I’m from Indianapolis, IN. I used to be a big football fan, but I was never a Colts fan, mainly because my family’s team is the Chicago Bears. I did however, generally like Peyton Manning for the same reasons most people do.

But now it’s public knowledge that Peyton (along with others) actively covered up (at a MINIMUM) some kind of inappropriate sexual incident in college. For some reason, everyone stopped caring about it when it happened. And everybody stopped caring about it when it was reported again in the early 2000s. Finally, now that Peyton has enjoyed being seen as the cleanest-cut dude ever and built an empire of legacy, we get to revisit the subject. But people from my hometown aren’t interested in that truth. Everyone is falling over themselves to be the most recent person to call him “a class act.”

Why does it not matter that a woman was openly disrespected, had her career ruined, and had her story suppressed? At the very least, Peyton acted like an extreme asshole, but I’m sure it is worst than that. But, nobody cares? Somehow, Peyton is an invincible hero.

If this had been Mike Vick, it would be viral and he would never escape that. I’m super hesitant to open up the potential for everyone to hate on the dude who brings up race, but this is seriously fucked up. I’m not saying racism, I’m just saying privilege. I don’t think people like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady should get away with the bullshit they do and allow, just because of how the majority identifies with them.

I know that this guy has done a TON of great things for the community, but you should be held to the same standards as everyone else. Why not just be honest about this situation, unless being the star athlete was more important than all other ethics. The privileged majority will spin any story in their heads to preserve this man as the good guy. He broke a confidentiality agreement, just so that he could LIE in his book, to preserve his image as a good guy. The USA today had evidence of this in 2003 and didn’t release it for some reason. Wow.

There’s a lot of evidence being reported.

People really don’t care about this, especially in conservative places where I am from. It would suck to move back to Indianapolis. They are actively fighting against women’s and LGBTQ rights, still today, and they don’t give a shit about what one of their own does, as long as they have plenty of under-privileged people to target and shit on instead.

Sad.