On Tuesday evening, it was announced that Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals would file a defamation suit against Al Jazeera for a report that linked him to performance enhancing drugs (more on that here). Shortly thereafter, Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies followed suit.
Howard issued the following statement:
“Today I authorized my attorneys to file suit against Al Jazeera and its reporters,” Howard said in a statement through his representatives. “Their irresponsible reporting forced me to take this action to protect my name and to fight back against the spreading of these lies. I will have no further comment, as the filing itself contains all I need to say.” — Per Jim Salisbury, CSN Philly.
Salisbury also made an important point that negative results and publicity could be coming Howard’s way, even if he’s ultimately victorious in the courtroom.
Ryan Howard is digging in: by filing suit against Al Jazeera he opens self to discovery and possible testimony.
— Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) January 5, 2016
That’s of course true, just like it is with Zimmerman and any other athletes that were named. Should they decide to follow Zimmerman and Howard’s lead with lawsuits, they would become subject to extreme scrutiny.
Even if the lawsuits from Ryan Zimmerman and Ryan Howard are the the only two that end up getting filed, they will both be very important to all of the athletes named in the reports.
Any victories that either baseball player has in court will go a long way towards damaging the credibility of the full report.
Conversely, any victories from Al Jazeera could potentially make the report look even stronger and more credible. Given some of the names that were listed, including Peyton Manning, this has potential to be one of the biggest sports stories in recent memory.