'Fox Had No Option But to Fire Her': Cris Carter Gets Real on ‘Investigation’ Involving Joy Taylor

Earlier this Spring, a bombshell report of an impending s*xual assault lawsuit against Fox Sports broke the world of sports media, with Joy Taylor receiving a healthy amount of the backlash after being named in the initial filings and complaints. Taylor had reportedly fostered relationships with numerous Fox Sports employees, including a network executive, that branched well beyond the workplace. 

Subsequent investigations only proved to worsen the matter, and now that the trio of Emmanuel Acho, Charlie Dixon, and Taylor have all been relieved of their respective positions at the network, public perception has hit an all-time low.

According to yet another former Fox Sports broadcaster, Cris Carter, Taylor’s axing was inevitable given the legal ramifications of her extracurricular activities. “Fox had no choice but to fire her.”

“In their investigation, they gave Charlie time off. Then, eventually they end up firing Charlie, so that tells you there’s some fire there in the wood pile,” Carter explained.

While it may have ultimately been in the network’s best interest to let go of everyone who was involved in the scandal, the former Minnesota Viking noted that they had to take things one step further by destroying anything that was ever associated with Dixon’s time as an executive. “They had to burn down everything that Charlie Dixon had created.”

Consider it a ‘corporate cleansing’ if you will, but it was painfully necessary according to Carter, even though a few innocents were wiped away in the process. As a result of the scandal, everyone who was working on the shows in which Acho and Taylor were routinely a part of or hosting was released as well. 

Fellow TV analysts and former players such as LeSean McCoy, Keyshawn Johnson, Paul Pierce, and several others, are all being forced to look for new gigs, in a tragic instance of what Carter referred to as “friendly fire.”

“They just happened to be riding in the car with her, they end up getting shot… You riding with Tupac and Biggie man, people looking for them, man. Accident. Friendly fire. They had to. They had to tear those shows down… not only because of the rumors but because of the stuff they found out in the investigation. That thing was ugly. It had to happen.”

Despite the severity of the allegations, Carter did suggest that Taylor’s “wealth of information” and “experience” will likely result in another network offering her an opportunity in the near future. Throw in some very “real” journalistic credentials and a “good rolodex” of past interviews, and the NFL Hall of Famer is more than confident that football fans haven’t seen the last of Taylor just yet. 

In fact, former NBA star, Gilbert Arenas, has publicly voiced his interest in hiring Taylor to assist with football coverage, and even claimed that “We’ve been behind the scenes, talking to her for the last year.” If that’s indicative of Taylor’s popularity as a free agent, then she may be back on your television screen much sooner than you think.