As the Cincinnati Reds and Kansas City Royals were playing the first game of a doubleheader, Thom Brennaman was calling the game remotely from a studio due to health and safety precautions. As the FOX Sports Ohio broadcast was coming back from break in the top of the seventh inning, Brennaman was heard on a hot microphone using a homophobic slur before promoting the pregame show airing ahead of the second game.
The commentary sparked outrage and condemnation among viewers, many of whom demanded his immediate termination from the job, but Brennaman claims he did not know what was occurring. It was when he began working in a cubicle between games and preparing the lineups that he received a text from his boss with the video. Upon reviewing the derogatory, bigoted language he had uttered, Brennaman conveyed that he felt mortified and realized that his career was potentially in irrevocable jeopardy.
The clip continued to circulate online and catalyzed reproachful, apoplectic backlash, but Brennaman still took the air for the first four innings of Game 2. Once he was informed by management that they were going to remove him from the game broadcast, he requested that he try and apologize for his actions.
Bob Castellini, owner and chief executive officer of the Cincinnati Reds, called Brennaman shortly after he was removed from the broadcast and told him that the organization would “stand with you and stand behind you.” As Brennaman was driving home, he contacted his wife and informed her of what Castellini had said, adding that he thought the decision would change by the time he arrived back. Three hours later, the Reds organization announced that it was suspending him effective immediately. One month later, Brennaman resigned from his job with the Reds and FOX Sports Ohio, officially ending his tenure with the entities.
“My kids were going through the whole thing in their high school and hearing it every day and my wife and I just said, ‘That’s enough,’” Brennaman recalled. “I said, ‘You know, we’re stepping away from this thing.’”
Brennaman was also slated to call NFL games for FOX Sports and was removed from the schedule the day after the incident. Brennaman had lost his livelihood and was trying to figure out the next steps in accepting the repercussions, making amends and potentially resurrecting his career.
“There are no words to describe it,” Brennaman said. “Not only was I mortified because of the word and because of knowing that I’ve hurt some people here – a lot of people here – with this, [but] that it was also going to be, at the same time, probably a bumpy road ahead for me personally for sure.”
In the ensuing four years, Brennaman has had more time to spend with his family, watching his children excel in their high-school endeavors both in the classroom and on the field. At the same time, he saw jobs opening up but realized that he was not going to be hired by anyone in the near future.
“I realized that I needed to maybe get an agent, and I called seven different agents and asked them to represent me, and every single one of them said the same thing: ‘We’re not taking on clients right now,’” Brennaman articulated.
“Well that is complete and total B.S. because if I would have called them when I was in the middle of a contract with FOX and I wanted to change my agent, there’s probably a pretty good chance those guys would have been lined up down Park Avenue back when I was, you know, quote-unquote ‘things were going good,’ and now all of a sudden, I literally can’t find one to take [me], and that’s fine, no problem – no problem at all.”
Brennaman eventually came to peace with the fact that he was not going to be hired by another company, assuming that someone within the evaluation process would always choose to avoid potential headaches. In the meantime, he began calling high school football games and hosting talk shows for Chatterbox Sports, a startup sports media brand founded by Trace Fowler. Brennaman and his son continue to host a podcast with the company, titled Dialed In.
“People say, ‘Oh, it’s high school football,’” Brennaman explained. “So what? You know, in Cincinnati, Ohio, high school football is a pretty doggone big deal. For a long time, it was a lot more important than the Bengals, and [Fowler] gave me the opportunity to start doing that and doing a daily sports talk show.”
As Brennaman was trying to find a new role in sports media, he also began to spend time listening to and learning from people in the LGBTQ community about the effects of his commentary and the hardships that they face. Billy Bean, senior vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion for Major League Baseball, was among the first of these conversations. Brennaman also forged a friendship with Cyd Zeigler, the co-founder of Outsports, a platform that showcases LGBTQ+ athletes.
Ryan Messer, former vice president of the Cincinnati Public Schools Board, invited Brennaman to his home to converse with several of the leading LGBTQ voices in the region. Out of the 14 people who were present for the event, Brennaman estimates that nine or 10 of them were open minded about at least listening and hearing him out.
“The other four or five – they just let me have it man,” Brennaman said. “I mean, ‘You’re only here because you’re trying to check a box to get your career back. This is all B.S. There’s no sincerity in this.’ These are people I’ve never met before, but they came in with those preconceived notions and I’d given them a reason to feel that way.”
One of the attendees in particular, Dan Davidson, a man from Seattle, Wash., told a story that was particularly powerful to Brennaman and allowed him to better recognize the impact of his iniquity. Davidson was on the way to attending a drag show and reached a crosswalk across a two-lane road in the downtown section of the city.
Two cars stopped and informed him to walk forward, leading him to begin crossing the road. Once he arrived at the second lane, the driver of the vehicle floored the gas pedal and ran over him, threatening his life and causing a series of injuries.
“When you hear things like that, it makes you pause for a second and say, ‘You know, that’s a word – I thought it was humiliating before,’” Brennaman said. “‘It’s even more so now and hurtful than I had even imagined.’”
This past February, Brennaman received a copy of the Ohio University magazine and discovered that Perry Sook, the chairman and chief executive officer of Nexstar Media Group, had received the school’s highest honor in being named its alumnus of the year. Brennaman, a university alumnus himself, had been awarded an accolade from the school as the Medal of Merit recipient in 2018 and decided to reach out to offer his congratulations. He didn’t expect a reply.
“Well, he got it, and he emailed me back the next day,” Brennaman said. “We wind up talking on the phone the following day, and he said, ‘Look, I’m going to our company board meetings in Chicago for the next couple of days.’ He says, ‘I don’t know if we have anything that you would be interested in, but I can certainly ask around.’”
Sean Compton, the president of networks at Nexstar Media Group and a Cincinnati native, learned of Brennaman’s interest and discussed it with Sook. Compton’s father, Dale Sommers, hosted a popular overnight music program on WLW Radio, which happens to be the flagship station for the Cincinnati Reds on radio. Jason Wormser, the senior vice president of the sports division at The CW, is someone who Brennaman worked with at FOX Sports and was involved in the process as well.
In the preceding year, The CW had secured rights to present ACC college football and basketball games, televising 50 games per season through the 2026-27 season. The network landed these rights from Raycom Sports, which sublicenses the rights from ESPN. Furthermore, The CW agreed to broadcast 11 of the 13 home football games for the two-team Pac-12 Conference as part of a one-year deal with the unit.
Rob Reichley, the senior vice president and executive producer at Raycom Sports, previously worked in a photography and producing role with WLWT-TV and helped get Brennaman on the air in 1987. With all of these factors presumably working in Brennaman’s favor, he was offered a role to serve as the lead play-by-play announcer for ACC and Pac-12 football as well as ACC basketball during the winter months.
“I said to them, ‘I hope and pray that this will be the last company I ever work for,’ because I can’t be more grateful to a group of people than I am to the people at CW for giving me this opportunity,” Brennaman said. “I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude that there was somebody out there, somebodies out there that were willing to say, ‘Okay, you know, this guy – he’s not a perfect guy. He’s not a perfect announcer.’ I don’t know who is a perfect guy or a perfect announcer – I haven’t met him. ‘But you know what? This is a decision we’re making, and here we go.’”
Brennaman considers himself fortunate that his second chance is coming in collegiate sports and is preparing for the season by learning more about both conferences. Every time he enters the broadcast booth, he will seek to bring enthusiasm and profound gratitude to the telecast. Additionally, he will be working with color commentator Max Browne and sideline reporter Treavor Scales, two former college athletes with an avid desire to learn more about television.
“I just love the energy of being around both of them, and I very much look forward to the whole thing with our entire production team,” Brennaman said. “It’s a really good group with Scott Snyder, our producer, Lonnie Dale, our director, and Rob Reichley, the head guy, and it’s going to be a really, really good group to work with, and I’m really excited about it.”
While Brennaman is receiving a chance to return on the national stage calling collegiate football and basketball, he is not ruling out the opportunity to try and make a return to local baseball broadcasts. Having worked for three teams over his broadcasting career, he acknowledges that there are many great organizations in the league. Having attained a new role with The CW, Brennaman believes that it is possible and would love the chance to return should everything align in such a manner.
“Again, it boils down to the same thing – the same thing being, ‘Why would we hire this guy when…?,’” Brennaman expressed. “So, the only difference is now – and some could argue it’s a significant difference – is, ‘Once one person hires Thom Brennaman, does that mean it’s okay now for me to hire Thom Brennaman?,’ and that’s for somebody else to decide. That’s not for me to decide.”
Brennaman believes that the games his team will broadcast this season within the ACC and Pac-12 conferences will be outstanding and make for an enticing on-air product. He will not take any moments for granted, remembering the lessons he has learned in his pursuit of resurgence and continuing to acquire further enlightenment along the way.
“I love athletics, I love sports, and I like going to sporting events, and if I happen to get the opportunity to broadcast that sporting event, even better,” Brennaman said. “It’s something I’ve done for a long, long time. It’s not who I am – that’s for sure – but it was a big part of my life for a long, long time and I am very, very, very grateful. Thank God that I’m getting a chance to do it again, and I’ve never been more excited about doing it again than I am for this upcoming season.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
