Jamie Naughright feared Tennessee cover-up of incident

A document from the Peyton Manning-Jamie Naughright sexual assault case shows that Naughright feared there would be a cover-up by Tennessee.

Naughright in 1996 was serving as a trainer for the Tennessee athletic department and was examining Peyton Manning’s foot in a training room. Naughright says Manning pulled down his pants and stuck his rear and genitals in her face. Associate athletic director Mike Rollo later came up with language to describe it Manning mooning another athlete, a story which Manning later consistently retold as his side of the events. The other athlete who was in the training room, Malcolm Saxon, later said in a written statement that Manning “messed up” and should come clean and admit what he did.

Naughright called into a Knoxville sexual assault crisis hotline less than three hours after the incident took place on Feb. 29, 1996. The event was categorized as a sexual assault/abuse matter. Records also show that Naughright said she had reported the incident to her boss.

The worker who responded to the call took down several notes on record and wrote down a handful of quotes from Naughright. Some of the quotes included were “I can’t believe this” and “I told my boss tonight.”

But here are two specific quotes in the document that will stand out (as shared by ESPN’s Outside the Lines):

“Sense there will be a cover-up” and “head coach letting them get away with everything.”

Naughright also said in her call to the crisis center that Rollo felt the matter would be best handled without the press or police (she eventually settled the case).

This information is particularly notable because Manning’s case was mentioned in a recent Title IX lawsuit that accused Tennessee of fostering a “hostile sexual environment” (you can read more about the case here). Naughright’s immediate fear that there would be a cover-up of the Manning incident goes along with the suit’s accusations against Tennessee.