Volin: Peyton Manning, Manning Family Likely 'Taken Care Of' By NFL In PED Investigation
BOSTON (CBS) -- On Monday, the NFL announced the Peyton Manning had been completely cleared after a self-proclaimed thorough investigation into claims that he used HGH that was shipped to his house.
Despite the fact that Manning's own crisis manager confirmed that the Guyer Institute did indeed ship medication to his home, the NFL concluded that the drugs either weren't PEDs or weren't for Manning.
Considering what everyone knows about the clandestine ways the NFL executes investigations, and considering folks in New England are still in the thick of DeflateGate outrage, there were many people in the Northeast who couldn't help but wonder what exactly went on during that investigation.
The Boston Globe's Ben Volin joined The Adam Jones Show, and the first order of business was the Manning news.
"Does anyone have any faith in the NFL's investigative process at this point?" Volin said. "Not just with DeflateGate obviously, but with Ray Rice. Remember they claimed they did a thorough, comprehensive investigation of Ray Rice, and then they never even saw the video [which TMZ eventually released]? So I think we all know at this point that it was a lot of window dressing [with the Manning investigation]. Obviously the NFL has a very close relationship with the Mannings, and I think they were kind of taken care of here. [NFL investigators] probably looked into it but not too, too hard."
Volin also noted that the league also pushed out a lot of other news, from Josh Gordon's reinstatement to new penalties for teams that don't follow concussion protocols to new partnerships with Sony PlayStation Vue, and so forth. That, according to Volin, was no coincidence.
"And then you'll notice that the NFL also dumped a lot of other news today," Volin said. "I think they're trying to flood the zone, so to speak, and kind of overwhelm us with news so that the Peyton Manning will just be kind of a footnote today."
Jones thought that the timing of the news -- early on a Monday as opposed to late on a Friday -- was an indication that the NFL wanted the public to discuss the story. Volin disagreed, saying the NFL has become self-aware on the Friday afternoon news dump front.
"I think they're sensitive to the notion that they try to bury the news on a Friday night at 5:30, which they do a lot. That's when you see a lot of the suspensions come out. So I think they are certainly sensitive to that perception, and they are trying to start to win over the public, I guess," he said. "I just think they were trying not to be accused once again of doing a Friday news dump.
Volin also discussed the increase in young players retiring, the health of Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, the biggest thing to look for at Patriots training camp, the divvying up of preseason snaps between Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, and more. Listen to the full interview below: