By now, I’m sure that everyone’s heard of the latest scandal to hit the NFL. For those who haven’t, an Al Jazeera special investigative report has claimed that current Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning received human growth hormone (HGH) during his recovery from a neck injury in 2011. Manning was with the Indianapolis Colts at the time. While Manning has strongly denied the allegations, they should absolutely not be ignored, given the content of the Al Jazeera documentary.

The documentary followed a British runner, Liam Collins, who was working as an undercover investigative reporter for the network. Collins essentially was looking for a way to get into the world of sports doping so that they could find sources and expose the practice as being more common than people believe. His journey brought him to many people, but Charlie Sly was the one of the most intrigue.

Sly is a pharmacist who was formerly employed by the Guyer Institute in Indianapolis. The report portrays Sly as an expert in performance enhancing drugs who knew what to give players so they wouldn’t be caught doping.

From the footage in the report, it appeared as though Sly was talking up the clientele, namely professional athletes, to whom he had given performance enhancing substances or other supplements. He name dropped many NFL players to Collins including Julius Peppers, Clay Matthews, Mike Neal, James Harrison, Dustin Keller and, of course, Manning. There was no physical evidence that any players had done anything wrong, but Sly’s account made it seem like he had treated all of them.

Those are the basics of the Al Jazeera story. Now here are the real questions about the report. Do we trust it? Should we trust it? The answer to that is twofold. While Sly’s account seemed legitimate from the footage, it’s impossible to figure out what actually happened. Most of the athletes mentioned have already denied that they used performance enhancing drugs as would be expected. Sly has also claimed that he was lying in the footage that Al Jazeera had.

What is going to end up happening is a he said, she said type of battle. Only the athletes and the people who prescribed supplements to them know what really happened. There could be physical evidence if one of the mentioned athletes fails a test, but the chances of that happening are slim.

However, the report by Al Jazeera still should not be ignored. While it cannot necessarily be proven to be accurate or true right away, there is no reason to indict them for their work. I believe Mike Ditka called Al Jazeera “garbage” and said that they are “not a credible news organization.” That’s utterly false, as Al Jazeera has won countless awards for their work in journalism, including the prestigious Peabody Award, and it is generally viewed as a reputable source. Ditka should be ashamed for saying something like that on air, especially since the documentary hadn’t even aired at the time.

At the end of the day, there is only so much we can learn from this documentary alone, but one thing is clear. There needs to be more research into the allegations so they can either clear the players who are innocent, or figure out which of those mentioned have actually been doping. Whether or not Manning is one of them doesn’t matter now. He should be innocent until proven guilty, but the NFL cannot ignore what Al Jazeera found. They should look into the matter or they may find themselves handling another scandal down the line.

Jacob Camenker is an NFL Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. You can like him on Facebook here, follow him on Twitter @jacobyhorse, or add him to your network on Google.