Jamie Whited, assistant trainer for men’s football, filed a sexual harassment complaint against the Men’s Athletics Department on August 27, 1996. In an internal investigation, UT verified 33 complaints, including having student trainers barge into a storage room where she changed clothes; being the subject of a song with sexual innuendo sung by the track team; being called by the nickname “bumper,” referring to the size of her breasts—a nickname about which she had complained in 1992; being given false tickets with breasts drawn on them by Athletics Department administrator Gus Manning; and a much-publicized incident on February 29, 1996, when quarterback Peyton Manning dropped his shorts above her head while she was attending to his foot in the training room.
Mike Rollo, associate athletics trainer, used the term “mooning” to refer to Manning’s actions. Manning contended he meant to “moon” another athlete (who subsequently sided with Whited in asserting that the incident was more severe than a simple prank). Whited immediately took three months’ medical leave, citing the Manning incident as the reason. Manning apologized and was punished by being required to do extra running.
In August 1997 Whited reached a $300,000 settlement (to be paid from Athletics Department funds) and agreed to resign. The investigation also found fault with Whited’s conduct and attempts to be “one of the boys.” Whited recorded incidents dating back to 1990, and as part of the settlement, agreed to turn over the tape recordings of university employees made during her employment. According to the pact, UT was to hold the tapes in a safe deposit box through June 30, 2005, then destroy them.
Although her complaint against UT was settled, the incident reappeared in a book authored by Peyton and Archie Manning in 2000. Whited (then Jamie Naughright) sued Peyton and Archie Manning, their ghostwriter John Underwood, and the publisher HarperCollins, for defamation. Manning’s request for dismissal of the suit was denied. The book and fallout from its being distributed around the campus and at athletic events of Florida Southern College, where she was program director of the Athletic Training Educational Program and an assistant professor, resulted in her dismissal, she asserted. A mediated settlement, including monetary damages, was reached in December 2003. The settlement required that both Naughright and Manning not comment publicly about each other or the defamation case.
In 2005, in the documentary ESPN Classic Sports Century: Peyton Manning, Manning made statements about Naughright. Later, Naughright filed suit seeking financial and other penalties against Manning for violation of the 2003 settlement agreement.