Over the past few weeks there have been stories reported about one of the NFL’s most accomplished and respected players, Peyton Manning. The first story was one about Manning have HGH, an illegal drug, sent to his home under his wife’s name during a time where he was recovering from neck surgery. The second, and far more serious, was a story about Manning and a sexual abuse case while he was the Quarterback at the University of Tennessee.

Also contained in that report was the issue of Peyton plagiarizing two essays and getting caught by the same trainer that accused him of sexually assaulting her. I find it to be quite interesting that in both of these stories, the media has not given it the air to breathe and develop that they did back in 2009 when Cam Newton was being recruited out of Junior College and rampant reports of Cam being brought by one of the universities. They pushed and pushed until they thought they found something to try and punish him and his father for.

We fast forward to the story that came out about Manning and steroids, he comes out with scathing comments and threatens a lawsuit and the point man behind the story retracts it all and the story dies. Manning goes on to win his second Super Bowl title and is poised to ride off into the sunset. Then we have the UT story that comes out and finally a little more breath is given to the possibility that Peyton might not the be the squeaky clean football player he was cast out to be. It seems to be that, he too, made mistakes in college and perhaps in Pro football as well that have been covered up.

But despite all this every commentator and analyst want to give Manning a pass and let him ride off into the sunset. Consider that the steroid use was far more recent and to me, damaging than Cam’s issue in 2009 because using that substance is illegal in the eyes of the NFL and is punishable by game suspensions. Maybe even more investigations would have been done that possibly could have turned up even more stuff. I’m not saying that Peyton isn’t an all-time great QB, because he is. But, it also goes to point out that there is still a huge bias in the NFL.

Cam sulks after losing the biggest game of his career and every one wants to bitch and moan and jump all over the man for his “poor sportsmanship”. They want to say that Brady, Manning and other great QB’s wouldn’t have done that, but, excuse me every time Brady and company lost a playoff game he sulked and bitched. So did his coach. But they get a pass because they’re the epitome of greatness right? Yet, Peyton has legit allegations against him and there’s a blind eye turned to it.

These two comparisons aren’t meant to be the be all end all of this discussion, however, I use these as two of the most glaring points of contention. In every day life the same dynamics play out, just like in Corporate America and all places in between. The Great White Haux is alive and well. Whether we like it or not, being Black still means you gotta prove yourself ten times more than your White counterpart.