Thom Brennaman is set to return to the broadcast booth, some four years after a hot mic caught him saying a homophobic slur.
Brennaman is set to begin next month as The CW’s lead play-by-play announcer for its college football broadcasts, The Athletic reported Sunday.
The 60-year-old Brennaman was fired as the TV voice of the Cincinnati Reds and as a Fox Sports announcer after the local Reds broadcast picked up his derogatory remark on Aug. 19, 2020.
“There are no words to describe how grateful I am that they’re rolling the dice,” Brennaman told The Athletic of The CW. “They don’t have to do this.”
Brennaman did not realize his microphone was live when he said the slur nearly four years ago in a reference to San Francisco. Later in that broadcast, Brennaman issued an on-air apology, which went viral because Nick Castellanos hit a home run during the announcer’s address.
“I made a comment earlier tonight that I guess went out over the air that I am deeply ashamed of. If I have hurt anyone out there, I can’t tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart that I am so very, very sorry,” Brennaman began his apology that night.
“I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith as there’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, that will be a home run, and so that will make it a 4-0 ballgame.”
Brennaman told The Athletic he was “basically fired from everything” within seven hours of the incident. His work since has included hosting shows for Chatterbox Sports, an online medium focused on Cincinnati sports.
He is now set to return a primetime gig, starting with the call of Oregon State vs. Idaho State on Aug. 31. He will mainly broadcast ACC games.
“You get pretty spoiled by it,” Brennaman told The Athletic of his past work with Fox Sports and the Reds. “You get more than pretty spoiled by it all. I think somewhere along the line I probably started to think I was kind of a big deal, and I’m not a big deal. And you find out when you’re gone that you’re really not a big deal.”
Since his firing, Brennaman has connected with members of the LGBTQ community, saying those interactions were “mainly about listening to people,” including Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler.
Ziegler said he believed Brennaman deserved a second chance and was happy to see him get one, according to The Athletic.
Brennaman’s hiring at The CW came after he reached out to Perry Sook, a fellow Ohio University graduate and the chairman and CEO of the network’s parent company, Nexstar Media Group.
“It became clear that he has taken full responsibility for his actions,” The CW president Dennis Miller told The Athletic.
Sunday’s development follows The CW’s recent hiring of Bill Belichick to be an analyst on its weekly “Inside the NFL” show.