The Univ. of Tennessee, facing a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month that makes sweeping allegations of institutional negligence in handling alleged sexual crimes committed by its athletes, filed a motion Tuesday to strike a single paragraph from the complaint. The offending paragraph just so happens to be the suit’s reference to alleged sexual misconduct by former Vols quarterback Peyton Manning against a female trainer.

Here’s paragraph 21, the passage in question:

In 1996, (then) Jamie Whited, the first female associate trainer in UT’s history, reported an incident to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville alleging that UT football player Peyton Manning had, in brief, “sat on her face” while she was assessing the extent of an injury. The incident was settled in 1997 for an undisclosed amount conditioned on the victim leaving her job at the University. See http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/colts/2003-11-04-manningsuit_x.htm (last visited December 9, 2015)

The motion filed by the university states that the allegations leveled against Manning, a favored son of the institution, are “immaterial, impertinent, and scandalous” and only included to drum up interest in the “meritless lawsuit.” The motion dismissed statements made elsewhere by opposing counsel that the Manning incident, among others, showed a pattern of institutional failure.

• Sexual Assault