A sweeping lawsuit filed by six former female students against the University of Tennessee last week argues its athletics department has long condoned a "hostile sexual environment" stretching back to the mid-1990s, citing nearly a dozen instances of former student athletes accused of sexual assault - including NFL star Peyton Manning.
The allegation that Manning sexually assaulted a female athletics trainer while in college was first reported in 2003, but on Saturday a widely shared New York Daily News column about the alleged incident and a subsequent lawsuit filed by the trainer drew widespread attention on social media.
Manning, now with the Denver Broncos, just won his second Super Bowl to potentially cap what has been one of the most prolific careers for a quarterback in NFL history. Speculation is that he will soon retire.
The UT lawsuit filed last week calls out an alleged 1996 incident in which Manning, a UT football player, was accused of placing his naked genitals on the face of the female trainer while she was examining him. Manning has denied the allegations and said he was "mooning" a fellow athlete. The trainer, Dr. Jamie Naughright, later sued Manning after he described her in a book as "vulgar mouthed."