St Louis Cardinals commentator Chip Caray will not be suspended after his unfortunate slip of the tongue during a Pride Night commercial on Saturday night.
The 60-year-old broadcaster hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when he inadvertently used a homophobic slur at the worst possible moment live on air.
Speaking on FanDuel Sports Network Midwest’s broadcast of the Cardinals-Reds game, he said: ‘Disability Pride Night is Thursday, July 10. With a themed ticket, fans take home a Cardinals cap featuring the disability pride fa**… flag.’
What followed was an uncomfortable 31 seconds of silence, before analyst Brad Thompson chimed in to continue the pair’s narration of the game.
While no official statement has yet been made, Front Office Sports report that Caray will not face any punishment for the accidental slur.
Instead, the network understands it to be an ‘honest mistake’, per sources, and that Caray meant to insult to any of the viewers.
Chip Caray (right) suffered an unfortunate slip of the tongue while promoting Pride night
Fans backed Caray, and it is understood he will not be punished for the accidental slur on air
The decision is set to go down well with fans, who quickly insisted that the viral moment should not result in any punishment for Caray – the grandson of legendary announcer Harry.
‘It was an obvious slip of the tongue, just a simple apology and move on,’ one wrote, while another added: ‘The silence after is the apology, he’s obviously mortified and probably has a thousand thoughts running in his head.
‘He should not be reprimanded. It was literally a slip of the tongue. I highly doubt Caray is running around using that word. People need to focus on real outrage.’
Fans compared the Freudian slip to a previous incident involving announcer Thom Brennaman
The on-air Freudian slip led to some making the comparison with announcer Thom Brennaman’s homophobic slur back in 2020, while results in him being exiled from broadcasting for nearly four years.
The difference in that case, though, is that Brennaman thought he was off-air when he referred to Kansas City as ‘one of the f*g capitals of the world’.
‘Within seven hours, I was basically fired for everything,’ Brennaman said in an interview with The Athletic last year.
He now has a new job with the CW calling college football and said of his current role: ‘There are no words to describe how grateful I am that they’re rolling the dice. They don’t have to do this.’