Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning talks to his father, Archie, before announcing he was staying in school for his senior year Wednesday, March 5, 1997, at Thompson-Boling Arena. "I made up my mind, and I don't expect to ever look back. I am going to stay at the University of Tennessee," Manning told packed news conference. (NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVE)

The calls usually came at night during the past two years. And they came to various extensions in the News Sentinel newsroom.

When the number with the Lakeland, Fla., area code flashed on a desk-top phone, reporters and editors alike went on alert. Eventually, everyone in sports stopped answering.

No one had time for another phone tirade from Jamie Naughright.

She was known as Jamie Whited when she received a $300,000 settlement from the University of Tennessee over complaints that she was subjected to sexual harassment during her time as a UT trainer in 1996. Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning was included in the complaints.

His involvement became national news almost 20 years later, days after his Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl and years after the now-famous training room incident.

Naughright hasn't been quoted directly amidst the recent outbreak of media reports and commentary. But before an old story made national news, she wasn't shy about talking to anyone who answered a phone in our newsroom.

John Battle, a sports copy editor and page designer, happened to receive her call one evening. He said she opened with a one-sentence synopsis of her sexual activity while at UT.

After that, she used a derogatory sexual term to describe someone whom she referred to as "Golden Boy." Based on what he had heard from colleagues who had spoken previously to Naughright, he assumed she meant Manning.

Profanity can be heard in most newsrooms, particularly in deadline heat. Nonetheless, the sheer volume of it from a stranger took Battle off guard.

When the sports department began ignoring her calls, Naughright moved on to news-side.

Night editor Rusty Pabst said he probably has spoken to Naughright on the phone four times in the past year. The tone never changed.

"She was angry," he said. "Angry at Peyton Manning, angry at UT, angry at the city of Knoxville, angry at the News Sentinel."

She made accusations against Manning and accused UT and the News Sentinel of engaging in a cover-up, Pabst said.

He would let her vent until she became profane.

"That will end a phone call with me," said Pabst, who is accustomed to receiving complaints.

Sports editor Phil Kaplan began receiving calls from Naughright in October of 2014. He said she made accusations of academic fraud at UT and repeatedly referred to a box of documents that would back up her claims. Kaplan made arrangements for her to send the documents to the News Sentinel, agreeing to pay for the shipping cost.

But she never followed through.

From Super Bowl champ to media target

Manning won a Super Bowl, toasted Budweiser and kissed his favorite pizza man on one spectacular Sunday evening two weeks ago. Where do you go from there?

Back about 20 years.

Two days after the Broncos won the Super Bowl, six women filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Tennessee, charging that it enabled sexual assaults by student-athletes because of its student culture and a legal system biased against the victims.

The lawsuit accused four former UT athletes, including three football players, of sexual assault. A current Tennessee football player, who was identified as a "John Doe," also was accused.

That was the lead. And the lead led to Manning, UT's Mr. Football.

In an effort to prove the "hostile sexual environment" created by Tennessee, the plaintiff's attorneys cited a case involving Manning from almost 20 years ago.

The media took it from there.

A week after the Super Bowl, the headline above Shaun King's sports column on the New York Daily News website read: "Peyton Manning's squeaky-clean image was built on lies, as detailed in explosive court documents showing ugly smear campaign against his alleged sex assault victim."

King wrote that he received those "explosive" court documents in the mail after writing an earlier column on the racial double standard between the Super Bowl quarterbacks, Manning and Carolina's Cam Newton.

In his next column, King quoted extensively from the documents, which detailed the accusations made against Manning by Naughright. The 74-page document, which was filed in Polk County, Fla., presented only her side.

Much of the national media treated the story as breaking news. It wasn't.

Naughright's description of incident changes

The News Sentinel and other media outlets reported extensively on the original case almost 20 years ago after Naughright filed a 27-item discrimination complaint with the Tennessee Rights Commission. UT eventually settled by paying Naughright $300,000. The Manning incident was just one of the many allegations.

He said he exposed part of his buttocks to a UT track athlete who was in the training room. Nothing but a boys-will-be-boys prank.

She said he placed his buttocks in close proximity to her face. And she had no doubt the gesture was directed at her.

The only witness later took her side.

That brings us to another lawsuit, the one Naughright filed against Peyton and his father, Archie Manning, for defamation in 2002, and the one King used in building his lengthy column.

According to King, the documentation from Naughright's side included an affidavit from former UT track athlete Malcolm Saxon, who directed comments at Manning: "Please take some personal responsibility here and own up to what you did. I never understood why you didn't admit to it."

But in the second case, Naughright's characterization of the incident changed. She said Manning maneuvered his naked rectum and genitalia directly onto her head.

If true, why didn't she describe the incident that way in her initial complaints against UT?

Manning's book blunder

Saxon obviously didn't buy Manning's "mooning" story. But he didn't write anything to support Naughright's more graphic account, either.

That defamation case also was settled. So was the third one, which came about after Manning violated a confidentiality agreement from the second suit by discussing the incident in an ESPN documentary.

You have to wonder why someone as savvy as Manning would make such a costly mistake. You also have to wonder why the Mannings would address the topic in their book, "Manning," written by John Underwood.

In the book, Manning said what he did was "not exactly a criminal offense but out of line." He also said Naughright "had a vulgar mouth."

If he hadn't mentioned that in the book, there would have been no cause for additional litigation. And perhaps, no post-Super Bowl media frenzy many years later.

Never mind that Manning is almost 40 now and many years removed from something that occurred when he was in college. His football success and the wholesome image that have made him millions of dollars in endorsements and commercials also have made him a target.

In an era more known for social media and a quick trigger at the keyboard than fact checking, critics have fired away. But there has been a backlash, too (i.e., media attacking media). Much of that has been directed at King.

Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, led the way.

"He's not a journalist," Whitlock said of King. "He's a race hustler from Twitter, from the Black Lives Matter movement, who stirs racial controversy to elevate himself. He's a white guy presenting himself as black."

King didn't take that as constructive criticism. A Twitter war ensued.

Manning hasn't responded

Despite the recent media outcry, Manning has said nothing publicly about the incident at UT. That might seem odd to those who followed his rapid-fire responses to charges of using a performance-enhancing drug.

When Al-Jazeera America linked Manning and other athletes to receiving human growth hormone, Manning launched a counterattack.

"The allegation that I would do something like that is complete garbage and totally made up," Manning said in a statement. "It never happened. Never."

The Washington Post reported in late December that Manning sent two private investigators to the home of the parents of Charlie Sly, the chief source in an Al-Jazeera documentary that alleged Manning's wife, Ashley, received shipments of HGH from the Guyer Institute.

But it's understandable why Manning hasn't defended himself against Naughright's charges. He already has been burned for violating a confidentiality agreement. Also, another such response could bolster her contention that he had tried to ruin her career.

She had been working at Florida Southern College for three years when she returned from a trip to find a manila folder with "Dr. Vulgar Mouth" written on the outside. The folder was placed in the receptacle on her office door. According to her suit, her supervisor had opened the folder and read its contents.

In King's column, he concluded: "After years of amazing reviews and great work at the university, the controversy from the book and the stress it created eventually caused Dr. Jamie Naughright to be let go.

" ... What Manning said about her ruined her career at Florida Southern and in college athletics once and for all."

The redacted document

If you thought the Manning story was beginning to wind down by the end of the week, you were wrong. The Washington Post gave it fresh legs.

In a story published Friday evening, it raised the issue of academic fraud involving Manning when he was a freshman at UT. The headline: "The mysterious 1994 incident between Peyton Manning and a Tennessee trainer."

The incident was mentioned in Naughright's suit. However, at the request of Manning's lawyers, it was redacted.

The 74-page complaint filed against Manning in Polk County, Fla., included a section about the redacted documentation under the headline: "Peyton Manning's Motive & Malice."

It read: "In the fall of 1994, an incident occurred involving Peyton Manning which will not only explain Peyton Manning's dislike for Dr. Naughright but will be relevant to understanding the 1996 incident that Manning writes about in the book "Manning."

The next four pages were redacted.

But a deposition related to the issue was not redacted. In Will Hobson's Washington Post story, he quoted from the deposition of Tennessee athletic director Doug Dickey.

The line of questioning in the deposition suggested Naughright might have accused Manning of cheating in her class. Dickey was asked if Carmen Tegano, UT's associate athletic director for administration, had ever reported to him that Naughright had accused Manning of academic fraud. She was one of many guest instructors in a one-hour freshman orientation class taught by Tegano.

Dickey said no one told him Manning had been accused of cheating in a class.

Tegano, who was quoted in the Washington Post story, said "under no circumstances did Peyton Manning cheat."

UT athletic department spokesman Ryan Robinson told the News Sentinel on Friday there is no record of academic fraud by Manning in 1994 or any other time.

In 1999, UT English instructor Linda Bensel-Meyers triggered a two-year NCAA investigation into academic fraud involving UT football players. Manning wasn't mentioned in the numerous allegations.

He graduated from UT with a 3.61 grade-point average in speech communication.

Manning's legacy

There's no doubt Manning's national image has been affected adversely by the publicity surrounding an incident that occurred when he was in college. Coupled with the report linking him to HGH, he has incurred more negative publicity in the past few months than at anytime in a distinguished 18-year NFL career.

Last week, a national women's group urged sponsors to cut ties with Manning. UltraViolet even singled out Nationwide Insurance and Papa John's Pizza, which have featured Manning prominently in commercials.

But as Manning contemplates retirement, he still has plenty of fans, many of whom won't be fazed by the HGH report or by an incident that occurred when he was in college.

Some of his most fervent supporters are in East Tennessee, where he is beloved not just for what he did at UT as a player but for how supportive and loyal he has been to his alma mater.

News Sentinel columnist Sherri Gardner Howell summed up how so many people here feel about Manning when she expressed her admiration for him in a News Sentinel column on Feb. 12, the day before King's column was published in the New York Daily News.

"I like everything I know about him," she wrote. "If he has a dark side, I don't want to know."

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at twitter.com/johnadamskns.