An announcer by any other name would announce just as sweet.
In what is sure to be a controversial decision, ESPN has decided to pull college football announcer Robert Lee from covering a Virginia football game this season due to the simple fact his name is Robert Lee, the network announced on Tuesday. Outkick the Coverage’s Clay Travis was the first to report the questionable decision.
Lee, of course, shares the same name as former Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Despite this Lee, who is Asian-American, sharing no heritage to the former military leader of the Confederacy, ESPN reportedly believes the fact they share the same name is grounds enough to remove him from covering the Virginia-William & Mary football game this season.
ESPN announced in a statement they came to an agreement with Lee to make the switch in the wake of the events in Charlottesville, where a white nationalist plowed his car into a crowd of people, killing one and injuring 19 others.
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play by play for a football game has become an issue.”
Lee is now assigned to work Youngstown State at Pittsburgh on Sept. 2, airing on ACC Network, according to Sports Illustrated.
An ESPN executive reportedly later explained the decision stemmed from the network wanting to avoid Leee being “subjected to memes and jokes.”
White nationalists originally gathered in Charlottesville on Aug. 12. to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. The large group of white nationalists marched with torches and chanted racial and anti-Semitic slurs before being confronted by a group of counter-protesters. James Alex Fields Jr., who was photographed marching with a group of white nationalists, then allegedly drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal.
While Lee has refrained from commenting on the issue on Twitter, longtime ESPN sports anchor Bob Ley jokingly questoined if he too should be worried. Ley’s first name is, of course, short for Robert.
