Ryan Glasspiegel
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Longtime Reds baseball and Fox Sports NFL play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman was caught on a hot mic during tonight’s Reds telecast saying “one of the fag capitals of the world”:
Thom Brennaman surprises absolutely nobody pic.twitter.com/kZBWk1gxRJ
— ¡JONRONAZO! (@JV__19) August 19, 2020
Later in the broadcast, Brennaman apologized and left the booth:
Thom Brennaman apologized on-air and handed the broadcast off pic.twitter.com/fMXMmQz7Kd
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) August 20, 2020
“I made a comment earlier tonight that I guess went out over the air that I am deeply ashamed of,” Brennaman said. “If I have hurt anyone out there I can’t tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart I’m so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith. I don’t know if I’m going to be putting on this headset again.”
We’ll see where this goes from here.
Update: Brennaman has been suspended by the Reds.
Sadly, he’s done. I say sadly not because I’m excusing what he said — it was wrong and legitimately offensive — but because we live in a world where there are no second chances. No grace. No forgiveness. Clarification: no second chances for a white, male broadcaster who will be deemed a homophobe, no matter how pristine his prior record and reputation. Brenneman is not a victim — he’s responsible for his words — but his penalty will almost certainly outweigh the “crime.”
That sucks. He’s my favorite broadcaster.
It seems there was no context to this….he uttered it out of thin air. Quite senseless. Of course, he could claim he was using the colloquial British English term for a cigarette….Kansas City WAS an important tobacco hub in the 19th century. Though that only works for certain individuals on certain networks that shall remain nameless.
It would be sad to see a great broadcasting career end on this unfortunate note. As if this year could get any weirder.
He was probably responding to something the producer said in his headset, and he didn’t realize that they were back from commercial.
Without any context that’s plausible. I think it’s fair to suspend him because he’s representing Fox Sports but I think buddy is likely cancelled.
It’s unfortunate that nobody is allowed to have second chances anymore, and we all know his career is over. Despite what the Twitter mob would like to believe, using that word in what was supposed to be a private conversation doesn’t mean that he believes all gays should be killed. It’s just a word.
The Giants weren’t even playing in that game lol
Didn’t even know KC had a large gay population.
He says it is not who he is. He should clarify that it is not who he is publicly.
Total BS. Not a great word to say in this Cancel Culture world we live in, but the mans career shouldn’t be over. Hope Fox doesn’t cut him from NFL broadcast. He is a good broadcaster.