Thom Brennaman resigns from Reds TV job weeks after homophobic slur

Tom Gatto

Thom Brennaman resigns from Reds TV job weeks after homophobic slur image

Thom Brennaman is no longer a Reds broadcaster. He's leaving the club after being suspended last month for speaking a homophobic slur into a hot mic.

Brennaman told Cincinnati television station WCPO on Friday that he was resigning and that it was his call.

"My family and I have decided that I am going to step away from my role as the television voice of the Cincinnati Reds," Brennaman said in a written note to WCPO.

Reds CEO Bob Castellini thanked Brennaman, the son of retired Reds radio voice Marty Brennaman, for his work with the club.

The younger Brennaman, 56, joined the Reds' broadcast crew in 2006. He has been calling MLB games since 1987.

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Brennaman left the air midgame on Aug. 19 in Kansas City, in Game 2 of a doubleheader. He was heard between innings in Game 1 saying a city was one of the "f— capitals of the world." He apologized for saying the word, stopping midway through his statement to call a Reds home run.

The Reds suspended him indefinitely after the incident. Fox Sports Ohio, which carries Reds games, said it supported the decision. It also said (per WCPO) that the audio went out to people who were streaming the game and was not broadcast over the air.

Brennaman also lost his NFL play-by-play job with Fox Sports over the slur. The network announced Aug. 20 that he would not call games for it during the 2020 season.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.