It's been nearly four years since former Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom Brennaman was caught on a hot mic referring to an unknown location as "one of the fag capitals of the world," an incident that led to one of the more memorable on-air apologies in the history of television, and also an extended pause in Brennaman's career. But now, as reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, the 60-year-old Brennaman will be returning to the airwaves for the first time since uttering a slur. Starting next month, Brennaman will be the lead broadcaster for nationally televised college football games on The CW.
Marchand's story is pretty funny. It's clearly attempting to deliver the news of Brennaman's return alongside a narrative about how chastened he was and how much personal growth and self-reflection he's done over the last four years, but the thrust of the story is at odds with most of the details it provides. For example, Marchand quickly tosses off a vague assertion about the "work [Brennaman] has done reaching out to the gay community, both in Cincinnati and nationally," while providing zero specifics about the nature and length of that work. "It was mainly about listening to people," is all Brennaman has to say about his outreach work.
The story does, however, provide plenty of details about how hard Brennaman has been working to get back into the industry. We're told, in a tone implying that some great injustice has occurred, that Brennaman reached out to "six or seven agents" who all had no interest in representing him, and that conversations with "a couple of major-league teams" went nowhere. Marchand reveals that Brennaman, encouraged by the fact that Perry Sook, the CEO of The CW's parent company, is a fellow alum of Ohio University, sent a cold email to the company's PR department. That got Brennaman in the door, and eventually he landed the college football gig.
Marchand writes that The CW "did its homework" before hiring Brennaman, and then reveals that Bob Costas was one of the people the network reached out to during its "due diligence" process. Costas gives Marchand a quote in support of Brennaman's return to the broadcast booth, claiming that the "price he has paid is beyond disproportionate." Outsports co-founder Cyd Zeigler, who recently claimed to have registered as a Republican for the first time and publicly thanked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for speaking out against Donald Trump's indictment, also appears in the story to offer support for Brennaman.
Even after getting a job, Brennaman doesn't seem to have let go of the intense victim complex that he carried into every other interview he's done since losing his gig. He's still the guy who previously claimed that Aug. 19, 2020, was the first time he'd ever used a homophobic slur in his life—insisting that he could not even explain why he used it that day—and then sat for a meandering, aggrieved Q&A with another crusty announcer who also got in hot water for saying wild shit on air. Near the end of Marchand's story, Brennaman found room for a final dose of self-pity:
"When you’re living moment to moment, hour to hour, day by day, there will be times when you start to go a little bit dark and you start to say, 'Why me?'" Brennaman said.
If the sports media world wants to welcome Brennaman back into the fold and give him another job, the least it can do is be clear-eyed about what has actually happened over the last four years. Despite themselves, every story published about Brennaman has made it abundantly clear that he's been engaged in a sustained public and private campaign to get his job back, and that he sees himself mostly as a victim. Returning to the booth wasn't enough of a victory on its own, either. He needed one more chance to let us all know how hard the last four years have been for him, what a good man he is, and how much he deserves this opportunity. We all appreciate the update.
