Philadelphia Phillies' first baseman, Ryan Howard filed a defamation suit against the Al Jazeera network after a documentary linked his name and other players to using performance enhancing drugs. Also, Ryan Zimmerman and Peyton Manning denied allegations in the documentary.
According to CSN Philly, Howard filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday in the Federal District Court in Washington D.C. He was represented by attorney Andrew H. Herman, and filed a case against Al Jareeza and two of the network's reporters after the network aired their documentary about the alleged use of drugs by quarterback Peyton Manning.
"Today I authorized my attorneys to file suit against Al Jazeera and its reporters. Their irresponsible reporting forced me to take this action to protect my name and to fight back against the spreading of these lies. I will have no further comment, as the filing itself contains all I need to say", Howard said in Tuesday.
Aside from Howard, USA Today reported that Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman also filed a lawsuit against the network. According to statements of the lawyers of both players, the financial impact is expected to be millions for both players who seek damages exceeding $75,000 each.
The documentary was based off of the hidden camera footage where former Guyer Institute Charlie Sly where he claimed that several professional athletes are PED's including Manning who allegedly took HGH that were shipped to his wife.
As reported by Yahoo, Manning also denied such allegations during his talk with ESPN. "Absolutely not. And what hurts me the most about this is whoever this guy is, this slapstick trying to insinuate that in 2011, when I more or less had a broken neck", Manning stated. "But I had a broken neck and I busted my butt to get healthy, put in a lot of hard work. I saw a lot of doctors."
Sly also retracted his statements in the video claiming that they are false and incorrect. He said that he fabricated his statements in order to test the legitimacy of the undercover sent by the network. Al Jazeera's documentary was broadcast last December 27, 2015.
