After the playoff-bound Rams lost their long snapper Doug Barnett to a knee injury in the 1983 regular-season finale in New Orleans, special teams coach Gil Haskell got on the phone and reached out to Mike McDonald.
But McDonald, who long snapped for Haskell and first-year Rams head coach John Robinson when they were at USC, hadn’t done so since their 1980 Rose Bowl victory over Ohio State and was understandably surprised.
“I was out playing golf,” McDonald said. “My dad came up in a golf cart and said, ‘Hey, Gil Haskell wants to talk to you.’ I wasn’t sure what he wanted. He hadn’t seen me for a few years.”
McDonald returned the call and…
“He said, ‘Hey, I need you.’ I said, ‘What do you need me for?’ He says, ‘Our guy got hurt. Can you get down here today?’ I said, ‘I’m pretty sure I can,'” McDonald says.
“So I drove to Anaheim. I saw Gil, and went out and hiked the ball for him to the punter. And he said, ‘Okay, what do you think? We want to sign you.’ So I signed a contract, but you weren’t getting paid on your contract. They were only going to pay me playoff money.”
Living in his hometown of Burbank, McDonald, who had been a graduate assistant on Robinson’s staff at USC, was working in the insurance business with his dad, and in the process of getting a real estate license. The last thing he thought he’d be doing was becoming a Los Angeles Ram nearly four years after he last put on a helmet and shoulder pads and facing Dallas in the NFC Wild Card game.
“Oh, (my new teammates) gave me a razzing. I was a little bit chubbier than when I played at SC,” McDonald laughed. “There were some people, and they did make a lot of fun. I’m sure they did with all the rookies. So it was fine. It didn’t bother me.
“I was just kind of in awe being in a room with Jack Youngblood and Dennis Harrah. I remember Carl Ekern recruited me to San Jose State out of high school. He had just finished his senior year there and ended up with the Rams. And there was a couple SC guys, and a couple of UCLA guys. But it was a little different.”
Making the Rams the following season, McDonald was released in 1985 when the NFL reduced rosters from 49 to 45 players, and teams didn’t have the luxury of carrying a long snapper.
But it was déjà vu for McDonald in 1986, he was selling real estate in the Los Angeles area and the Rams came calling again.
“Same situation. Snapper couldn’t get it done,” McDonald said. “They had a guy from Ohio State who was trying to learn how to snap, and he didn’t…
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