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Syracuse Orange Alum Robert Lee controversy continues weird 2017

By Paul A. Esden Jr.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 22: The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stands in the center of the renamed Emancipation Park on August 22, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. A decision to remove the statue caused a violent protest by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right'. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - AUGUST 22: The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stands in the center of the renamed Emancipation Park on August 22, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. A decision to remove the statue caused a violent protest by white nationalists, neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and members of the 'alt-right'. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) /
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Syracuse Orange alum Robert Lee was taken off of an ESPN broadcast, because of his name. ITLH breaks down this story and whether ESPN overreacted.

Just when you thought 2017 couldn’t get any worse, it does. Syracuse Orange alum Robert Lee is a young and upcoming broadcaster for the mother ship ESPN. He graduated the Newhouse school back in 1999.

He was scheduled to do college football play-by-play for the season opener for the Virginia Cavaliers. Well that was until ESPN decided that maybe it would be best if Robert Lee did a different game instead.

Why?

Well there’s been some controversy in Charlottesville. Senseless violence headlining the list. Some extremely tragic events took place that shouldn’t have. Some of that was sparked by people wanting certain statues taken down of former slave owners, including Robert E. Lee.

ESPN released this statement on why they made the move:

"“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events inMore from Inside the Loud HouseSyracuse Football: Cuse boils Purdue, turns attention to Army on SaturdaySyracuse football only team in country with top-5 scoring offense, defenseSyracuse Basketball: 4-star Elijah Moore not in top 100, and I don’t get thatSyracuse basketball 4-star west-coast recruit, in new rankings, into top 20Syracuse basketball is hitting D.C. market hard in pursuit of 4-stars, 5-starsCharlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name. While 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.”"

While this is a very sensitive situation, this commentary is strictly on ESPN’s decision here. Now lets lay some context into why ESPN may have made this decision.

The world wide leader in sports was involved in controversy last week when they were advertising their patented auction fantasy drafts. The commercial showed a large group of mostly Caucasian bidders, in an auction style format, bidding on what was an African-American player (Odell Beckham Jr.).

Yikes.

It was a bad optic and weirdly wasn’t caught in pre-production meetings. Yet this situation with Robert Lee was?

Maybe ESPN was being extra cautious. Possibly for good reason, I have some inside information and apparently Robert Lee’s nickname in college was of course ‘General’.

In 2017 with everyone getting offended by everything, this just adds to the list. This is in context to ESPN taking someone off of a broadcast based on his name. I want to reiterate the tragic acts of violence in Charlottesville are despicable and grotesque.

While I think this wasn’t about protecting Lee as it was more so to protect the brand. Lee despite being involved in a lightly watched game would’ve been the face of memes and gifs around the internet. ESPN apparently knew that.

Next: Syracuse Basketball: Top 30 Players in School History

Ultimately did ESPN overreact? Probably. But it’s better to be safe than sorry and I hate saying that. ESPN has to protect themselves especially after the debacle from last week. Can 2017 get any weirder?

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