Sack Brennaman – And Guillen – For Anti-Gay Slurs

Perhaps you just scrolled through my recent column, titled, “Hot Mics Another Hot Mess For Baseball.’’ I warned that Major League Baseball was vulnerable to a disaster with its vulgar culture of F-bombs, dropped non-stop by players and managers inside quiet pandemic ballparks where all sounds are TV-audible. I even suggested someone might use the N-word or an anti-gay slur.

Who knew it would happen only two days later?

The offender was not on the field. Thom Brennaman was in a press box in Cincinnati, where he was calling a Reds-Royals doubleheader in Kansas City via broadcast remote. Not heeding the industry’s golden rule — always assume the microphone is live, even if it appears you’re in a commercial break — the Reds’ veteran voice delivered a random commentary about the LGBTQ+ composition of a city that may or may not have been Kansas City.

“One of the fag capitals of the world,’’ he said, returning to the air in the seventh inning of the first game.

You know my feelings about cancel culture. In theory, Brennaman should not lose his career because of one major mistake — reprehensible as it is — after 33 years of calling major-league games on the regional and national levels. But in 2020, it’s much more complicated than that, with selective punishment from a flurry of conduct cases creating unacceptable double standards across the media landscape. To break down the events of this month, if (1) NASCAR racer Kyle Larson loses his driving gig after using a racial slur during a live-streamed virtual race; (2) NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy is forced out amid allegations that he fostered a culture of racism and homophobia; and (3) Charlotte Hornets broadcaster John Focke is suspended indefinitely and headed toward a dismissal for posting a tweet containing the N-word, tell me, how do the Reds and Fox Sports possibly keep Brennaman?

And, in the same domino effect, how does MLB allow NBC Sports Chicago to keep Ozzie Guillen as a White Sox studio analyst after giving him a wrist tap years ago? That’s when, as the team’s manager, he referred to yours truly — then a Chicago columnist and regular ESPN panelist — as a “f——— fag’’ during a rant that follows Guillen to this day. If we’re raising the standards of tolerance and stability, NBCUniversal can’t pardon Guillen for past transgressions when, in effect, it has run off an executive suspected of similar insensitive conduct under the same corporate umbrella. Then again, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf — Guillen’s protector — owns a 50 percent majority interest in NBC Sports Chicago, meaning the network, for now, is keeping Guillen in the chair despite his gay-disparaging past. Guillen and NBCSC boss Kevin Cross have refused comment when asked about the “f——— fag’’ comment and how Guillen still is employed on a sports network.

Brennaman was removed from the air by the Reds but not until the fifth inning of the second game, after social media had exploded. The team suspended him indefinitely and released a statement that hinted at an imminent dismissal: “The Cincinnati Reds organization is devastated by the horrific, homophobic remark made this evening by broadcaster Thom Brennaman. He was pulled off the air, and effective immediately was suspended from doing Reds broadcasts. We will be addressing our broadcasting team in the coming days. In no way does this incident represent our players, coaches, organization, or our fans. We share our sincerest apologies to the LGBTQ+ community in Cincinnati, Kansas City, all across this country, and beyond. The Reds embrace a zero-tolerance policy for bias or discrimination of any kind, and we are truly sorry to anyone who has been offended.’’

Fox Sports Ohio was more critical, saying the crude comment was “hateful, offensive and in no way reflects the values’’ of the network.

To his credit, Brennaman understood the magnitude of his blunder. He looked into a camera and said, “I made a comment tonight that I guess went out over the air that I am deeply ashamed of. If I have hurt anyone out there, I can’t tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart, I am very, very sorry. I think of myself as a man of faith. I don’t know if I’m going to be putting on this headset again. I don’t know if it’s going to be for the Reds. I don’t know if it’s going to be for my bosses at Fox. I will apologize for the people who sign my paycheck, for the Reds, for Fox Sports Ohio, for the people I work with, for anybody I have offended here tonight. I can’t begin to tell you how deeply sorry I am. This is not who I am. It never has been. And I’d like to think I have some people that can back that up. I am very, very sorry and I beg for your forgiveness.’’ With that, he said field reporter Jim Day would “take you the rest of the way home.’’

It’s hard to imagine Brennaman’s career surviving in a small market where the Reds have served as a form of pride for decades. The memories were recorded for decades by Brennaman’s legendary father, Marty, who had his spicy moments on the air but never anything of this enormity. A few years back, Thom had a hot mic moment when he was heard whispering, “This guy sucks,’’ after a Pittsburgh pitcher walked Reds shortstop Zach Cozart. I knew Thom in Chicago when he was broadcasting Cubs games and befriending the team’s star first baseman, Mark Grace, who was suspended five games by the Cubs’ broadcast network this week for referring to his ex-wife as a “dingbat’’ during a rambling story. Put it this way: Brennaman, like so many who drop slurs, is a product of an 20th-century environment as outdated as it is insensitive. 

In Cincinnati, where the Brennamans are sports royalty, the backlash already is divisive enough to keep his absence permanent. “It was incredibly disappointing to hear Mr. Brennaman use such language when our country is begging for unity,’’ tweeted Chris Seelbach, the first openly gay City Council member. “The Brennaman family are Cincinnati sports icons with a powerful voice in our community, which makes it even more disgusting and totally unprofessional to hear such language used. The Reds have been proud supporters of their LGBTQ+ fans, and this language cannot be tolerated. Period.”

But Chicago is a different animal. Other than Jim O’Donnell of the Daily Herald, who has questioned NBC Sports Chicago about Guillen, the sports media are an embarrassing extension of the city’s sports franchises and have given Guillen a pass, at times applauding him for slurring me because they didn’t like how I dominated the city for 17 years. It’s hard to believe some local media were calling for the Cubs to fire Grace while continuing to worship Guillen, which speaks to the homerism and two-team divides in an intense baseball town. I am not gay, but my sexual orientation Isn’t the point — why do NBC and Reinsdorf allow Guillen to represent a media corporation and a baseball franchise after such hideous behavior, which included a series of episodes that would have triggered his firing if they happened in 2020?

The minute Thom Brennaman is fired, Ozzie Guillen should be fired.

If not, Reinsdorf is an even bigger fraud than I thought.