ESPN pulls Virginia game announcer named Robert Lee

Because Robert Lee is too similar to Robert E. Lee.



Really? We live in ridiculous times.

ESPN decided to move an Asian American announcer, Robert Lee, off the University of Virginia's upcoming home opener football game against William and Mary, "simply because of the coincidence of his name."

Because Robert Lee is too similar to Robert E. Lee.

Earlier this month, violence erupted at a white nationalist rally that gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of a statue of the Confederate general. The night before a counter-protestor was killed, white nationalists marched across the UVA campus, carrying torches and chanting racist slogans. So yeah, you could say it was a minor coincidence that a guy named Robert Lee was going to call the play by play.

That minor coincidence was enough for ESPN to reassign Lee to announce the Youngstown versus Pitt game being played on the same day. It was supposed to be a minor change -- reassignments happen all the time, and neither game is even scheduled to be televised. But then word of the network's switch leaked on Tuesday.

The Amazing Story of Reggie Ho, Unlikely Football Folk Hero

Ken Jeong's "30 for 30" short for ESPN tells the story of Notre Dame's legendary walk-on kicker.



This is the incredible story of the most unlikely person to ever play college football. A guy who, if you just looked at him, had no business playing the game for Notre Dame. But he became a football folk hero.

No, it's not Rudy.

ESPN's latest "30 for 30" documentary short Student/Athlete, directed by Ken Jeong, tells the story of Reggie Ho, a pre-med student from Hawaii who walked on to Notre Dame's football team as a placekicker because he wanted to be "a more well-rounded person." At 5-foot-5 and 135 pounds, he was one of the smallest players in college football, but ended up playing a crucial role in the Fighting Irish's undefeated 1988 season.

"I have nothing against Rudy. He's a fellow Notre Dame guy," says former Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice. "But Reggie Ho deserves better than that. Reggie's a better story."

No, ESPN. This kid's favorite band is not "Wandai Wrection."

Possible smartass shenanigans during ESPN's broadcast of the Little League World Series.



This is 13-year-old first baseman Nagiru Hiramatsu, who is representing Japan in the Little League World Series. His favorite singer, as identified by ESPN during a recent broadcast, is "Wandai Wrection." Huh? I believe young Nagiru meant One Direction, one of the most popular boy bands in the world. Oops.

I suppose that's better than "Sum Ting Wong."

Jeremy Lin spell checks for SportsCenter

It was only a matter of time. Check out Houston Rockets point guard (and Harvard graduate) Jeremy Lin have a little fun and showing off some smarts in this funny, brief commercial for ESPN's SportsCenter.

jeremy lin meets with "chink in the armor" headline writer

While the craziness of Linsanity has somewhat faded since February, it's no secret that New York still loves Jeremy Lin. But now it's official.

The Knicks point guard was recently voted the most beloved sports figure in the Big Apple, beating the likes Derek Jeter, Eli Manning and other of New York's favorite athletes: Jeremy Lin is New York's Most Beloved.

So he's popular. On top of that, he's a class act. Remember ESPN's "chink in the armor" headline debacle from last month? Jeremy recently had lunch with the former ESPN employee who got fired for writing the headline. Apparently, there are no hard feelings: Jeremy Lin lunches with ex-ESPN headline writer.

espn fires employee for "chink in the armor" headline

Well, that was quick. I'd like to think that it was the collective fury of the internet and beyond that forced ESPN to take swift action and fire the employee responsible for writing that incredibly stupid "Chink In The Armor" headline on Friday night: ESPN fires writer of offensive headline about Jeremy Lin.

Some editor probably thought they were being clever when they it occurred to them to use a freaking racial slur in the headline. And if you're one of those people arguing that "chink in the armor" is a legitimate expression, you can suck it. The writer was invoking race and knew exactly what they were doing.

The headline was only up for 35 minutes, but it was enough to get screen-grabbed, shared and social media-ed like crazy. ESPN issued a short statement of apology the morning after, promising a review of editorial procedures and "appropriate disciplinary action." Not very reassuring, but it was a start.

By this morning, ESPN announed that they had taken action to address both the headline and a previous instance in which anchor Max Bretos used the expression during a broadcast, as well as a similar recent reference uttered on ESPN Radio in New York:

the jeremy lin article everyone sent me

Here's a great ESPN article profiling Harvard basketball star Jeremy Lin, a guy who's been turning a lot of heads in college hoops. His passion for the game was apparently passed down to him from his father: Immigrant dream plays out through son.

Jeremy's father, Gie-Ming Lin, is a "basketball junkie" who immigrated from Taiwan in the 1970s and learned to play the game by watching videotapes of his favorite NBA stars. He vowed -- long before he even had children -- that his own kids would grow up knowing the game from an early age. Looks like it his plan worked.

This season, in a close game against U.Conn, Lin scored a career-high 30 points. And in the Crimson's 74-67 upset at Boston College yesterday, he scored 25 points. So in two games against New England's annual NCAA tournament participants, Lin scored 55 points and shot 64 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free throw line.

Last season Lin was the only player in the nation to rank among the top 10 players in his conference in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, field goal percentage, free throw percentage and 3-point percentage. This year, he continues to demonstrate that he's just a fantastic all-around player (and breaking barriers while he's at it).