Sean McDonough is back on top.

Just more than a decade after being dismissed from the Red Sox TV booth, McDonough has landed one of the premier jobs in sports broadcasting. McDonough will serve as the new voice of Monday Night Football for ESPN, replacing Mike Tirico, who is departing for NBC.

And McDonough, the son of late Boston Globe sports columnist Will McDonough, knows the trip he’ll make to call the Patriots’ game against the Baltimore Ravens in Foxboro on Dec. 12 will be special.

“That’s the one that jumped out at me,” McDonough said. “I just think the Patriots and the Ravens is such a great rivalry. Just sitting in that old stadium — I haven’t been in the new stadium as much — but I spent a lot of time as a kid in the old Foxboro Stadium, Sullivan Stadium, Schaefer Stadium. And now that might be emotional because of all of the time I spent in Foxboro with my dad and my brothers and my sisters as a kid.”

McDonough will be only the fifth play-by-play man in the 46-year history of MNF, and he’ll be joined by analyst Jon Gruden and sideline reporter Lisa Salters.

In replacing Tirico, McDonough will become just the second person to call MNF for ESPN. Tirico left for what NBC called a “high-profile” role that will include the NFL and the Olympics.

McDonough, who turns 54 on Friday, is a Massachusetts native who began calling Red Sox games in 1988 as a 25-year-old. It didn’t take long for him to make an impact nationally, as he announced the 1992 and ’93 World Series for CBS.

But there were bumps along the way.

After 17 years in the Red Sox booth, McDonough’s contract was not picked up following the 2004 season. He’s called a medley of events for ESPN in the interim, ranging from college football to European golf. He’s also no stranger to NFL play-by-play, which he’s done most recently for ESPN radio.

Now back in the national spotlight, McDonough has a greater appreciation for the job.

“I think what I’ve learned through the years is to never take anything for granted,” he said. “Even though I had an opportunity at a young age, there’s no guarantee that they’re going to keep coming your way, and I’m living proof of that. For a long time, I had some really good opportunities, but it wasn’t the World Series and it wasn’t Monday Night Football. There’s very few of these kinds of jobs, and when you have them you’re very fortunate to have them. As much as I didn’t want to leave the Red Sox, I think that was mostly a financial issue, to be totally honest about it.”

McDonough lost his father to a heart attack in 2003. When he called to tell his brother Terry, the director of player personnel for the Arizona Cardinals, about the MNF job, Terry broke down in tears.

“I know it was not just because he was so happy for me, but I think he was also thinking about how cool my dad would think this is and how proud he would be. And he is I’m sure, looking down,” McDonough said.

The journey hasn’t always been smooth, but McDonough kept the faith.

“You just trust that your life is going to go that way it’s supposed to go, and I’ve always believed that, and that it’s wound up back here is an awesome thing,” he said.