Overview

• Taylor filed the lawsuit July 30 in federal court in the Northern District of California, naming ESPN and reporter Xuan Thai as defendants and requesting a jury trial without specifying damages.
• He contends the March ESPN article mischaracterized two independent investigations as finding he bullied and belittled female athletic staffers and that those reports were confidential.
• Taylor, now living in Los Gatos with his family, says he has been in pain since his abrupt firing and is uncertain about future coaching opportunities.
• As a public figure, Taylor faces the challenge of proving ESPN acted with actual malice, while the network is expected to argue its reporting was accurate and based on multiple sources.
• Pretrial discovery could require ESPN to turn over internal communications and compel Taylor to produce documents related to the underlying workplace probes.