Former Stanford football coach Troy Taylor has filed a lawsuit against ESPN and one of its reporters over a story that led to his dismissal.
Taylor, 57, filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in the Northern District of California, citing an investigative story that ran in March by author Xuan Thai. The lawsuit alleges that Thai published “repeated defamatory statements about Taylor, knowing full well that the statements were false, for the purpose of smearing Taylor’s reputation and injuring him in his profession.”
Stanford and GM Andrew Luck announced the firing of Taylor on March 25, six days after ESPN’s report was released. Taylor had been the head coach for the Cardinal for two seasons, leading the program to a 6-18 record.
Thai’s story alleged that Taylor “bullied and belittled female athletic staffers,” citing a pair of previously undisclosed third-party investigations in 2023 and 2024 after “multiple employees filed official complaints regarding Taylor’s behavior.”
A month later, on April 16, a follow-up article from ESPN’s look into Stanford and Taylor began “in response to a single complainant who alleged gender bias and ‘a culture problem in football.” The article states that despite interviews ‘with at least 20 Stanford athletic department staffers regarding four allegations against Taylor. Three of the allegations regarding belittling and inappropriate behavior toward multiple women were deemed to have merit.”
Taylor’s lawsuit states: ‘Defendents’ false reporting about Taylor was not caused by negligence and did not result from any honest or good faith mistakes. Rather, Defendents’ intentionally twisted the facts to advance a particular narrative and made (repeated) patently false statements about Taylor for the purpose of harming his reputation and pressuring Stanford to fire him.’
Luck, the former Stanford quarterback star and No. 1 overall NFL pick, became Stanford’s GM in November. He reportedly knew Taylor’s situation before taking the position, but did not decide to fire Taylor until ESPN’s report was released ahead of spring practices.
Stanford hired Taylor on Dec. 10, 2022, following a three-year stint coaching Sacramento State at the FCS level. He led the Hornets to three playoff appearances in three seasons. Following the departure of long-time coach David Shaw following a pair of 3-9 seasons, Taylor was brought in.
In his two seasons leading the Cardinal, Taylor also went 3-9, marking the fourth straight season with the same record for the program. Stanford’s last winning record in a full season came back in 2018, when it went 9-4 and won the Sun Bowl.
Following the firing of Taylor, Luck tabbed his former Indianapolis Colts coach, Frank Reich, as the new interim head coach. Reich was hired under the condition that he would not be considered for the permanent role.