Last month, Cincinnati Reds lead TV play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman was suspended by the team for using a homophobic slur on the air.
The link contains what originally aired, plus an apology Brennaman gave several innings later — though in the middle of it, he interrupts himself to call a home run. He was taken off the air after that and has yet to return.
Friday, via Cincinnati radio reporter Evan Millward, Brennaman announced his resignation from the Reds:
BRENNAMAN: His statement to me today - @WCPO pic.twitter.com/v8jB1CE5Q9
— Evan Millward (@EvanMillward) September 25, 2020
I dunno. It sounds like he’s giving himself a pat on the back for meeting with LGBTQ people, who he shouldn’t have insulted in the first place. Brennaman claimed at the time he uttered the homophobic slur that he didn’t know what it meant, and I find that disingenuous at best.
Brennaman was the Cubs’ lead radio play-by-play announcer from 1990 through 1995, when he left to work for Fox-TV on NFL games fulltime, something he had begun while still a Cubs radio announcer. Later he was the lead TV voice for the Diamondbacks from 1998 through 2006 and since 2007 had worked on Reds broadcasts, until last year with his father Marty, who retired. He’s also done NFL games and MLB games for Fox for many years.
The reason Thom Brennaman wound up in Chicago in the first place was that after the 1989 season, when DeWayne Staats departed to do Yankees games, the Cubs wanted to hire Marty Brennaman away from Cincinnati. He declined, wanting to remain there, but suggested the Cubs hire his son, who at the time was 26 years old and working as a Reds announcer as well as doing weekend TV sports at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati.
I never much cared for Thom Brennaman’s broadcasting style, whether he was doing Cubs games or national games, and the statement issued today doesn’t really show that he’s learned much of anything. I certainly wouldn’t mind not hearing his voice on sports broadcasts going forward.