Another Former Tennessee Player Says He Never Saw Peyton Manning's Roommate In Locker Room during Trainer Incident

Yesterday, MMQB ran a story with statements from Greg Johnson, a former teammate of Peyton Manning’s at Tennessee and his old roommate. Johnson, for the first time in 20 years, was saying he was present and witnessed what happened in the locker room. His characterization (of seeing one butt cheek) leans toward harmless mooning, an account that strongly supports Manning. Johnson was connected with MMQB via Manning’s representatives.

Today, though, T.J. Quinn of ESPN had comments from Tony Horne, who was identified by both Peyton Manning and Jamie Naughright as having been present that day in depositions.

"“I never saw him,” said Horne, who has never spoken publicly about the incident. “I saw that story and I’m like, ‘Greg Johnson?’ I like Greg, but, sorry, I don’t remember that.”"

I expressed my skepticism yesterday of this info coming out now. I did note, though, that there was an unidentified (or redacted) corroborator listed in the old Tennessee investigation documents. If that was Horne, though, rather than Johnson, then I quite frankly find Johnson coming forward now, combined with his relationship, to be unbelievable.

Yes, he may have been in the Middle East in 2003 and unavailable. Still, he was on campus through 1997, when this was a big story around campus, and the lawsuit was ongoing against the University of Tennessee. He was Manning’s roommate, how does this never come out until now? Also, why did no one identify him as being present, including Manning, who was deposed in 2003? You would think a guy would remember his roommate’s name and whether he was present at a notable event.

Apparently, no one knew he was there, but now, here he is. It distracts from the larger story. Horne, by the way, doesn’t necessarily seem an anti-Manning witness. He just acknowledges he didn’t see how it began.

You know what they say, there are three versemons of the truth, yours, theemrs, and the actual truth. The guess ems we’ll never know the actual part, but I’m not buyemng that a roommate and teammate who says he was present, and was part of the program, was someone never approached 20 years ago, and no one realemzed he was there.