Troy Taylor’s defamation suit against ESPN after Stanford firing tossed by judge
A Bay Area federal judge has thrown out the defamation lawsuit against ESPN and reporter Xuan Thai filed by former Stanford and Sacramento State head football coach Troy Taylor.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi in San Jose granted ESPN’s motion to dismiss the case Tuesday, writing that the network’s reporting correctly reflected the findings of the reports it had obtained.
Taylor, a prep star at Cordova High School who starred at quarterback at Cal and later coached Folsom High School and Sacramento State football to championship success, was fired by Stanford after two seasons on March 25, 2024, after ESPN published multiple stories on workplace investigations the school launched into Taylor over concerns of harsh behavior toward female athletic staffers.
The investigations centered on findings of workplace misconduct involving female staff members, including bullying.
Taylor and his lawyers “are considering appealing it,” he wrote in a text to The Sacramento Bee on Friday morning. Taylor’s lawyer, Paul Salvaty, said in an email to The Bee on Friday, “we disagree with the ruling and are considering an appeal.”
Taylor’s lawyers, in their suit obtained by The Bee when it was filed in July, sought damages for defamation. ESPN received a copy of two confidential Stanford workplace investigations into Taylor’s interactions with female athletic staffers, which the lawsuit alleges Stanford leaked to ESPN.
Taylor’s civil complaint detailed his causes of action against ESPN and Thai, alleging that “they made, published and 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.”
Taylor told The Bee last summer that his 30-year track record as a coach contradicted claims of bullying behavior. He said that ESPN’s reporting of him being a bully “is simply not true” and “is destroying my reputation.”
He has not coached since the 2024 season at Stanford, though the school continues to pay him the remainder of his salary after he agreed to an extension through the 2030 season. Stanford, after the first workplace investigation, extended Taylor following the 2023 season after he was courted by UCLA to become its head coach.
Taylor’s civil complaint against ESPN focused on a headline, a photo caption and descriptions in the story, according to ESPN’s report on the dismissal. Taylor said in the suit that both Stanford workplace investigations concluded that he bullied and belittled female staffers.
In The Bee’s earlier report on the lawsuit, two Stanford female staffers spoke on the record in support of Taylor, offering positive accounts of his workplace conduct.
But the judge disagreed, writing in her ruling that “the headline … is a substantially accurate summary.”
“The salient point of defendants’ reporting is that the 2023 investigation found that Mr. Taylor engaged in misconduct toward female staff in the workplace,” DeMarchi wrote in her ruling this week. “That is a substantially true characterization of the 2023 investigation’s and 2024 investigation’s findings.”
DeMarchi also wrote, “None of the statements challenged by Mr. Taylor are defamatory as a matter of law, Mr. Taylor’s complaint fails to state a plausible claim for defamation.”
Both sides are scheduled to return to court March 31 for a status conference, according to court records.