A federal court in California has dismissed former Stanford head coach Troy Taylor's lawsuit against ESPN, ESPN has reported.
Taylor was fired on March 25 of last year, less than a week after ESPN reported that Stanford had conducted multiple investigations into alleged bullying by Taylor of lower-level football staffers, all of whom were female.
Taylor claimed that the first complaint was dealt with internally and he had agreed to moderate his previously-aggressive tone in the office, and that he was not shown the contents of the second investigation until it was reported by ESPN. Taylor also claimed he was fired without cause and paid out the remainder of his contract.
"The media's recent portrayal of me is unfair, wrong, and contrary to my professional track record and the person I am and always have been," Taylor said weeks after his firing. He filed his suit against ESPN in July.
Taylor's complaint centered upon "a headline, a photo caption and characterizations in the text of the original ESPN story that, he asserted, made it appear as though both Stanford investigations had concluded he engaged in bullying and belittling behavior toward female staffers," per ESPN.
Federal Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi found that ESPN's reporting, essentially, was lawful because it was true. "The salient point of defendants' reporting is that the 2023 investigation found that Mr. Taylor engaged in misconduct toward female staff in the workplace. That is a substantially true characterization of the 2023 investigation's and 2024 investigation's findings."
Taylor did not coach during the 2025 season and is not currently on a coaching staff ahead of the 2026 season. (Receiving his full contract from Stanford could have a lot to do with that, in fairness.) Still, the Sacramento State job -- where Taylor went 30-8 with three FCS playoff appearances, including a quarterfinal berth, from 2019-22 -- came open again since Taylor's Stanford firing and he did factor into the search. Following Brennan Marion's departure for the Colorado offensive coordinator job, the Hornets hired Arizona assistant head coach/running backs coach Alonzo Carter rather than bring Taylor back to campus.