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ST. MARTIN — A South Mississippi toddler named ESPN will be featured on NBC’s “Today” show later this month in a segment about unusual names.
His parents, Rusty and LeaAnn Real, became the target of several mean-spirited bloggers after ESPN’s birth at Biloxi Regional Medical Center, Oct. 2, 2006.
Outdone by critic’s not-so-nice comments, Rusty Real legally changed his name a year later to ESPN Myron Russell Real Sr., using his given names as his middle names.
ESPN Montana Real Jr., 3, is named for the sports network and legendary quarterback Joe Montana.
After four girls — Tabitha, Tiffany, Emily and Meagan — LeaAnn Real promised her husband if she ever had a son, he could name him.
“She shouldn’t have left the door open,” ESPN Real said.
He had talked about doing it for years, but his wife didn’t take him seriously. “Whatever you say, honey,” she’d tell him.
He was at a fantasy football draft when she called with the ultrasound results from her fifth pregnancy.
“There were 30 guys watching me cry,” he said. “I got a boy.”
He changed his own name on his son’s second birthday without telling his wife.
To say ESPN Real is a huge football fan is an understatement.
His driveway is painted to look like a football field with the Dolphins’ logo on one end and the ESPN logo on the other. There’s also a football goalpost hanging from his roof.
ESPN — the network — is on all the televisions at Palace Casino where Real is a bartender.
Although Little ESPN gets a football every year for his birthday, his dad won’t push him into sports. He’d like to see him be a football player or even follow in his footsteps and be a wrestler, but that choice is his, he said.
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