ESPN’s Sean McDonough Opens Up About Life After "Monday Night Football"

Now almost a year removed from calling his last Monday Night Football game for ESPN, Sean McDonough is at peace with talking about his time in the booth on the network’s football flagship.

McDonough, who ceded play-by-play duties to Joe Tessitore this season, moved back to calling college football after ESPN decided his time working on the MNF broadcast was done after two years.

Now that he’s removed from the situation yet still working for ESPN, the 56-year-old – who called college ball before switching to the NFL for MNF – is able to reflect on the way his role has changed.

“I was joking with somebody the other day that I went from being good, to not good, to being good again,” McDonough said. “If anything bothered me it was the idea that some had that it was too big for me. I did the World Series on national TV when I was 30 years old. I did the Olympics, every major golf championship, every BCS bowl game. Monday Night Football is big, but is it bigger than any number of things that I’ve done? I guess that’s the part that bugged me.”

A week from Saturday, the longtime broadcaster will be calling a College Football Playoff game for the first time when Notre Dame takes on Clemson.

While discussing his return to call college games for ESPN, the chance to call a playoff game was one of the opportunities McDonough wanted to have.

Monday Night Football is a tremendous opportunity,” McDonough said. “And when you go back, I wanted to know I was going to back to the best possible situation. Having a chance to do one of these semifinal games was a big part of it.”