NFL: League to talk with players named in Al Jazeera PED report

(Reuters) - Retired quarterback Peyton Manning and four other players named in an Al Jazeera America report that linked them to performance-enhancing drugs will soon meet with the NFL, according to a report on the NFL's website on Thursday. Manning, who was the most prominent of the names mentioned in the December report, and four active players will meet with league officials "sometime next month," NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart was quoted as saying in the report. Manning, who helped the Denver Broncos win a Super Bowl in February and retired a month later, has denied accusations made in the documentary that he took human growth hormone while recovering from neck surgery in 2011. [ID:nL1N14G0H3] Clay Matthews, Julius Peppers, Mike Neal and James Harrison were the four active players named in the report. The report cited a former unpaid Guyer Institute intern pharmacist, Charlie Sly, who allegedly spoke to an undercover reporter working for the network. Sly, who later recanted his statement, said Manning was among several prominent athletes who were supplied illegal PEDs from the Indianapolis-based anti-aging clinic. In January, the NFL announced it had begun a comprehensive review of the allegations, but did not give a timeline as to when it might be completed. (Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)