After months of speculation about his future, Stephen A. Smith has reportedly agreed to a massive nine-figure deal to stay at ESPN, making him one of the highest-paid broadcasters in sports media.
The new $100 million contract is a huge development for several reasons. First, it allows ESPN to stay in the Stephen A. Smith business and continue with his gravitational pull on First Take and elsewhere. Also, Smith is fulfilling the American dream of getting paid more to work less. The contract reportedly calls for less dates so that he can expand his political career… including that run for president that he’s always toying with.
Smith made a huge deal about wanting to be the highest-paid personality at ESPN because he felt like his worth to the network and star power deserved it. But where does he rank amongst the entirety of sports media? These contracts are always kept under lock and key by the networks themselves, but dollar figures for some of the highest-profile deals have made their way into public view through reports. For interested parties and observers, it shows where the networks are putting their resources at a time when every dollar and cent has to count amidst cord-cutting, streaming, soaring sports rights, and so many other uncertainties.
From what we know (mostly thanks to the reporting of Andrew Marchand over the years, who broke several of these stories), here are the highest-paid personalities in sports media.
1) Tom Brady, Fox Sports – $37.5 million per year, 10 years at $375 million
Fox made a huge splash in obliterating the market for sports announcers by signing Tom Brady to a $375 million deal before he even fully retired to become the face of their NFL coverage. After taking a year off, the GOAT made his debut in the broadcast booth this year and unfortunately for Fox, didn’t quite live up to the expectations of his playing career or his salary in his rookie season.
2) Charles Barkley, TNT – $21 million per year, 10 years at $210 million
Barkley signed a 10-year contract with TNT for over $200 million in 2022, but who knows if and when he will fulfill the life of that deal. Even before the licensing deal for Inside the NBA was announced with ESPN to preserve the program after TNT lost NBA rights, Barkley retired… then un-retired… then was maybe talking with NBC or Amazon… but now is committed to TNT (and ESPN?) moving forward. At least for now.
3) Stephen A. Smith, ESPN – $20 million per year, 5 years at $100 million
As stated above, Smith will make $20 million annually from ESPN in his new deal. But when you add onto that his own podcast and his many other appearances in political media, and he’s likely getting compensated very well for his myriad of hot takes across the world. Of course, if he becomes president, he’ll have to deal with a pretty big pay cut in salary.
4) Troy Aikman, ESPN – $18.5 million per year, 5 years at $92.5 million
ESPN knew they had to take some big swings to restore Monday Night Football to its former glory and become a premier product once again. The biggest step in doing so was snatching Joe Buck and Troy Aikman from Fox in 2022 after years of a rotating door of announcers in the MNF booth. Now Monday Night Football has one of the top sports announcing teams, a better game schedule, and ESPN is in the good graces of the NFL once again.
5) Tony Romo, CBS – $18 million per year, 10 years at $180 million
Tony Romo was once the biggest thing in sports broadcasting. While that seems like a long time ago and his star has dimmed, Romo has held onto his spot as CBS’s lead NFL announcer after signing his contract in 2020. However, after signing that megadeal, Romo’s performances slipped dramatically, even reportedly drawing an intervention from CBS.
6) Pat McAfee, ESPN – $17 million per year, 5 years at $85 million
When Stephen A. Smith was politicking for his new ESPN deal, pretty much everyone pointed to Pat McAfee’s contract with ESPN as the new standard that needed to be matched, at the very least. McAfee actually took a pay cut from his FanDuel days to join ESPN but has seen the increased exposure from the Worldwide Leader cause his star power to skyrocket. And with his additional commentary role with WWE, it’s likely his overall number is even higher.
T7) Al Michaels, Amazon – $15 million per year, 1 year contract
T7) Shaquille O’Neal – $15 million per year, multi-year deal
Barkley’s counterpart on Inside the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal, just signed a new deal with TNT that will keep him with the program as it begins its licensing run with ESPN next season. However, thanks to a unique deal with Authentic Brands, Shaq will only see half of that salary. As for Al Michaels, the legendary play-by-play man is now reportedly on a year-to-year deal with Amazon as he will return to the broadcast booth in 2025.
9) Joe Buck, ESPN – $12-15 million per year, 5 years at $60-75 million
As with Troy Aikman above, Buck moved to ESPN in 2022. His exact salary at ESPN isn’t known, but it was reported to be in the $12-15 million per year range. Maybe ESPN will give him a nice little bonus for calling Opening Day baseball on their network too.
10) Cris Collinsworth, NBC – $12.5 million per year, 4 years at $50 million
While not quite in the range of Buck, Aikman, or Romo, the fourth lead analyst for NFL games on major American networks still does pretty well. It was thought that Cris Collinsworth might step into retirement soon, especially with NBC trying to find a successor (hello, Drew Brees) actively, but instead, he recently signed a new four-year deal at $50 million that could see him call two more Super Bowls with the network.
T11) Jim Nantz (CBS), Mike Tirico (NBC) – $10.5 million per year, multi-year deals
Both Jim Nantz and Mike Tirico are reported to be in a similar range. Nantz signed his deal in 2021 to keep him as the face of CBS Sports. Even after stepping away from NCAA Tournament duties, he still anchors the network’s golf coverage and is the top NFL announcer. Tirico joined NBC in 2016 and does everything for the network, calling Sunday Night Football and hosting the Olympics, and will soon be their lead NBA on NBC announcer. Given that the NBA duties are new, it’s entirely possible that Tirico’s current salary could move even higher.
13?) Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN/Amazon – $10 million+ per year
Given Kirk Herbstreit’s multiple high-profile jobs at ESPN and Amazon, he likely ranks somewhere in the middle of this list. But what’s currently known is that he makes at least eight figures per year from Amazon to call NFL games and has a multi-million dollar deal at ESPN to cover college football. At least we can rest easily knowing Peter Herbstreit won’t go hungry anytime soon.
