Seriously, ESPN?

[mjr]

ESPN Pulls Asian Announcer Named Robert Lee Off UVa Game:

https://www.outkickthecoverage.com/m...ending-idiots/

So...an Asian dude named Robert Lee gets pulled (via "collective decision") from announcing an American football game because his name is Robert Lee...

Though the article says people get shifted around all the time...

[TheHuckster]

This is absolutely idiotic. Next thing we'll fire everyone named Chris Brown for being associated with a name that famously beat up his SO.

[TheHuckster]

If this is true, it sounds like they weren't avoiding offending people, just avoiding a shitstorm of trolling with memes and bad jokes about Robert Lee calling a game in Virginia. I don't believe for a second they merely "asked" him though.

Still a stupid situation. Plus, removing him from the game to divert attention backfired as it always does. What the hell prevents people from remembering what the Streisand Effect is?

[MadMike]

People are going to find something funny about almost any name. Trying to stop it is a losing battle.

[Pixelated]

If this is true, it sounds like they weren't avoiding offending people, just avoiding a shitstorm of trolling with memes and bad jokes about Robert Lee calling a game in Virginia. I don't believe for a second they merely "asked" him though.

Still a stupid situation. Plus, removing him from the game to divert attention backfired as it always does. What the hell prevents people from remembering what the Streisand Effect is?

Exactly. They are NOW going to face endless memes and jokes about removing him. They would've been better off just to let him call the game (unless HE wanted out) and just sail right through the storm. It would've been a three-day wonder, if that, and then the interwebz would've gone on to something else.

[MadMike]

It would've been a three-day wonder, if that, and then the interwebz would've gone on to something else.

As I pointed out on another site where this article was posted, very few people would have even noticed the name, and fewer still would have made a big deal of it. But ESPN went ahead and pointed it out to literally millions of people. Gotta love these rocket scientists.

[jackfaire]

Actually I disagree leaving him there would have guaranteed people would have mocked the name and made a ton of jokes.

Changing the schedule at every job is an internal matter. The fact that this was leaked from someone from the company points to someone WANTED there to be jokes. Most likely the decision to have him announce that game came from the same person who leaked that he was switched.

Why because they wanted people to make a big damn deal out of it because they amused them.

Saying any variation of "Just let it happen don't try to prevent it"

Gives me the right to go around and start punching people in the face because hey it's going to happen so why try to stop it.

There was a high probability that putting him on a different game would have 0 memes and 0 jokes about it.

The fact that there are after a leak is like they said proof that people would have done this.

People can claim it's only the confluence of his name and his being switched away from that game that feeds the jokes but anyone arguing that is ignoring the other side of that the jokes would have been the confluence of that name and that game.

I don't see anyone mocking every other person who's switched on the schedule. So no it's not the fact he was switched on the schedule it's his name.

And you can't have it both ways. You can't claim switching him away (which shouldn't have ever become public knowledge) because of his name generates jokes but that the same name wouldn't have generated jokes if they didn't.

Honestly it's like arguing that the fireworks that 100% would have gone off if left next to a bonfire shouldn't have been moved to a clear field where they happened to get hit by a bolt of lightning.

I know for a fact that this isn't the first time a staffing decision was made based on a name. The actor Mark Chapman was denied the role of John Lennon in a biopic because he shared the name of the man who shot John Lennon.

Funny I don't see a lot of memes and jokes about that and usually when people hear that they say shit like "Oh yeah no that totally makes sense"

So yeah. Give the guy a break and let him do his job without turning him into a rallying cry of "bullying's okay leave it alone"

[Judecat]

There is a large number of people who would not even have been aware of the issue had they not made a big deal out of it. Even my friends who follow sports are not necessarily interested in college sports. So we would not have even known about it had it not popped up on facebook. So IMO, in an effort to avoid the troll, everyone involved ended up feeding the trolls.

[TheHuckster]

It seems like such a pointless cause, though. Even if people pointed and laughed at it with memes, it'd last a maximum of a week. Not every meme is a Harambe. Is the new order of business now to prevent stupid memes from coming up? It's a fruitless effort.