Troy Taylor, the former head football coach at Stanford, is suing ESPN and reporter Xuan Thai over a 2025 article that he alleges led directly to his dismissal.
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According to a report from The Sacramento Bee, as cited by Sam Neumann of AwfulAnnouncing.com, Taylor filed a civil lawsuit claiming ESPN published false and damaging information with the intent of destroying his career. The lawsuit centers around a March 2025 article that highlighted two internal investigations into Taylor's conduct based on complaints from female employees who accused him of bullying.
Taylor claims the article was both misleading and selectively reported. His complaint also cites a follow-up ESPN story that, according to Taylor, contradicted elements of the original piece by noting that several of the allegations had been found to lack merit. Despite that, ESPN has not retracted any part of its reporting.
"The media's recent portrayal of me is unfair, wrong, and contrary to my professional track record and the person I am and have always been," Taylor said in a statement shared on social media in April.
The network declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by The Athletic.
The fallout from the March article was swift. Stanford parted ways with Taylor not long after the report was published. The university named former NFL head coach Frank Reich as his replacement for the 2025 season. The decision came from Stanford general manager Andrew Luck, who had hired Taylor to lead the program in 2023.
For Taylor to succeed in court, he will need to clear a high legal bar. As a public figure, he must prove that ESPN either knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. He must also demonstrate that the ESPN reporting was a direct factor in Stanford's decision to terminate his employment.
Taylor has yet to comment publicly on the lawsuit, but the filing signals a sharp escalation in the dispute between the former coach and perhaps the most powerful sports media outlets in the world.
