Sean McDonough has his work cut out for him. He's taking over one of the most coveted roles in the history of sports broadcasting.
McDonough will be the new voice of "Monday Night Football" on ESPN. The network announced Monday that he will replace Mike Tirico. When news leaked that Tirico was heading to NBC later this year, McDonough was immediately identified as the top candidate to fill the role. He obviously is well respected within ESPN.
Although "Monday Night Football" isn't the cultural phenomenon it was 40 or even 20 years ago — the NFL has significantly shifted its priority to "Sunday Night Football" and often left ESPN with unattractive Monday night games as a result — it's still a historic job. Not many people have been in that play-by-play chair, on a regular basis. The great Keith Jackson did it for one year, in 1970. Frank Gifford, a Hall of Fame player, took over play-by-play duties from 1971-85. Al Michaels, one of the icons of sports broadcasting, was the Monday night play-by-play man from 1986-2005. Then Tirico took over for 10 seasons.
McDonough will be the fifth play-by-play man in "Monday Night Football" history. He is versatile, smooth on a game call, not overly excitable but raises his game to the moment, and has a quick wit. His call of the famous Syracuse-Connecticut six-overtime game in the 2009 Big East tournament was phenomenal. His call of Rip Hamilton's buzzer-beating shot in the 1998 NCAA tournament is a classic.
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