To say the past two days have been bizarre for Peyton Manning would require consideration of the fact that plenty of bizarre things happen on a regular basis in the NFL. Even then, it’s still been bizarre.
As bizarre as the original Al Jazeera report has been Manning’s aggressive, emotional, and persistent response, with comments from agent Tom Condon provided to Al Jazeera and then a personal statement from Manning via the Broncos and then White House press secretary turned sports P.R. consultant Ari Fleischer chiming in and then the Broncos, the Colts, and the Guyer Institute issuing statement. Along the way, the guy who was secretly recorded implicating Manning has recanted his claims. (Which hardly means that he believes what he said while being secretly recorded is false.)
“I simply do not understand how somebody makes up something like this and it becomes a story,” Manning told Peter King of TheMMQB.com in one of the three interviews Manning has done since the story broke. “And then the guy admits he made it up and it’s still a story. How exactly does that work?”
The answer lies in the preceding paragraph. By engaging the story and strongly, repeatedly disputing it, Manning and those who either were doing what he wanted or what they believed he wanted continued to give the story legs.
If the goal was to get no one to write about the story, the approach shouldn’t have been to issue statements. It should have been to pick up the phone and call every reporter with any degree of influence or credibility and persuade them to leave it alone. That’s what Fleischer should have been doing.
Instead, Fleischer has presided over a very public, very high-profile response, which caused an Al Jazeera curiosity to morph into a major, dominant story line. (Coincidentally, or not, we’re now all reminded that Ari Fleischer is available to assist with P.R. problems for sports figures.)
How much would have been said about the story if Peyton, his agent, Fleischer, the Broncos, the Colts, and the Guyer Institute had said nothing? Frankly, PFT wouldn’t have even written a story about it if the response had been “no comment” from Manning, Manning’s representative, the Broncos, the Colts, or the NFL. And there’s no way NBC’s Football Night in America would have devoted several minutes to the issue if Manning had opted not to speak on the matter.
Manning’s legendary desire for control apparently caused him to choose aggressive action over inaction. And that’s his prerogative. Still, he shouldn’t be surprised that the plan of action that he and those close to him and associated executed has resulted in the creation of quotes that people in the media business would choose to publicize.
Peyton Manning should consider that reality when contemplating saying anything more about the case. And he definitely should consider it if he chooses to make good on his vow to sue over the Al Jazeera report.