Thom Brennaman, veteran Fox Sports broadcaster, won’t be part of Fox Sports’ NFL team this season after he uttered a homophobic remark Aug. 19 while working a Cincinnati Reds broadcast. He was also suspended from doing Reds games.
Coming out of a commercial break during a Reds game, Brennaman mentioned a place as being “one of the fag capitals of the world.”
Brennaman apologized on air and later departed the broadcast booth.
"Fox Sports is extremely disappointed with Thom Brennaman's remarks during Wednesday's Cincinnati Reds telecast," Fox Sports said in a statement. "The language used was abhorrent, unacceptable, and not representative of the values of Fox Sports."
Brennaman joined Fox Sports in 1994. He’s a play-by-play announcer for the NFL and handled Major League Baseball on Fox from 1996 to 2014. He calls Reds games on Fox Sports Ohio.
Brennaman’s father, Marty, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.
Brennaman wrote an opinion piece for the Cincinnati Enquirer August 20 that acknowledged saying something “hateful…something no one should ever say. Something that no one should ever think. Something that no one should ever feel. Something no one should ever hear.”
The Reds said the club “is devastated by the horrific, homophobic remark made this evening by broadcaster Thom Brennaman.”
