Sportscaster Thom Brennaman was fired from Fox Sports last September after he casually dropped an antigay slur during a Cincinnati Reds game. Now, the 58-year-old just gave an ill-advised interview in which he claims his punishment didn’t fit the crime, he’s a good Christian man, and, oh yeah, “all lives matter.” Ugh.
In case you need a refresher, here’s the clip of Brennaman referring to an undisclosed location as “one of the f*g capitals of the world” during a Cincinnati Reds game last year:
Thom Brennaman surprises absolutely nobody pic.twitter.com/kZBWk1gxRJ
— Jackson (@JV__19) August 19, 2020
Reflecting on that moment to Sports Broadcast Journal, Brennaman, who previously said that was the one and only time in his life he ever used the word “f*g”, now says he knew his career was over almost immediately.
“The moment it left my lips, I knew it was over,” he says. “It was just a matter of time. I anticipated a suspension and lots of backlash.”
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But instead of being suspended, Brennaman was fired by Fox Sports. He didn’t work for several months before finally accepting a job broadcasting high school sports in the Greater Cincinnati Area earlier this summer and launching a podcast.
Now, he says, people are clamouring for him to return to major league sportscasting.
“If I’m in the grocery or getting a cup of coffee at the local convenient shop, 99% of those I bump into, I’ll hear, ‘We wish you were back, we miss you!’” he claims. “Let’s say it’s even 90%. Are execs going to make a decision to appease the 10%? Wouldn’t you listen to the massive 90%?”
Brennaman also says he’s been unfairly treated, and that long-time MLB voice Bob Costas agrees.
“Although I’ve met Bob several times since, I can’t say I know him well,” he claims. “But Costas has been amazingly helpful. He’s told me that the crime doesn’t match the punishment.”
Costas has never commented publicly on Brennaman’s firing.
“All I can tell you is that I remain a good father and a good Christian,” Brennaman adds.
In the interview, he also talks about sportscaster Grant Napear, who was fired from calling for the Sacramento Kings after tweeting “all lives matter” during the George Floyd protests last year.
“What did he do?” Brennaman says. “If we live in an environment that BLM matters, don’t all lives matter? That makes you a racist? How ludicrous is that? Napear is one of the great guys in our business.”
Sounds like this guy still has some learning to do.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
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Max
“If I’m in the grocery or getting a cup of coffee at the local convenient shop, 99% of those I bump into, I’ll hear, ‘We wish you were back, we miss you!’” he claims. “Let’s say it’s even 90%. Are execs going to make a decision to appease the 10%? Wouldn’t you listen to the massive 90%?”
OMG, he’s giving percentages and telling “they say” stories like Trump does.
Mack
Well all things considered, he’s probably a Trump supporter so lies comes natural.
Sanjo
So it sounds like 100% of former viewers gather in that convenience store and 90% or more want him back. Why doesn’t he just call the games from that location? Problem solved.
otttovan
Probably because who’s going to recognize him, go up to him and then say “I’m glad you got fired”? Someone has a whole bunch of confirmation bias in his head
Essie
To be fair, if the grocery store he is referring to is in the Greater Cincinnati area then, yes, 99% of those who come up to him say they “miss him” because the Dumpster won OH, KY and IN. So, there’s that. The good thing is, those of us who DON’T want him back will never have to see or hear him again. And that’s a good thing.
P.S.: Before his little faux pas, anyone shopping at any Kroger store had to listen to him over the PA doing promos and commercials for the store. The best thing about this mess is that we don’t have to hear him while shopping again.
Fahd
There´s a word missing or misused in the headline. ¨for using antigay¨ isn´t correct English grammar.. I recommend either ¨for using a slur¨ or ¨for using antigay slur¨.
As for the sportscaster, I´m hearing that he´s tone deaf and out of touch and going around defending other sportscasters who try to devalue Black people´s assertion of their civil rights by cynically tweeting Äll lives matter¨as if he didn´t get the point of asserting that Black Lives Matter, and this from a sportscaster for a team in the NBA a basketball league with a very high percentage of players who are people of color.
Time really does pass some people by, and I think he´s lying when he says he never used in the f word except just that once when he got caught. Sad!
Mack
It’s very simple, he’s a right wing bigot so he’s tone deaf when it comes to anything other than a straight white male.
Harley
Anyone with 2 functional brain cells knows the “All Lives Matter” is code for “White Lives Matter”.
Matthewnow
Don’t white lives matter? PIG
Josh in OR
@matthewnow: As I’m SURE you know, Black Lives Matter isn’t about ‘ONLY’ Black Lives Matter. BLM is a response to literal centuries of ONLY white (cishet male ‘Christian’) lives mattering.
“Black Lives Matter Also, Guys, So Maybe Stop Disproportionately Incarcerating and Murdering Us for Selling Loose Cigarettes or Wearing Hoodies After Dark or While Sleeping, Especially When You Buy Fast Food Dinners for White Mass Shooters, OK?’ just doesn’t roll off the tongue. BLM is succinct, and except for the willfully obtuse, quite clear in its meaning and purpose.
But you go on, stoking racial animosity where none needs stoking. It’s not like BLM is a response to white men doing that since before America even existed…
BoomerMyles
What he said was incredibly offensive. His punishment DID fit the crime.
CANCELLED!
kpjohns75
Offensive to whom? Are you really offended my the word fag? Does that really piss you off? Do you think you should lose your career over the word “fag” STFU
Ken A.
I agree with kpjohns. If we’re to be honest, very few people are offended by the use of the word “fag.” I for one am not. And Fox is hypocritical, if Tucker Carlson ever used it would he be fired? Probably not. The Main reason he was fired could be that he used the word on TV than the actual word itself, you know children watch sports and that sets a bad example. Even if parents don’t approve of gays, they still don’t approve of certain words and don’t want their children going around repeating it. He should’ve been suspended. Why have we become such a toxic community?
Cam
@kpjohns75 and @Ken A
Wow, the right wing troll still can’t break it’s addiction to switching screenames and defending it’s own posts. LOL
You have to love how that troll AWAYS tries to claim that the bigots are the victims and the people the bigots attack are the “Toxic” ones.
Your troll game is sad and weak.
blackhook
Many people are saying that Thom Brennaman is a hateful homophobe…Sad!
kpjohns75
Fag is not anti-gay. Thom is not anti-gay. I don’t know many people who are anymore. Hope you get a pro job soon brother. You’re only guilty of being an idiot on live TV. You have paid your dues. Oh wait, we don’t forgive people anymore. Which is so weird because we are all soooo accepting of everybody now. SMH.
Josh in OR
‘F**’ IS offensive, especially used in the context he used the term in. You wanna be a hateful, ignorant asshole and then hide behind your bible? Fine, but no employer should be forced to keep an ignorant, hateful bigot on staff.
And before you cry out for this poor, unfairly demonized cishet/white/‘Christian’/male and say that his use of ‘f*g’ to describe a state he didn’t like was just a slip and he didn’t mean it, let me remind you that the things that slip most easily from our lips are the things we say all the time. This guy uses that word in his daily life, probably uses it to describe any state whose sports program he thinks is ‘weak’ or ‘effeminate’. He didn’t ‘make a mistake’, he got caught being himself, and paid the price for it.
Too bad, so sad.
Cam
Sweetie, you’ve now posted more than once desperately trying to defend people using that word.
Please Please Please tell the manager at the troll farm to put somebody smarter and less obvious on this account.
Jim
So a homophobic white supremacist is crying because he’s being held accountable.
What a snowflake!
By the way when are the true followers of the Nazarene going to retake the term Christian?
mikeyk1964
I hear you, Jim! Jesus would not have approved of his name being used as an excuse for bigotry,
cuteguy
Even Hitler had fans. Doesn’t make what he said or did right. This m0ron hasn’t learned a thing. That’s the problem with these old ignorant fossils. They never learn.
bowlingbutch
He is a good Christian who uses hate to describe someone who doesn’t fit his normal. Isn’t that the good Christian way?
Halfnhalf
kpjohns75 The word fag is a slur and has been a slur for my whole life. I don’t know where you come from, but it would be good to know. I’m pretty sure it’s not America if you think fag isn’t a slur. I’m 66 years old and it’s always been a slur, and it is offensive.
whateverokok
It’s not been one my whole life and I lived on this earth for 48 years. It’s a word. it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t sting, and it doesn’t make you bleed. The only power the word has is the one we give it. And I choose not to give it any power. If some stranger calls me a fag, then guess what? Who the F–K cares? I’m never going to see that person again for the rest of my life probably.
And I’m going to let that little incident upset my whole day? H–L NO!!! I’ve got a bigger kettle of fish to fry over here. We need to stop putting so much power in words that don’t have power or control over us. You do know the word fag means many different things, right? That’s the power of language. Let it go, KAREN!!!
Prowelsh56
On the issue of forgiveness. He is a good father and Christian? So sick and tired of folks like this who claim faith in their life and then utter such slurs and then appear to ask for forgiveness syaing ” this isnt who I am.” Look its in their DNA it is who they are at their core. They are pathetic is appealing to forgiveness because the only thing that matters is their $$$$$$.
GrizzleyMichael
There is that stupid word again CHRISTIAN. I think you better keep it as a name and get rid of the name as a religion.
Cam
Bigots always cry about what victims they are when they get caught.
tjpmustang
Kpjohns75 if you would call me a fag to my face, I would knock.you on your ass. I lived woth that crap in the locker room for too many years playing mens sports. Hockey and Lacrosse, don’t play the games anymore but the anger still lives inside.
whateverokok
And you believe that is the acceptable response? And you wonder why people don’t like you. I know why. It’s the F’ING attitude and chip on your shoulder you all have. You whine about wanting to be treated equal just like everybody else. But then you turn around and treat others with disrespect and indignity. Want to know why you are not liked? Look in the mirror, KAREN!!!
Georgeiv2
Of course he’s Christian how else would be such a bigot ?
P.S. I wonder if he has ever gone to the store for groceries ? isn’t that the little woman’s job ?
Heywood Jablowme
“the clip of Brennaman referring to an undisclosed location as “one of the f*g capitals of the world”
Where is this undisclosed location? I want to go there and check it out!
Seth
No one is ever full of more shit than immediately before they tell you what a good Christian they are.