Don’t get Sean McDonough wrong: he liked calling “Monday Night Football.” It’s maybe the sexiest franchise in pro sports and one of the NFL’s signature showcases. Any sports broadcaster would relish the opportunity.
But if given the choice, McDonough would rather be where he was Wednesday, calling Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals from a raucous Amelia Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla.
Sean McDonough gives his thoughts on Brady's insane FOX deal
“If you told me six years ago — I think 2016 was my first year on Monday Night Football — if you told me then ‘you could have the choice of doing Monday Night Football or the Stanley Cup Final,’ I would choose the Stanley Cup Final,” McDonough said on this week’s “Sports Media Mayhem” podcast. “Monday Night Football is great. It’s an event in and of itself. There are 16 regular season games. They’re usually good games. But this is a seven-game series that’s going to decide the champion of the sport.”
It was 30 years ago when McDonough became the then-youngest broadcaster to ever call the World Series, asserting himself as CBS’ lead MLB play-by-play voice. Thirty years later, his career has come full circle.
One of McDonough’s first jobs in broadcasting was calling college hockey games for NESN in the 1980s. The decorated announcer went on to call Bruins games, and when McDonough first joined ESPN in 2000, he covered the NHL. Even though ESPN lost NHL rights in the early aughts, McDonough remained a diehard fan. As a Boston native, it’s in his blood.
“Three years ago when the Bruins were in the Stanley Cup Final in 2019 against St. Louis, I went to a bunch of the home games — I went to Game 7 at the TD Garden with some buddies of mine — and I remember looking up at Mike Emrick across the way and I even said to my friends, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to call this stuff, in this atmosphere?,’” McDonough said.
His wish has been granted. When ESPN regained NHL rights last year, McDonough immediately texted network president Jimmy Pitaro, telling him he was interested. That’s not something every broadcaster in McDonough’s position would do. He’s carved out an incredible run over the last 20 years calling primetime college football games, college hoops, Red Sox baseball, and yes, “Monday Night Football.” He didn't have to adjust to an entirely new NHL.
The game is much quicker than it was 20 years ago, and the press box is much higher. That can lead to some difficult calls, such as Nazem Kadri’s game-winner Wednesday night. The star forward slipped the puck under Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, but it was originally unclear as to whether he stopped it.
The call needed to be more tempered than, say, Joe Carter’s 1993 walk-off World Series winner. “We are looking for the signal from the officials. They’re gonna take a look at the replay for sure,” McDonough said in an excited octave while the Avalanche celebrated on the ice.
But McDonough embraces those challenges. He admits it took him longer than expected to get back into the rhythm of calling NHL games, but now, eight months later, he thinks he’s found his groove. “Once you get to the playoffs and you’re going every other day, basically, for two months, if you haven’t gotten a rhythm or flow by then, you’re never going to,” he said.
Other big names in the industry agree. Throughout the playoffs, McDonough has sporadically heard from his peers, including broadcasting Hall of Famers. Even for someone like McDonough, it’s encouraging to hear the positive affirmation.
Their feedback has helped keep him off Twitter, though he admits to maybe searching his name once or twice.
“When I went earlier in the hockey playoffs and did search my name one time — and actually earlier in the playoffs it was positive — the deeper in the playoffs you get it gets more negative, because you’re ‘biased against their team,’” McDonough said. "But at the same time, I was getting texts from Marv Albert and Gus Johnson and Kevin Harlan and Mike Breen and a lot of other people in broadcasting whose opinions I really respect. When those guys reach out and say it’s great, Twitter can have at it. I don’t really care.”
More than anything, McDonough loves the vibe of a buzzing arena. He’s called countless playoff and championship games; yet, it always gives him a thrill.
He wants to keep working for as long as that feeling is still inside of him.
“For me, it’s an honor to do this. It’s been a really long, winding career,” he said. “Thirty years ago, I did the World Series for CBS when I was 30 years old, and to think 30 years later you get a chance to do another one of the Big Four, if you will, the Stanley Cup Final at age 60, with a lot of great events in between, I’ve been blessed beyond measure.”
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McDonough on Brady: When McDonough first heard that Tom Brady signed a $375 million deal with FOX, his first reaction was, “I bet he would’ve done it for less.”
Still, McDonough sees value in Brady as a closer. While FOX doesn’t need Brady to convince companies to advertise on NFL games, his presence could give them an advantage over their competitors. Why doesn’t want to play golf with the GOAT?
McDonough also thinks Brady will be a very good analyst. “I think he’ll be great,” McDonough said. “I think we’ve seen since he left New England that he really does have an interesting personality. I think that will come out on the FOX football, and he’ll work hard at it. He’ll want to be the best, because that’s part of what’s made him the greatest football player of all-time.”
Sage Steele’s ESPN lawsuit: Sage Steele is suing ESPN while working for ESPN. The anchor filed a suit against ESPN’s parent company, Disney, alleging she was disciplined for comments she made on Jay Cutler’s podcast criticizing ESPN’s vaccine mandate and questioning Barack Obama’s race.
And ESPN is fighting back. This week, the network alleged in court filings that Halle Barry’s PR team didn’t want Steele to interview the actress at the 2021 ESPNW Summit, and that NFL analyst Ryan Clark refused to work with her.
While all of this is going on, Steele continues to host “SportsCenter” It’s a real-life example of the Deborah Vance suing Ava (shoutout to my “Hacks” fans), except in this case, ESPN pays Steele $3 million annually.
And that’s probably the real reason why ESPN and Steele haven’t parted ways. There’s just too much money at stake.
It pays to yell: Chris “Mad Dog” Russo revealed Wednesday that ESPN pays him $10,000 per appearance on “First Take.” Russo is signed to work 40 shows, which adds up to $400,000.
Hey, I can make a list of the best sports cities, too! I’m sending in my tape.