With the regular season just over a week away, fans of the Cleveland Browns are gearing up for a home season-opening contest against the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday.
Long-time Browns fans will notice one sudden and saddening difference should they listen to the game – or any subsequent contest – this year.
Browns’ play-by-play voice Jim Donovan announced on Thursday his immediate retirement from those duties due to his cancer diagnosis.
In a letter he shared with WKYC, Donovan said “I have called my last Browns game.”
“But my cancer is a defiant opponent and has returned and very aggressively,” Donovan shared in the letter, adding, “This will require me to devote everything I have in me to continue the fight and my family and I are committed to doing that.”
Jim Donovan, who has served as the play-by-play voice of the Cleveland Browns since the team's return to the NFL in 1999, has announced that he is stepping down as he continues his fight against cancer.
Read Jimmy's note for Browns fans here: https://t.co/nIKuU3Bkb0 pic.twitter.com/uSYUJdYZWf
— WKYC 3News (@wkyc) August 29, 2024
Donovan has been the voice of the Browns since the franchise’s rebirth in 1999, spending the majority of those 25 years calling games for the Cleveland football organization.
Earlier this year, Donovan announced he would be stepping away from his job at WKYC after spending more than three decades working with the news outlet.
Donovan called the experience one he has been proud of over the past quarter century.
“Not a day has gone by when I haven’t paused and been so proud to be ‘The Voice of the Browns.'” Donovan shared in the letter.
The broadcaster has battled cancer on multiple occasions in the past, and his latest bout required him to take time away from those duties earlier this decade.
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