Peyton Manning has said he will "probably" sue over allegations in a report from Al Jazeera that aired Sunday involving human growth hormones supposedly mailed to his wife.
The Broncos quarterback may have a case, according to an NBC News analysis. But as a public figure, he has a high burden in any defamation lawsuit, and would need to prove that the allegations are false or that Al Jazeera should have known they were.
In "The Dark Side," the Al Jazeera documentary about the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports, a secret recording of Charles Sly, a former intern at an anti-aging clinic, shows him saying he mailed HGH to Manning's wife.
Sly recanted those statements this weekend, but Al Jazeera reporter Deborah Davies is standing by the story. And a suit by Manning against either Sly or the news organization would launch a factual inquiry into delicate claims about his health and his wife.
