Monday Night Football will have a new voice for the 2016 season, as ESPN has officially announced that Sean McDonough will be taking over play-by-play duties from the departing Mike Tirico.
https://twitter.com/ESPNMondayNight/status/729743631037370368
McDonough is an ESPN veteran, as he’s been with the network since 2000. In that time, he’s called games in essentially every sport that ESPN covers, including college football. He’s also done play-by-play work for NFL games, though only on the radio.
This is certainly not a surprising move. McDonough is one of ESPN’s best play-by-play men, especially with Tirico on his way out (read more about that here).
With that in mind, it only makes sense that he’d take over duties on Monday Night Football, which is obviously one of the network’s biggest shows.
McDonough will now work with Jon Gruden, who’s been Monday Night Football’s lead color commentator since 2009. The two will likely be paired together for a while. While the terms of McDonough’s contract were not made available in the media release, Gruden’s contract will have him covering games through the 2021 season.
Tirico had been the lead play-by-play men ever since ESPN began broadcasting Monday Night Football games in 2006, taking the reigns over from Al Michaels and ABC.