Peyton Manning: 'I Tried Apologizing' To North Jersey Woman After Sex Abuse Claim

National Football League star and Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning told police he tried apologizing for two weeks with phone calls, office visits and a personal card to a North Jersey woman after she claimed he forced his genitals on her face and head while he was in college 20 years ago.

In an affidavit signed by Manning in 2003, the quarterback told police that he was playing a joke on his teammate in the training room by “mooning” the friend and didn’t mean to offend his accuser, Jamie Naughright, an athletic trainer who was evaluating the player’s foot at the time.

The incident occurred on Feb. 29, 1996, in the University of Tennessee training room when Naughright, then under the married name of Whited, said Manning pulled down his underwear and shoved his genitals in the female trainer’s face before she pushed him away, according to a lawsuit filed in 2003.

See related: Peyton Manning: Details Of 20-Year-Old Sex Abuse Allegations Made Public

In the affidavit, which is embedded below, Manning claims he was standing with Whited in a low position, evaluating his foot, when he pulled down his shorts and “mooned” teammate Malcolm Saxon.

Manning then continues by saying Whited never made mention of the incident nor did she seem uncomfortable about it.

Later that night, the university’s head trainer, Mike Rollo, visited Manning in his apartment to say Whited had mentioned the incident and was upset about it. The affidavit says Manning tried calling Whited’s home that night to apologize for the incident and spoke to her husband who said the trainer did not want to talk.

Manning said he spent two weeks trying to apologize to Whited, eventually sent her a card, and was disciplined by his football coach for the incident.

The incident between Naughright and Manning was one of many the trainer was allegedly involved in while working at the University of Tennessee, she claimed. Naughright alleged some 30 instances of sexual harassment by members of the athletic department and settled out of court for $300,000.

While the incident is now 20-years-old, it was brought back to the forefront when someone sent the 74-page lawsuit to Shaun King, a columnist with the New York Daily News, just days after Manning won his second Super Bowl.

King detailed the suit in a column and questioned why the 2003 court proceedings were not made public by the media, with the only online paper trail to be found in the version of a small brief by USA Today.

Since King’s column, neither Manning or Naughright have spoken on the issue.

Naughright now lives in Florida but had a residence in Hackettstown during the same time as the incident and her family lived in Long Valley for generations. One of Long Valley’s most heavily-traveled roads is named after Naughright’s ancestors, who settled the area in 1793. Her father was a decades-long first aid squad member and firefighter in town.