Thom Brennaman is set to return to television nearly four years after uttering what appeared to be a career-ending slur.
Brennaman has joined Nexstar’s CW as its lead college football play-by-play voice, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Sunday, marking his first meaningful television assignment since he used an anti-gay slur on the air while calling a Reds game in 2020. At the time, Brennaman had been the longtime voice of the Reds and a prominent broadcaster for Fox Sports.
Compounding the incident was the unusual circumstance of Brennaman being pulled midgame, but still being allowed to make a farewell address in which he attempted to apologize. With the game ongoing during his sign-off, he infamously had to interject a home run call in the middle of his apology — an incident that has been mined for mockery ever since.
Brennaman will primarily call ACC football games for CW, per Marchand, though he will begin on the network’s “Pac-2” coverage with Idaho State-Oregon State on August 31. He told Marchand that he has “no words to describe” his gratitude to CW for “rolling the dice.”
During his Fox Sports run, Brennaman was the lead voice of the network’s college football coverage during the brief period it carried the Bowl Championship Series. That included calling three national championship games from 2007-09. Among the notable games he called during that period were Boise State’s upset of Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl and Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan to start the 2007 season. He had not been part of the FOX college football team during its current incarnation.
Career-ending incidents are rare, but not unprecedented, in sports media. More often, it is the case that the wrongdoer is cast out of the industry for a time and eventually returns in a reduced capacity. Marv Albert was accused of serious crimes in a national 1997 scandal and fired from all of his jobs — including as the lead voice of the Michael Jordan-era NBA on NBC — but returned to television less than two years later, where he remained until his 2021 retirement.
