A most unusual thing happened to Sean McDonough on Sunday as he prepared to work his first NFL game for network television since 1993. A little more than an hour before kickoff, the Hall of Fame game was cancelled because of lousy field conditions.
And so, instead of the Green Bay Packers-Indianapolis Colts, McDonough's first game as lead NFL play-by-play voice at ESPN (aka "voice of Monday Night Football"), comes Saturday night when the Cowboys visit the Los Angeles Rams.
McDonough, 54, is only the fifth to sit in the MNF play-by-play seat since the series debuted in 1970.
Keith Jackson worked that first season. Frank Gifford took over for the next 15 seasons. Al Michaels stayed for 20 before moving on to NBC. Mike Tirico was on the job for 10 before leaving in May to become the presumptive successor to Michaels at NBC.
If MNF isn't what it once was in terms of national impact, it remains a crown jewel in ESPN's lineup. Certainly, it is the most expensive.
McDonough was a relative kid in 1992 when after only two years in the CBS broadcasters stable he worked the first of two consecutive World Series. At 30, he was the youngest to ever call a World Series on network television.
But CBS lost the NFL to Fox in 1994, and the World Series moved on eventually landing at Fox in 1996. McDonough's boy wonder title was doomed. At 27, Fox's Joe Buck became the youngest play-by-play voice to work a World Series.
McDonough, who moved on primarily to college football and college basketball, hung around CBS until the network told him in 1999 that his services were no longer needed.
He was the odd man out when CBS latched onto Dick Enberg and moved Verne Lundquist from the NFL to McDonough's seat on SEC football.
McDonough wasn't out of network work long. ESPN hired him as a college play-by-play announcer.
But in McDonough's own words, he remained "one rung below" the top level on ESPN's depth chart. That, by the way, isn't exactly wandering in the wilderness. But for someone who had already done the World Series, it had to sting.
"I have had an interesting winding road," McDonough said in a telephone interview this week.
On the road at the 2015 British Open, old friend Tirico, who had followed in McDonough's voice prints at their alma mater Syracuse University, mentioned he might be leaving ESPN for NBC. Tirico suggested that McDonough could be the pick to replace him on MNF.
"As his dear friend, I strongly advised Mike to leave," McDonough recalled.
But then in March 2016, while playing a friendly round of golf, Tirico, who is five years younger than his friend, told McDonough that in all likelihood he wasn't going anywhere.
Two months later, the plot took a twist. Tirico gave McDonough the heads-up that he indeed would be leaving. On the same day that NBC announced it had hired Tirico, ESPN announced it was moving McDonough to MNF.
Coincidentally, McDonough had signed a new four-year deal with ESPN the previous month.
"I knew I'd like to be doing something better (than big-time college broadcasting), but at the same time I realized I was very fortunate to be doing what I was doing," McDonough said.
Saturday's Cowboys-Rams game will be McDonough's only game alongside Jon Gruden before their regular season kicks off on Sept. 12. He's spent time with Gruden, but they haven't done a practice game and won't. It's an usual twist. ESPN has every confidence that practice isn't necessary.
Tirico's advice to McDonough? "Be yourself."
He also told McDonough that he was going to love working with Gruden and the rest of the MNF crew.
"I hope I've earned this opportunity," McDonough said. "I think I have."
Cowboys fans should see a more finished product in the season finale when they return to MNF on Dec. 26 when the Lions visit AT&T Stadium. Until then, one of the most coveted seats in broadcasting appears to be in good hands.
@bhorn55
Meanwhile at NFL Network
Expect NFLN to announce that it has come to a new agreement with studio analyst Michael Irvin any day now. I'm betting that it took so long to iron out a new deal with Irvin because the ex-Cowboy was stuck on wanting to eye-ball his oldest son Michael, a tight end, play his freshman season at the University of Miami. NFLN studios are in Los Angeles. It could be a logistics nightmare. But for now, it appears the tight end will be redshirted this season.
Irvin worked the Cowboys camp beat this week for NFLN along with Jane Slater, who is the new NFLN correspondent based in Dallas. She's replacing Desmond Purnell, who has moved on.
Slater, late of ESPN's Longhorn Network, put in D-FW sports time at KTVT (Channel 11) and WFAA (Channel 8) as well as 105.3 FM The Fan.
Around the rings
There's no question that rookie gymnastics analyst Nastia Liukin isn't getting in her share of words alongside veterans Al Trautwig and Tim Daggett.
It's no plot. Three-person broadcast teams are terribly complicated.
Play-by-play voice Trautwig and analyst Daggett have worked the Games together since 2000. They know each other's styles and anticipate when to jump in. Liukin is wandering in the desert. It's Trautwig's job to get Liukin, the 2008 all-around gold medalist from Plano, involved. But to be fair, I've heard him pointedly ask Liukin questions and all he sometimes got was silence.
Not only that, chatterbox Daggett talks as if he is being paid by the word. Team building takes time. Hopefully Liukin will get into the flow sooner rather than later. There is still time. If not, there's always Tokyo in 2020.
At swimming, Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines, chroniclers of all things Michael Phelps, comprise NBC's most entertaining broadcast team. Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist in track from Trinidad and Tobago, remains the pick for most entertaining analyst. He'll take center stage as the Rio Games go track heavy in upcoming days.
There has been much handwringing in some media quarters over the drop in NBC's prime-time ratings for the Games. Keep in mind that prime time translates into money-making time. NBC promised advertisers an average nightly prime-time rating of 18.0, which was about the 2012 London average. On Thursday, NBC Sports boss Mark Lazarus said the network was averaging 15.6, the final average for Athens in 2008. Lazarus also said his network is prepared to offer free advertising time as compensation, which is an industry standard.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, the opening week of prime-time coverage on KXAS (Channel 5), scored better than the national average with a 17.2 rating, good for 27th among 56 major markets. Four years ago, D-FW averaged 17.4 for the entire London Games. That was No. 38.
Around the Horn
Because of vacations all around, compiling the latest monthly sports talk radio ratings has been delayed. They should be here in full next week. Until then, a little nugget already harvested: 105.3 The Fan was No. 1, up and down the dial regardless of format, among men aged 18-34...If you tune into the second edition of HBO's Los Angeles Rams Hard Knocks next week, you should catch plenty of Cowboys footage from Saturday's game. If you missed the opener you missed seeing Jared Goff, the No. 1 pick in the draft, confused about the sun rising in the east. Must not have been on the Wonderlic Test...Fox released its NFL broadcast lineup and it's no surprise Troy Aikman, Joe Buck and Erin Andrews again comprise the network's No. 1 team. They'll work Super Bowl 51 in Houston. Kevin Burkhardt, John Lynch and Pam Oliver are No. 2. Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston and Laura Okmin are No. 3. Analyst Dave Wannstedt remains the star of Fox NFL Kickoff studio show at 10 a.m. with the familiar crew back on Fox NFL Sunday at 11 a.m. Somehow Redskins cornerback Josh Norman will work a minimum of 10 pre-game appearances via tape and satellite...CBS-ex Shannon Sharpe, a Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end, will play Skip Bayless' foil on Fox Sports 1's yet to be named mock debate show scheduled to debut Sept. 6.