McIntyre of TheBigLead, Manning should be counting his blessings that he didn't grow up in the social media era. As the article points out, Manning had a sexual misconduct suit against him that is virtually unknown to the public at large.

In the suit, Manning was accused by a then-University of Tennessee female trainer of dropping his pants during an injury examination, and placing his buttocks and private parts on her face.

That sounds bad on its own, but it gets worse: Another student-athlete observed the incident and, several years later, wrote Manning a letter, urging him to admit what he had done.

The trainer immediately brought her complaint to the university, and she won a settlement from the school before leaving her position.

But the incident resurfaced several years later, whenManning wrote his perspective in his autobiography. He described the trainer as having a "vulgar mouth." The trainer, who was then the program director at Florida Southern College, was demoted and apparently lost her job due to the vulgar accusation.

Manning had settled with her out of court over the incident, but he had to re-settle with her once again after discussing the incident on ESPN , which violated the terms of the agreement.

All in all, it's a story that tarnishes the image Manning has cultivated over a long, successful career, and an incident that he no doubt regrets. If this had become a major national news story while Manning was still in college, it's one that could have altered the course of his career.

TheBigLead argues that Winston and