure, the evidence of record contains sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that a genuine issue of material fact exists that would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, the existence of actual malice of the part of the defendants. ...
"Specifically, there is evidence of record, substantial enough to suggest that the defendants knew that the passages in question were false, or acted in reckless disregard of their falsity. There is evidence of record to suggest that there were obvious reasons to doubt the veracity of Peyton Manning's account of the incident in question. The court further finds that there is sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendants entertained serious doubts as to the truth of the passages in this case."
Manning claimed in his book that, while in the training room, in response to a track athlete who made a remark, Manning dropped his shorts to moon the athlete. "I did it thinking the trainer wasn't where she would see. ... Even when she did, it seemed like something she'd have laughed at, considering the environment, or shrugged off as harmless. Crude maybe, but harmless."
Naughright and her lawyer provided a different version of events. In a court filing, her lawyer wrote that she was examining Manning to see why Manning was having pain in one of his feet and was crouched behind him when "entirely unprovoked, Peyton Manning decided to pull down his shorts and sit on Dr. Naughright's head and face."
As Naughright described it in a deposition entered into the court record: "It was the gluteus maximus, the rectum, the testicles and the area in between the testicles. And all that was on my face when I pushed him up. ... To get leverage, I took my head out to push him up and off."
The court record includes a letter to Manning from former Tennessee cross country runner Malcolm Saxon, who Manning said was the intended target of the mooning. Written in December 2002, the letter reads, in part: "Bro, you have tons of class, but you have shown no mercy or grace to this lady who was on her knees seeing if you had a stress fracture. ...
"She was minding her own business when your book came out. Peyton, the way I see it, at this point, you are going to take a hit either way, if you settle out of court or if it goes to court. You might as well maintain some dignity and admit to what happened. ... Your celebrity doesn't mean you can treat folks that way. ... Do the right thing here."
In a court filing, Naughright's lawyer says his client reported the incident within hours to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville.
According to a filing by Naughright's lawyer, Manning at first didn't call the incident a "mooning." The lawyer wrote that Manning "denied" that anything had occurred between him and Naughright. An associate trainer, Mike Rollo, was never a witness to the incident, but he got involved because he tried to intervene to help Manning come up with a story.
Naughright agreed in August 1997 to leave Tennessee as part of a settlement related in part to the 1996 incident.
