REAL LIFE

ESPN Pulls Broadcaster Named Robert Lee From VA Football Game

Switches out Asian-American commentator “simply because of the coincidence of his name.”

ESPN is pulling a TV broadcaster named Robert Lee from its coverage of a University of Virginia football game on Sept. 2 because of “the coincidence of his name.” The university is located in Charlottesville, the site of the white-supremacist-fueled deadly violence this month. The group of neo-Nazis was protesting, in part, against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general. “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,” the network said in a statement. Lee is Asian-American.