Thom Brennaman will return to the broadcast booth.
The former Reds anchor and Fox play-by-play announcer for MLB and NFL games has been hired by the CW to call college football games four years after he lost his job for making anti-gay slurs on air. This was reported by The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. Sunday.
“I’m more grateful than I can express that they took the gamble,” Brennaman, 60, told The Athletic. “They don’t have to do this.”
During the first game of a Reds-Royals doubleheader on Aug. 19, 2020, Brennaman, who works for Fox Sports Ohio, got hot on the microphone and said, “This is the FG capital of the world.”
That day, when Brennaman was apologizing on-air, he paused awkwardly to declare a Nick Castellanos home run, and the moment quickly became a talking point.
“I pride myself on being a guy of faith, and I believe that if Castellanos hits the ball deep into left field, it’s a home run and the game is 4-0,” Brennaman said during the broadcast.
The next day, Fox fired him from his National NFL job, and he subsequently resigned from his job with the Reds after serving his suspension.
Brennaman’s first call-up for The CW will be the Idaho State vs. Oregon State game on August 31, after which he will primarily be calling ACC games, The Athletic reported.
As he was exploring a return to broadcasting, he discovered that Perry Suk, CEO of Nexstar Media Group, which owns The CW, was an Ohio University alumnus, so he contacted Nexstar’s public relations department, The Athletic reported.
The next day, Suk got in touch with Brennaman.
“It’s clear that he has taken full responsibility for his actions,” CW president Dennis Miller told The Athletic.
Legendary announcer Bob Costas endorsed Brennaman when another CW executive, Sean Compton, reached out to him.
“Neither Tom nor anyone else is denying that he made a serious mistake,” Costas told The Athletic. “It was a mistake that deserved some kind of consequence, but the price he has paid is far too disproportionate, especially considering he had a great reputation before the incident and took all the appropriate steps to make amends after it happened. It’s long overdue for him to return to the booth, and I’m sure audiences will be happy to hear his voice again.”
Brennaman said he reached out to others in the gay community and received support from Syd Zeigler, co-founder of LGBTQ+ sports website OutSports.
“I pumped my fist in the air and said, ‘Finally!'” Zeigler told The Athletic about Brennaman’s new job. “Someone gave this guy the opportunity he deserves, and I’m so proud of The CW.”
