[6] McAulay's football officiating career began in 1976, including many years at the high school level in Howard County, Maryland.

Coincidentally, McAulay wore the same number and originally worked at the same position that was vacated by Mike Pereira, who served as the NFL's Vice President of Officiating from 2001 until February 2010.

The Browns wide receiver Quincy Morgan caught a pass for a first down on 4th and 1 as they were driving toward the end zone looking for the winning score.

Despite this, citing a "malfunction of the replay system",[9] McAulay reviewed the catch and determined that Morgan never had control of the ball.

However, fans in the "Dawg Pound" began throwing plastic beer bottles and other objects at players and officials.

[14] He is also the rules analyst for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime starting in 2022 joining Al Michaels, Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung.