In deposition, Manning denied Saxon's claims

Court documents show that during Peyton Manning's deposition in a 2003 defamation lawsuit, he was confronted with a sworn statement by a former University of Tennessee athlete that contradicted a crucial part of what Manning said in his testimony.

The affidavit from former Volunteers track athlete Malcolm Saxon is a separate document from a letter Saxon sent Manning in 2002 and which has been widely circulated over the past week. Manning said in his deposition he had not seen the affidavit before that day, and denied Saxon's version of events.

But among more than 1,000 pages of transcripts and documents from the lawsuit, Saxon's affidavit, a sworn legal statement, might be the biggest…