Updated: 10:55 p.m.
The attorney for Phillies slugger Ryan Howard will fight claims made in an Al Jazeera report that his client received performance-enhancing drugs.
William Burck of the law firm Quinn Emanuel called the claims made against Howard and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals “outright lies.”
“It’s inexcusable and irresponsible that Al Jazeera would provide a platform and broadcast outright lies about Mr. Howard and Mr. Zimmerman,” Burck said in a statement.
“The extraordinary reckless claims made against our clients in this report are completely false and rely on a source who has already recanted his claims.
“We will go to court to hold Al Jazeera and other responsible parties accountable for smearing our clients’ good names.”
Howard and Zimmerman were both mentioned in an undercover investigative report scheduled to air on Al Jazeera network Sunday. In the report, Charlie Sly, identified as a pharmacist once employed by an Indianapolis-based anti-aging clinic, claims to have provided the players with PEDs. Sly makes these claims while being secretly videotaped by a representative of the network.
However, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, who communicated with Sly, Sly is neither a pharmacist — he was licensed as a pharmacy intern — nor was working at the Guyer Institute in 2011.
"Ryan Howard has vigorously denied the allegations contained in tonight’s airing of Al Jazeera’s report titled ‘The Dark Side,’" the Phillies said in a statement released late Sunday night. "Ryan has spent his whole career with the Phillies and, during that entire time, has been an extremely well respected member of our team and an outstanding contributor to our community. We will fully cooperate with any investigation conducted by Major League Baseball and will refer all further questions to them concerning the Al Jazeera report.”
The Al Jazeera report focuses mostly on NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning strongly denounced the report on Saturday, calling it “complete garbage” and “totally made up.”
Howard and Zimmerman both denied wrongdoing in the Al Jazeera report and their attorney followed with his statement.
Since learning of the report, Sly has backtracked from his comments.
"The statements on any recordings or communications that Al Jazeera plans to air are absolutely false and incorrect," Sly said, via the Associated Press. "To be clear, I am recanting any such statements and there is no truth to any statement of mine that Al Jazeera plans to air. Under no circumstances should any of those recordings, statements or communications be aired."