ESPN Pulls Announcer Robert Lee From Virginia Game Because of His Name
The network announced late Tuesday that the announcer, Robert Lee, a part-time employee who calls about a dozen college football
and basketball games a year for ESPN, would no longer participate in the broadcast of the Sept. 2 game in Charlottesville, Va., which became the center of violent clashes this month during a white supremacist gathering.
Before the demonstrations in Charlottesville, ESPN had planned for Mr. Lee to be in the announcer’s booth for the Virginia Cavaliers’ first game of the season, against the College of William
and Mary, which will be broadcast on the ACC Network.
After the violence in Charlottesville, which left one person dead, ESPN executives and Mr. Lee decided
that for his safety it would be best to have him to work on a different game that Saturday, a network spokesman said.
ESPN has removed an announcer from its broadcast of the University of Virginia’s first football game next month
because he has the same name as a Confederate general memorialized in statues that are being taken down across the country.
“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,” ESPN said in a statement.