Jemele Hill began her career as a sports writer for ESPN. Slowly but surely, she worked her way up to becoming an analyst. She gained even more popularity from her podcast, “His & Her”, which became a sensation. This was just what she needed to become one of the most recognizable faces of SportsCenter.

She also worked on the show on ESPN2 "Numbers Never Lie," taking over after Jalen Rose moved on from the role. After 12 years at ESPN, she decided to part ways and go to The Atlantic, a literary and cultural magazine. Her estimated salary is just over $100,000.

Scott Hanson has been the face of NFL RedZone since 2009. Before that, he worked for multiple other stations, including ABC, Comcast, and NBC. However, the majority of his work has been on the RedZone—and as such, Hanson has trained himself to keep track of multiple games and be able to switch from one game to another.

He is one of the best sports analysts of all time and he has earned every penny of his 3 million dollar net worth, as of 2021. His career is still far from over, so that will definitely rise as he becomes even better at his job. This skill of juggling all of those games at once has also earned him an estimated $200,000 annual salary.

Greg Anthony is the first sports analyst on this list to have no broadcasting experience prior to his TV debut. However, he was a former player who was known for his lock down defense, and after playing the game for 12 years he retired and began working with ABC and ESPN.

However, he got his big break when he went to CBS Sports. He was also one of the commentators in the video game NBA 2K16. His estimated salary is close to $400,000. You can still see him as an analyst for both college and NBA basketball games, and his son has followed in his footsteps and currently plays for the Orlando Magic. 

Sage Steele began her career at CSN Mid-Atlantic in Maryland. She covered the Baltimore Ravens during her tenure there, but she soon had ESPN knocking on her door. Over the years, she’s been a guest on some of ESPN’s biggest shows, like ESPN First Take, NBA Countdown, and Mike & Mike in the Morning.

She’s since become the host of SportsCenter at 6 p.m., a big jump from her previous Mid-Atlantic position. Her new spot also comes with a nice $400,000 salary. She is a true professional, and she is also the mother of three children. We know that can"t be easy!

Charissa Thompson was the co-host of SportsNation on ESPN for many years until her departure for Fox Sports. She was one of the first faces with the new Fox Sports 1 during its initial launch. She was with Fox Sports from 2007-2010 then moved to ESPN for the next three years, and since then has been back with Fox Sports. 

She has steadily continued her career as a leader within the Fox Sports network since 2013. Because of her hard work within this industry, Thompson’s estimated salary is $700,000. She has been in this career since 2007, so it will likely only grow from here as she gains even more experience. 

Jimmy Johnson has made the NFL his life and career. He started as a college player, then transitioned into an assistant coach at another university, until finally winning two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys as a coach. He was the first head football coach to win big at both the collegiate and professional levels. 

After retiring from the game as a coach, he began his career as a sports analyst on Fox NFL Sunday with other former players. At that point, it would be really difficult to let football go and do something else professionally! His estimated annual salary now $600,000. Not bad for a retiree.

Terry Bradshaw doesn’t look the kind of guy to hold the same amount of Super Bowl Championships as some of the greats, but he is. As soon as he retired from the NFL, he had a job as a sports caster. After that kind of career, we needed to hear his expert opinion on the biggest sport in America.

Looking at him, you wouldn’t think that he celebrated his 70th birthday back in 2018 and is currently making an estimated $1 million annually. That"s a lot of cash! We think we can all hope we make that kind of money at that age. Social security checks definitely aren"t that generous! 

As a graduate of journalism from the University of Michigan and Northwestern University, Adam Schefter has worked as a sideline reporter, radio host, and as a network host! As part of the family of hosts for the NFL Network, Schefter was able to gain notoriety from his big personality and spot-on analysis.

After working for the network for a couple of years, ESPN swooped in in 2009 and offered him a deal he couldn’t refuse. His estimated annual take home is just over $1 million. We don"t blame him, either! We would definitely switch jobs if someone would pay us that much to do what we love! 

Max Kellerman started his career in boxing on HBO, but he soon moved beyond the combat sport and began hosting the fan-fav Around the Horn. He has since been on multiple ESPN shows as a guest and is highly regarded for his knowledge in multiple sports, as he should be.

However, he is best-known for his commentary on boxing, which he has very expert knowledge on. He appears on Friday Night Fights and HBO World Championship Boxing. Kellerman’s salary is estimated to be around the $1 million mark because of his experience and expertise. At only 47 years old, his salary could only go up!

Rachel Nichols is now known for her two things: her fun and charismatic nature and her straight-to-the-point line of questioning. She’s worked in many different aspects of the sports analyst world—including sideline reporter and show host—but some of her most memorable moments have come from her integration of NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, during the Ray Rice domestic abuse embarrassment.

With this kind of hard-hitting reporting style combined with her charismatic charm, it’s no wonder she pulls in an estimated $1.5 million a year! She has worked in the industry since the "90s but has worked specifically as a sports analyst for ESPN for over 15 years, since 2004. 

Hannah Storm has been a pioneer for women in the sports world. Her sports casting career started over the air-ways in Houston, TX by giving her analysis during rush hour for all to hear. This translated to her doing TV interviews during and after Houston Rockets and Astro games. She quickly used that to spring into a position on CNN Sports Tonight, where she covered multiple sports, including the Olympics.

After that, she became the first woman to host a sports show by herself with her coverage of the MLB on NBC. She then went to ESPN and became a long-time on-air partner of Stuart Scott. She made history again in 2018 when she and Andrea Kremer became the first Thursday Night Football game to be called by only women. This has earned her the right to get a $1.5 million in our opinion.

Rece Davis is best known for his spot-on commentary on ESPN’s College GameDay show, but unlike his specialized counterparts, Davis has a very diversified commentating background. He’s worked on many other ESPN shows, including being an anchor on SportsCenter, and providing commentary during the FIFA World Cup broadcasts. That"s a well-versed sports analyst! 

This type of range has gained him an estimated $1.5 million salary. Diversifying your abilites is a great way to keep a job because there are very few with the unique combinations of skills that you have, and Davis is a testament to that as a sports tv analyst. 

Jay Bilas was known first by Duke fans as part of the highest-scoring recruiting classes of all time—any Duke class of ’82 fans here? He then became an assistant coach in the ‘90s, but later transitioned to being one of ESPN’s college basketball experts. He also works as a commentator for the Duke Radio Network during the season.

He’s been nominated for multiple Emmys over the course of his casting career. Think he would trade one of those nominations for a win if it meant he had to give up his estimated $2 million salary? We don"t think so. Anyway, he"s definitely likely to eventually win an Emmy one of these days.

Grant Hill was a well-known NBA star before ever gracing the audience with his charm and deep insights into the game. Although some would argue that he never lived up to the hype he had coming into the NBA, no one can doubt that he’s had a great career as an NBA insider and analyst.

Hill has been both a commentator during the game as well as sitting in the studio giving his insights into the game. Although we are sure his $2 million-a-year salary isn’t what it used to be when he was playing in the NBA, we"re guessing he’s still happy with it.

Kirk Herbstreit began his career in sports back at his high school in Ohio where he was awarded the Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year during his senior year of high school. He later went on to have a great college football career with Ohio State. In 2007 at the age of 38 he began his sports broadcasting career.

He has always been big into college football, as you can tell by his past with the game and impressive college career himself. So naturally he has focused his broadcasting career to college football. It is obviously a very lucrative career choice because he is reported to make $2 million a year from this position.

Anthony McFarland is commonly and lovingly referred to as “Booger,” which was a nickname given to him as a child that has stuck around since then. McFarland had an excellent college and professional career in playing football. In college he played for LSU, and in the NFL he played for several teams including the Buccaneers and the Colts.

He began his career as a sports analyst around 2010, and in 2014 was officially hired to comment on the SEC. He has worked with ESPN and most commonly gives his take on NFL games, which often involves commenting on his son who is now an NFL player himself. For this job, he makes a grand $2 million a year.

Suzy Kolber was part of the original crew for ESPN2 during its first launch, back when it was still just an offshoot of ESPN and not really a thing. Since then, she has put herself and ESPN2 on the map! Once ESPN gained the right to Monday Night Football, Kolber was part of the broadcasting crew the first year.

She would eventually take over as the anchor of Monday Night Countdown after Stuart Scott stepped down because of his health. Even though her career is best-known for her time with ESPN, Kolber did work for Fox Sports for the majority of the "90s. Her current estimated salary with ESPN2 is $3 million.

Linda Cohn was brought on by ESPN in 1992 to be on SportsCenter. Unlike most of the other names on this list, Cohn has stuck by ESPN’s side from day one. With her 60th birthday just past, she has stuck with her ESPN employer through thick and thin. She began working for them when she was just 33 years old!

Although most of us today would say this type of loyalty doesn’t pay off in the salary game, ESPN has made sure to keep her happy with an estimated $3 million a year! With over 30 years of loyalty to one of the biggest names in sports and working in a high-profile position, she definitely deserves it.

Jalen Rose seems to have always found a way to succeed in life! He was part of the Fab Five, then became one of the Pacer’s top scorers right beside Hall of Famer Reggie Miller! Now that he has retired from the court, he’s started his career behind the camera.

Given, he’s been a great analyst for ESPN, but he has definitely found himself at odds with some of the other sports show hosts, including Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith. Even though there is some conflict, Rose still has estimated to get a $3 million salary. Conflict can come with any job, though. 

Although Curt Menefee has the least amount of football experience compared to the rest of the crew on Fox’s NFL Sunday, that hasn’t stopped him from standing out! Using his extensive background from working with so many other sports, including UFC, baseball, and soccer, he has set himself apart on the show so much that no one would hold his lack of on-field experience against him.

He also holds an honorary doctorate from Coe College, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, in Journalism. He is up there with the big names in sportscasting such as Terry Bradshaw, Jimmy Johnson, and Howie Long to name a few. All of this amounts to his estimated annual salary of $3 million.

Yet another iconic sports analyst made his career in the NFL long before making it into the studio. Michael Strahan was known for his hard-hitting on the field, but after he retired with the record for single season sacks, he began his dominance of TV! And boy did he dominate! 

Replacing Regis Philbin on Regis and Kelly, he established himself as a fun, charismatic guy who could win over a crowd instantly with his famous smile. Now he pulls in an estimated $4 for his appearances on Fox NFL Sunday and hosting Strahan and Sara. He is one of the only people on this list who have also crossed over into entertainment pop culture. 

Scott Van Pelt has been one of the most recognizable faces on SportsCenter since 2001. However, he got his start on the Golf Channel. Obviously, he expanded his level of knowledge to cover many other sports since joining ESPN, but he still covers the US Open and The Masters for the network.

His die-hard fans have been with him since his early days on the Golf Channel. This fan base has helped him score an estimated $4 million annually! They must be very loyal as well since he is best-known for his midnight show. If we ever have a job that makes us be wide awake at midnight, we would want that kind of salary as well! 

Howie Long spent 13 years with the Raiders franchise and was nominated to the Pro Bowl eight times! He was known for his intensity on the defensive side of the ball and won Defensive Player of the Year once. However, a professional NFL player can only put their body through so much physical intensity.

Long decided to take this intense focus and apply it to his work behind the camera. This kind of intensity must be working for Long because it’s estimated that he brings home $4 million a year. His sons have since followed in his NFL footsteps, and both his sons Chris and Kyle Long have had careers in the NFL.

Samantha Ponder worked her way to the top! She started as a sideline report for Thursday Night College Football, then took over College Gameday for Erin Andrews, and now she’s one of the highest-paid female sports analysts. She has been very active in the world of ESPN reporting since 2006. Football appears to consume a lot of her life as she is also married to a former NFL quarterback.

You can now catch Ponder on Sunday’s NFL Countdown with a smile on her face as she rakes in an estimated $4.9 million a year. She brings home the big bucks, and it"s likely that she"s the breadwinner in her family of three children, two girls and a boy, with Christian Ponder. 

Michelle Beadle has had a fun sports career, covering everything from the big 3 (baseball, basketball, and football), to her humble beginnings of reporting on the PBR (Professional Bull Riding). After working as a freelance reporter for multiple networks, she finally landed a big-time deal with ESPN and was asked to be the co-host of SportsNation on ESPN2.

She also co-hosted the morning sports show Get Up! and was the former host of ABC"s Winners Bracket. She has even coverd college sports in addition to professional leagues. Beadle’s reported salary was $5 million in her last contract renewal. This is quite impressive given that her native language is Italian and didn"t speak English until she moved to the United States as a child.

Chris Berman is one of the few on this list who has spent the majority of his career as a play-by-play commentator. His legacy can with ESPN can be traced back to the ‘70s, making him one of the longest on-air sports analysts. He has worked on several well-known programs throughout his career. 

These programs include: SportsCenter, Sunday NFL Countdown, Monday Night Countdown, U.S. Open golf, the Stanley Cup Finals, and so much more. Berman, also known as "Boomer," is best-known for his catch phrases, such as “Whooop!” and is estimated to bring home nearly $5 million a year! It is a well-deserved paycheck. 

Mike Golic is best known for his work across the radio waves in the Mike & Mike show on ESPN Radio. The show was so popular that ESPN decided to give them a TV show as well! However, after years of working together, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic decided to try other partners.

Most of the fans were torn, but apparently everyone decided it was ok to still be friends with both Mikes! Now his new show, Golic & Wingo, helps bring him in an estimated $5 million a year. Even though co-hosting with someone without the first name Mike isn"t as catchy, it"s still a great program. 

Michael Wilbon started his career at The Washington Post, where he would get into fun-loving debates about sports with his co-workers. He and Tony Kornheiser would take these types of antics and apply them to their show, Pardon the Interruption, one of ESPN’s longest-running programs! It"s a really great show. 

Having signed recently to a multi-year extension to his contract, Wilbon is looking at bringing in $6 million annually. Not bad for water cooler convo! This just goes to show that some of our best ideas happen when we least expect it, like while taking a shower or having a conversation with friends. 

Skip Bayless has had a checkered career. Skip doesn’t pull any punches and says exactly what he thinks—even if he did cause an on-air spat! He has been on the programs First Take with ESPN2 and Skip and Shannon: Undisputed on Fox Sports 1. Both have garnered him a lot of popularity. 

 His type of personality that people love to watch, with his very blunt, hard-truth,  hold-nothing-back sense of direction, and his new show with co-host Shannon Sharpe on Fox Sports 1 is reported to give him an estimated $6 million a year! We wish we could get paid that much for talking smack and telling the honest truth!

Tony Kornheiser is possibly one of, if not the, oldest sports caster currently working! At 71, Tony has worked as a columnist, radio show host, and TV host. He began his career in 1970 and has been going for over 50 years! Not to mention that he has worked on some very notable programs over the years. 

One of ESPN’s longtime executives was once quoted as saying, “in the history of sports media, [Kornheiser] is the most multitalented person ever.” I guess that is why it’s reported that Kornheiser’s last re-up cost ESPN $6 million a year! It really does pay to be as talented as Kornheiser!

Colin Cowherd was one of the original hosts of SportsNation. He has experience working both behind a camera and over the airwaves. Unfortunately, Cowherd was suspended in 2015 by ESPN for remarks he made about baseball players from the Dominican Republic. It is not cool to say things like that. 

However, Fox Sports 1 used this opportunity to snatch up Cowherd and his show, The Herd. It’s now one of the most tuned-into shows on the network! It’s reported that in his resigning in 2018 he negotiated a $6 million a year deal for himself! That"s a lot of power. 

Joe Buck has been with FOX since 1994 and scored his own show, Joe Buck Live, on HBO in 2009. As one of the biggest sports analysts in the game, it"s no surprise he has one of the biggest salaries at $6 million. When you work as hard as he does, it comes with the territory. 

Before making it big at Fox, Buck worked at KNOX, KMOV, and ESPN radio. Buck has broadcasted for every major network and became the youngest broadcaster (at age 25) to announce an NFL game. Now at only 52 years old, he has had a professional career as a sports tv analyst for almost 30 years! 

The other Mike from Mike and Mike, Mike Greenberg, is doing just as good as his old pal Mike Golic—maybe even a little better! Greenberg’s new show, Get Up!, seems to be doing very well since its inception in 2018. The ratings might be better than Mike Golic"s show, but we won"t dig too deep into that. 

Greenberg, unlike Golic, had been doing TV for longer than he’s done radio and worked with ESNews during the early days. Taking all of this into consideration, it makes sense that he brings $6.5 million annually, right? Even though they were once peers, it definitely makes sense that the Mike with more experience brings home the most cash.

Jon Gruden is best known for his coaching, but he has also had a good career in sports analyst commentating and broadcasting. He grew up surrounded by football since his father and nearly all of his brothers all have careers involving football as well, whether they are coaching or playing.

Gruden got his start as an assistant coaching while he was only in high school and has gone on to coach at all levels, up to the NFL. From 2009 to 2018, he was one of the highest paid ESPN personalities under a contract signed in 2014 that had the option to continue to 2021, but he instead decided to return to coaching in 2018. His salary is an estimated $6.5 million.

Bill Simmons was inspired to be a sports analyst, writer, and broadcaster from a very young age since he read a book on sports writing as a young child. He then went on to work for the school newspaper at his college where he wrote and edited the column on sports.

After he graduated from grad school, he landed a dream job working for ESPN. Not only has he been able to work with ESPN throughout his career, but he has also had awesome opportunities to work with Jimmy Kimmel and HBO on different programs. His specialty in sports writing and program writing in general has earned him a salary of $7 million a year.

This next one isn’t really a single person, but more of a group or boy band. The boys of Inside the NBA Crew on TNT have not had their annual salaries revealed, but the crew is made up of former players Kenny Smith, Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley. If these guys are the mouth, heart, and stomach of the group, then the brains behind the operations must be Ernie Johnson.

Taking into consideration all the commercials that these guys do during the NCAA tournament, I’d guess they were somewhere closer to the top-earning half of this list! These guys are the faces of NBA, even in retirement, and it"s no wonder why they bring home the really really big bucks!

Stephen A. Smith’s personality is one of the largest of this entire group. There are some who love this guy and others who can’t stand the sound of his voice. The polarization is exactly what he needed to shoot him to the top of this list though! Good or bad, attention is attention. 

Smith isn’t afraid to take on the challenge of being the other side of the argument; if anything, he revels in it! Smith’s personality has helped him rise above the vast majority of all the other sports casters with an estimated $10 million salary! It is very well-deserved, Mr. Smith. 

Tony Romo has proven his worth off the field as well as on. He switched from the field to sports broadcasting after a successful career with the Dallas Cowboys, and he has worked out a really great deal with CBS in 2020 for a whopping salary of $17 million per season.

Not only is he making $17 million from that contract alone; according to the New York Post, Romo"s deal with CBS will rake in about $180 million for the sports superstar over the next 10 years. If he plays his cards right, he"s not far off from becoming a billionaire. 

During the ‘90s there was no controversial sports commentator like Jim Rome. His voice is one of the most recognizable among all sports casters on TV or radio of all time. His dry wit and unapologetic opinions have shot him—and his show—to the top of the mountain top and beyond.

Fans know that on a Rome show anything goes, and that is something that makes him so exciting not just to watch, but to listen to as well. That’s why it’s estimated that Mr. Rome brings home $30 million a year! It really does pay to say the things that grabs peoples" attentions.