Fox Sports suspended commentator Thom Brennaman for using an anti-gay slur.
Fox Sports has suspended commentator Thom Brennaman for using the anti-gay slur when the Cincinnati Reds aired the game Wednesday. The concept comes at a high price.
Brennaman will no longer be calling the Reds games this season or will be part of its NFL broadcast team.
“Fox Sports was very disappointed by Brennaman’s comments during the Cincinnati Reds broadcast on Wednesday,” Fox said in a statement Thursday. “The language used is abhorrent, unacceptable and does not represent the values of Fox Sports.”
Brennaman has been part of Fox’s NFL announcer line since the league began broadcasting in 1994. He invited the Major League Baseball games for the network from 1996 to 2014.
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On Wednesday, Brennaman used the bitter moments after Fox Sports returned from an Ohio feed business break. It happened at the top of the seventh inning of the first double-header game in Kansas City.
Apologies
The Reds apologized to fans for “horrible, homosexual comment.” With his personal, live apology, Brennaman apologized Thursday in The Cincinnati Inquiry.
What he said was, “Something no one should say. Something no one thinks. That no one should realize. Something no one should ask. ”
“I used a word, it was slander. In the last 24 hours, I have read about its history; I don’t know if it is rooted in hatred and violence. I’m especially ashamed that someone who earns his living by using words can be very careless and insensitive. ”
Brennaman wrote, “This is a word (the anti-gay slur) that should not be included in my vocabulary. I will never say it again.”
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Brennaman, who has been a member of the Reds’ announcement team since 2007, apologized by speaking directly to the camera in the fifth inning and handed over play-by-play duties.
“I made a comment tonight and I think I’m very ashamed,” he said.
“If I had hurt anyone there, I would not have been able to tell how much I was saying from the bottom of my heart. I’m so sorry. ”
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After pausing to announce a house run by Nick Castellanos of Cincinnati, Brennaman added, “I don’t know if I’m going to put this headset back on,” and he apologized to the Reds, Fox Sports and his colleagues.
