The archetype of the good, wholesome “all-American” man is central to U.S. culture. This character is often white, clean-cut and fits a “good guy” persona. Once we believe that someone fits this mold, he is often placed on a pedestal — unable to do any wrong, unable to be taken down. We do anything to maintain this belief, even if that means trying to cover up when they do something wrong.
This is a custom that is dangerous, and in instances of sexual assault, perpetuates victim blaming.
This “all-American” persona is often seen in aspects of culture that are typically considered as quintessentially American as stars and stripes, particularly football. In recent years, many scandals have come up in the lives of football players, whether they are high school football players or NFL stars. While the media do report on these scandals, they do not do so with nearly as much depth as they do others.
Many football fans across the country rejoiced when the Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50, primarily because of the team’s beloved quarterback, Peyton Manning.
Manning has had an incredible career and gained a large fan base during his almost 20 years in the NFL. This past season was what many believe to be his last, making many people happy to see him close it out with a Super Bowl championship win.
Manning’s media portrayal and way of carrying himself paints him as the perfect “all-American” guy. His face has helped sell Nationwide insurance, DirecTV and Papa John’s Pizza. Even in December when he was accused of using human growth hormones, which are illegal in the NFL, he was still seen as a perfect man.
This image is now finally being called into question. Just one week after the Super Bowl, Shaun King of the New York Daily News wrote an article entitled “Peyton Manning’s squeaky-clean image was built on lies, as detailed in explosive court documents showing ugly smear campaign against his alleged sex assault victim”, in which King gives a detailed synopsis of a 74-page court document on Peyton Manning, his father Archie Manning, the University of Tennessee and Florida Southern College.
This is an issue we cannot ignore.
The document describes an incident of sexual assault that occurred in 1996 while Manning was an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee and also reveals new details of an alleged cover up and smear campaign against the victim.
Dr. Jamie Naughright, the associate athletic trainer for the football team, claims Manning sexually assaulted her during an examination. She reported the incident within hours, but the university allegedly tried to downplay the incident. She eventually left the university as a part of a settlement contract and signed a non-disclosure agreement with Manning and his family.
Manning and his father broke this agreement in their 2001 book “Manning: A Father, His Sons, and a Football Legacy,” in which they wrote about the incident, calling Naughright “vulgar” and painting her in a negative light, ruining her career in college athletics forever. She then filed a defamation suit which was settled with the terms confidential. The lawsuit was covered by a few news sources, but in general it has barely been spoken of since 2003.
Manning remains an “all-American” football player.
As Christine Brennan of USA Today wrote in 2003, we want to believe that he is good. We want to because that is what we grew up with. No one ever wants to discover that someone’s true character isn’t what they thought it was, but that doesn’t mean that their actions should be hidden and forgotten.
Even now, after this story has reemerged, when I Google his name I see mostly articles about his message to Cam Newton or whether or not he is planning on retiring. In fact, after this past week, the most important story coming out of the Super Bowl remains Newton’s demeanor at the post-game press-conference, which is a different issue entirely.
In an article for ESPN, senior writer Howard Bryant writes that confetti exploded after the game — not the confetti celebrating the Bronco’s win, but confetti of different issues that the media and that nation could tackle. Between these scattered strips of confetti is what he calls “noise”: anger, confusion and frustration.
“Every day, whether it is too much Newton or too little Manning, the pieces of confetti fall from the sky,” Bryant wrote. “They land on the street, each separated by noise but waiting to be connected. The question is whether the public, the leagues, the fans and the media have the courage to confront and fit the pieces together, and whether we can handle what the finished puzzle says about all of us.”
We cannot continue to ignore this issue. Sexual assault, harassment and domestic violence, especially by high-profile or well-respected figures, too often goes unnoticed, and justice is not achieved. We must link the pieces together, accept what this may mean about “all-American” culture and then act so this can never happen again.