Cincinnati Reds radio announcer Marty Brennaman (three Ns, two As) is surprisingly not in hot water after firing off a implicitly gay pejorative while speaking at a fundraising banquet last weekend. Brennaman, 68, is renown for speaking his mind–even being critical of the baseball team that pays him–so no one was surprised when he spoke his mind in front of a gaggle of Marshall baseball boosters.

On Saturday night during Marshall University’s preseason baseball banquet and fundraiser at the Cam Henderson Center, Brennaman – the keynote speaker – determined that Marshall’s president must be “queer” for softball since the university managed to open a $2.5 million softball facility in March 2008, but baseball is still traveling for home games.

–Charleston Daily Mail.

Brennaman received “multiple ovations” for his Q-bomb-infused speech, and then sorta apologized for it. Party foul? What say you, Jim Buzinski of OutSports?

Using “queer” when discussing softball is an odd choice of words, and I will give Brennaman the benefit of the doubt that he did not mean it in a homophobic sense. But the traditional definition of queer means worthless, questionable or weird, so the announcer was still taking a shot at Marshall’s president.

Good to finally see someone recognize a distinction between “homophobia” and “homographs“. And by the way, that Marshall president, Stephen Kopp, has yet to make his feelings felt on the issue, perhaps because he was too busy at his favorite interstate rest stop with the Daft Punk blaring on his iPod.

On Saturday, the Fresno State Bulldogs lost a 35-34 heartbreaker to the Nevada Wolf Pack at home as the entire nation watched to see which team would elevate itself to permanent glory. Well, not really, but it was a decent enough game that it kept most of the 37,116 fans in their seats. All but one, actually. An unnamed fan took to the field to display his rippling physique and unparalleled fashion sense, as well as mock the field crew as they tried to apprehend him.

The unruly fan got a pretty good start on the crew, as you can see on the video after the jump, but then it’s basically a bunch of “I give up, please stop bouncing my face off of this hard ground.” The security staff really did a great job in wrangling this turd, as it was one of the quicker semi-streaker grabs we’ve seen in recent history. And while it’s not as great as the Phillies tazing, I give this an A- for entertainment. It was also apparently the second time that a fan has rushed the field at Bulldog Stadium this season, so perhaps they’ll hang this fan’s lifeless body from the top as a warning to all other hooligans.

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To dovetail a little off of yesterday's coverage of the We Are Marshall chat, here's a nice picture of Billy Ray Cyrus that the M Zone dug up.

My God, but that mullet is chilling. What kind of animal is that? Is that a beaver pelt?

In my heart, I don't want this picture to represent the Marshall fan base. The state of West Virginia gets a bad rap, and I kinda like the Marshall QB's who have survived in the NFL, like Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington. But deep down, I know that this picture is just as representative as that photo of A-Rod in a Duke t-shirt. Think about it: Mullet… T-shirt with the sleeves cut off… lousy country singer… We are! Marshallllll!!! 

It's just too bad the mullet wasn't in that plane crash.

I like football. I like movies. Football movies I also like, even if I get tired that nobody ever gets tackled in a normal fashion — plyers only ever get hit such that they do a flip and land on their head, or they do a complete 360 after getting hit by two players, or they get their chest gets crushed and rib bones puncture through their jersey.

We Are Marshall opens nationwide on December 22nd, and as if the relentless commercials weren't enough, Matthews Fox and McConaughey and director McG were scheduled to appear in an ESPN.com chat today. There were important issues that needed resolving, such as

Adam (Clayton OK): Buzz is Fox better looking in real life?

and

John (Las Vegas NV): Buzz, McConaughey is supposed to have really short arms. Let us know will ya!

Predictably, Fox and McConaughey both cancelled, so the chat was just McG. Sadly, no one asked him about Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. "McG, what was it like watching Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore morph from almost-attractive women to gorgeous movie stars every day? Did your penis get confused by the transformation?"

Whatever, I'll probably still go see the movie. But only to laugh at the really inappropriate parts, like when the plane crashes or when the students gather outside for a team-saving rally and everybody in the theater start crying. Well… maybe not the plane crash.

(Pictured is dewy-eyed Kate Mara. I hope it's okay I went with her instead of Wooderson.)