No Punts

A high school football coach who adopted a controversial “no punt” strategy was not a public official or limited public figure for defamation purposes, according to a South Carolina Supreme Court decision reinstating a $200,000 jury award

Petitioner Jeffrey L. Cruce became the head football coach and athletic director for Berkeley High School in 2011. For the 2015 season, he adopted a controversial “no punt” offensive scheme for the football team. This strategy stirred intense debate among followers of the team and was covered in local and even national sports pages. The controversy deepened as the team suffered lopsided defeats.

The court

We conclude Cruce is not a limited public figure under this test or Erickson. First, no public controversy was present. The merit of Cruce’s coaching strategy was not a controversy that affected large segments of society. Second, even if a public controversy existed over Cruce’s coaching strategy, Stevens’ defamatory comments related to Cruce’s paperwork skills, not his gridiron acumen.

A defamatory email

The jury heard Cruce’s damages evidence. Like most general damage evidence in defamation cases, it was, well, general. Reputational damages are intangible and notoriously hard to pinpoint and quantify, a reality the law has long recognized. We could dissect the record and perhaps conclude Cruce did not flatly state precisely how Stevens’ email humiliated him or caused his wife to believe it had, as she said, knocked him off his emotional “footing.” But to do so, we would have to ignore our duty under the governing standard of review for JNOV rulings to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to Cruce and construe all reasonable inferences and ambiguities in his favor.

JUSTICE JAMES:

I agree with the majority that Mr. Cruce was not a public official or public figure (limited or otherwise). However, I disagree with the majority that Stevens’ email could reasonably be construed as defamatory. Therefore, I concur in part and dissent in part and would reverse the trial court’s denial of the District’s motion for JNOV. As athletic director, Cruce was responsible for maintaining student-athlete eligibility files. In December 2015, Cruce was removed as athletic director head and football coach and was reassigned to a position as a guidance counselor at a middle school in the District. Chris Stevens was the head athletic trainer at Berkeley High School. During Christmas break of the 2015-16 school year—after Cruce had been relieved of his athletic director and coaching duties—strength coach Mike Ward asked Stevens about the status of the eligibility files of students playing winter sports. Stevens testified he had been in athletic training since 2010 and had experience with and knowledge of records that had to be in the files. On January 7, 2016, Stevens, Ward, and an assistant principal went into Cruce’s former office and examined the files for students who were weightlifting to make sure the students were medically cleared to be in the weight room. After reviewing the files, Stevens sent the subject email to forty-five recipients connected with athletic programs in the District.

Justice Few also dissented. (Mike Frisch)