Former Cincinnati Reds TV announcer Thom Brennaman claims that the fans he runs into want him to get his job back despite his anti-gay slur controversy from last year.

Brennaman resigned from his position with the Reds last September after he was suspended for uttering the “f” word during a live broadcast the previous month.

The then 56-year-old broadcaster was not aware that his mic was live, and he apologized profusely for using the word. But it wasn’t enough to save his job. Still, Brennaman says that everyone he meets says that he has apologized enough and should be back on the air.

“If I’m in the grocery or getting a cup of coffee at the local convenient shop, 99% of those I bump into, I’ll hear, ‘We wish you were back, we miss you!'” Brennaman said according to Sports Broadcast Journal. “Let’s say it’s even 90%. Are execs going to make a decision to appease the 10%? Wouldn’t you listen to the massive 90 percent?

“On the TV pre-game show, when I wasn’t aware that we on the air but when my mic was hot, I made a homophobic remark. Although it wasn’t on-air, the clip made its way to the internet and went viral from there. There’s no defending the word I used in any form or fashion. I’ve owned up to it every second since,” Brennaman explained. “The moment it left my lips, I knew it was over. It was just a matter of time. I anticipated a suspension and lots of backlash.”

Brennaman added that the sports broadcast world has done other broadcasters wrong, too, such as Grant Napear. He insisted that former Sacramento Kings play-by-play man should not have been fired for saying “all lives matter.”

“How do you justify it? What did he do?” Brennaman asked. “If we live in an environment that BLM matters, don’t all lives matter? That makes you a racist? How ludicrous is that? Napear is one of the great guys in our business.”

Brennaman also claimed that broadcast legend Bob Costas has told him that the loss of his job was too much. “He’s told me that the crime doesn’t match the punishment,” Brennaman said of Costas.

Since he left the air, Brennaman noted that he has become a board member for a Cincinnati-area children’s home “that’s utilized primarily for kids thrown out of their homes because they’re gay.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.