It’s been nearly two years since Thom Brennaman resigned his post with the Cincinnati Reds and was dropped from his role with FOX. Since then, Brennaman has stated publicly that he has tried to learn from his mistake and hoped someone would give him a chance to broadcast again. It appears that opportunity has surfaced.
Brennaman announced that he is launching a daily show, Off the Bench, that will broadcast in partnership with Chatterbox Sports, a Cincinnati-based company. Brennaman said that he plans to blend national and local coverage with his new show.
“It’s going to have a combination, I hope, of a Dan Patrick/Pat McAfee/Colin Cowherd kind of thing,” Brennaman said. “We’ll have regular guests on, Brian Billick will be on every week to talk about the NFL, we’ve already lined up Cris Collinsworth to come on, Brent Musburger’s going to be on our first show, so we’ll have a national feel to some extent. But some of our sponsors here in greater Cincinnati are very excited about talking about the Bengals and Ohio State and University of Cincinnati football and the Cincinnati Reds, things like that.”
Brennaman spoke to Awful Announcing about how he hopes that people can forgive him at some point because he has learned from his mistake and has actively tried to grow from it.
“All I can do is what I’ve tried to do over the past two years, that’s learn and grow from the ignorant word I used in a flippant sort of way. And really, through my experiences and time with people in the gay community, I’ve learned a great deal. All you can do is the best you can do, and I’ve done that for two years, and I continue to learn and grow. I’m a better man today than the guy who sat up there in August of 2020, I’ll be a better broadcaster today than I was in August 2020 because of this whole experience and this whole journey. All I can do is ask people for forgiveness, a little bit of grace, and a second chance.”
