Am I Really Supposed To Care That Peyton Manning Teabagged His Trainer 20 Years Ago?

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't even read the NY Daily News article that recently surfaced incriminating Peyton Manning -and his family- of some pretty awful things. Mostly because I don't care about the dumb things Peyton Manning did in college, but also because this isn't news. Maybe there are a few new wrinkles to it, but I think I have already known the gist of it for some time now. Peyton put his balls on his female trainer's face and then his family, which happens to be quite powerful, did everything they could to make it, and her, go away. I'm pretty close, right? 

Can we stop looking at Payton Manning like he is Mother Teresa, and just put the fact on the table. Peyton Manning is a quarterback that grew up in a successful household and was coddled since birth. That sense of entitlement, as well as the proclivity for young adults to do extremely dumb things when they are given the freedom that comes with living on their own, was responsible for Peyton's decision to do something we would all consider wrong. You could call that speculation, but he does have the same parents that essentially rigged the drafting process so their other son wouldn't send up in San Diego. Clearly they have no problem throwing their money/authority around, and that kind of atmosphere breeds privileged teenagers. Privileged teenagers that might just happen to make scrotal contact with a non-consenting female. That doesn't make it right, but it does make it understandable. Are we going to act like the Manning's are the first rich white family to cover up one of their children's transgressions?

As it is for most situations, the coverup is worse than the actual crime, but here's the problem. The crime and the coverup both happened 20 years ago. The statute of limitations is up for having any animosity directed towards any aspect of this story. Why do we try so hard to drag athletes down when they are at their highest. Peyton Manning is about to retire a champion and only now we get flooded with all the reasons why he's a terrible person? Al Jazeera just happened to find out he probably used HGH to help heal his severed neck during his final season? The Daily News just happened to dig deeper into this story -that has been public for YEARS now - a week after Peyton Manning won the Super Bowl? I'm not saying that he should be exempt from the scrutiny that professional athletes face when they make the wrong decision.Trust me, I am not shedding any tears for Peyton Manning. I am saying that every last one of us would have a hard time explaining ourselves for the things we did in college, and for that reason I have a hard time caring that Peyton Manning was fairly liberal with where he put his genitals during his formative years.  

Plus, if you can picture this face squatting on someone else's face and not laugh then you need to have your sense of humor closely examined.