Ex-Stanford coach suing ESPN for defamation, claiming story led to his firing from school: report

A former college football coach is reportedly suing ESPN for defamation after he was fired following the outlet publishing a story about his alleged behavior.

Troy Taylor was fired from Stanford in March over allegations of bullying and belittling staff – but he said back in April that he had been portrayed “unfairly” and was let go “without cause.”

Now, he is apparently taking his case to a new level.

According to The Sacramento Bee, Taylor’s lawsuit claims that an ESPN story, which highlighted Taylor’s alleged behavior, led to his firing from Stanford.

The story said that “multiple employees filed complaints about Taylor for what they called hostile and aggressive behavior, as well as personal attacks.” and “both investigations determined that Taylor’s treatment of employees, particularly of women, was inconsistent with Stanford’s standards.”

“These statements were false, and ESPN and [reporter Xuan] Thai knew them to be false at the time they were made,” Taylor’s attorneys claim.

Taylor was first investigated over a year ago, which led to him signing a warning letter on Feb. 14 of last year, and a second investigation concluded that July. Taylor said he “disagreed with the complaint” but “took it seriously and fully cooperated.” The investigation, Taylor said, “concluded that I did not act unfairly,” and he was given an extension and a raise at the end of the next February “because I was told we were building something special.”

Taylor said the second investigation was “regarding a discussion about the physical speed at which Stanford players could participate in a walk-through,” but was resolved that July.

“Two other witnesses (one male and one female) were present during the initial discussion about the speed at which players could participate in a walk-through. Both told me at the time that my behavior was appropriate,” Taylor said.

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In his April statement, he said both investigations were “improperly disclosed” to the media. The first probe, Taylor said, was about “a complaint from an athletic administrator that claimed that I tried to remove her as our football administrator for an unfair reason.”

“[T]he First Investigation did not determine that Taylor engaged in gender-based bullying or belittling; there were not ‘two investigations’ that found that Taylor ‘had bullied and belittled athletics staff, especially women;’ the workplace investigations did not begin after ‘multiple employees filed complaints’ against Taylor for ‘hostile and aggressive behavior’ toward female employees or staff; and there was no finding after the First Investigation that ‘allegations regarding belittling… behavior toward… women were deemed to have merit,'” the lawsuit says.

“Taylor is informed and believes and thereon alleges that the aforementioned acts of Defendants were willful, oppressive, fraudulent, and/or malicious. The conduct of Defendants in publishing these false statements about Taylor, with knowledge of their falsity, for the express purpose of harming Taylor was intentional and despicable. Taylor is therefore entitled to punitive damages.”

ESPN declined to comment.

Taylor went 3-9 in both his seasons as Stanford’s head coach. Frank Reich was hired as the interim coach. 

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