Only fans of a certain age will remember The Best Damn Sports Show Period.
The program was a one-of-a-kind idea when it launched on Fox Sports Net in 2001 and, in many ways, was a predecessor to where much of the sports media industry finds itself today. The ensemble cast, the mix of comedy and sports, and the focus on personalities wouldn’t be out of place today. In many ways, the legacy of BDSSP has only been enhanced through the years. It also helped launch the national careers of Charissa Thompson, Lisa Guerrero, and Stephen A. Smith.
Former Detroit Pistons star and actor John Salley was part of the main cast for several years. Alongside host Chris Rose, comedian Tom Arnold, MLB vet John Kruk, and NFL legend Michael Irvin, they formed the main cast that most will remember from the show’s eight-year run. The cast was known for their irreverence and unique perspectives. Best Damn Sports Show Period wasn’t where you went for serious analysis; it’s where you went to hang with the guys.
Now many years later, Salley admitted that while he was paid very handsomely for his time at BDSSP, he didn’t bother actually watching the sports he was supposed to talk about. On a podcast with former co-star Lisa Guerrero, he says it took the show 7 years to realize just how little he knew about the sports world.
John Salley says The Best Damn Sports Show Period paid him $80,000 a week and took seven years to realize he did not watch sports
“They didn’t find out that I didn’t know sports until the seventh year. They would do this thing on Wednesday. They would put a name on the board,… pic.twitter.com/v0WRXOqUXd
— dank (@cptdankkk) August 28, 2026
“They didn’t find out that I didn’t know sports until the seventh year,” Salley said. “They would do this thing on Wednesday. They would put a name on the board, and they were like, ‘Sal, who’s that? What do they do?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, hockey?’ I’m reading the teleprompter, and it said, ‘Jefferson, Richard.’ And I was like, ‘Jefferson Richard?’ They were like, ‘How do you not know that this is Richard Jefferson? He played at Arizona. He plays for this team.’ And I go, ‘You guys act like I watch basketball. I’m not watching this stuff.’ You want me to give you two hours of my life for free after they paid me $80,000 a week? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“It’s funny. I don’t know anything about baseball. I know football. They didn’t know that. But when they would take me out of segments, I wouldn’t complain because I learned that from John Kruk. John Kruk was like, ‘Man, I’ve been here and only did three segments and got the same paycheck.’ I was like, got it Krukie. I learned don’t rush to be in front of the camera so much,” Salley explained.
This is a topic that gets a lot of attention in modern media, especially when someone like Stephen A. Smith or Colin Cowherd makes glaring factual mistakes. But those personalities take their shows and their takes very seriously and present themselves as the authority on all things sports. Nobody was coming to John Salley and expecting him to present himself as The Schwab with his sports knowledge. He was there to entertain.
If anything, the fact that Salley was so well-compensated (do the math and that’s $4 million per year) as part of an ensemble cast shows just how good the cable television universe was to the sports world.
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