Quick Links
Sports are a gold mine. Professional athletes are some of the richest people in the world today. Sure, most of them can’t match up against the Bill Gates and Warren Buffets of the world, but still, people in sports make enough money to change a lot of lives. Not only that, there are professional athletes who are able to create empires even after they retire.
Still, athletes are not the only ones who make a lot of money out of sports. The people covering them also pull in a hefty amount of cash. To drive that point in, we decided to make a list of 10 of the highest paid sportscasters in the world and their net worths.
Tony Romo ($70 Million)
Since we talked about athletes in the introduction of our article, we might as well start with a former athlete. At 39 years old, Tony Romo is still young enough to be playing football. Nevertheless, the Dallas Cowboys got tired of him in 2017 and put their chips in Dak Prescott. Romo then decided that playing football was not something he wanted to do anymore.
So Romo took his talents to the television screen, and it has been one hell of a ride for him. He became one of the most popular sportscasters in America and is looking to become one of the highest paid pundits in the world, as he is seeking a $10 million yearly salary from CBS. Meanwhile, he is getting paid $4 million a year.
Max Kellerman ($6 Million)
Arguably one of the best boxing analysts of our time, Max Kellerman has expanded his role in the sports community and is now a voice to be heard across a variety of different sports. The reason for that is he is now a co-host of ESPN’s fan-favorite show, First Take. Before making it big on ESPN, Kellerman was already a fan-favorite, working ringside for HBO when they had boxing in their programming.
At 45 years old, Kellerman is still rising in the industry, as is his salary, which is reported at around $3 million to $5 million. His net worth is also on the rise, as he is currently worth somewhere around $6 million.
Al Michaels ($20 Million)
After talking about a couple of the younger guys in the game, it's time to go to a sportscasting legend. We are obviously talking about Al Michaels. At 74 years old, Michaels is still one of the biggest names in sportscasting. Covering everything from the Olympics, to boxing, and numerous Super Bowls, Michaels is as versatile as they get in the industry, and that has earned him a lot of money.
The Brooklyn native makes around $6 million a year in his contract with NBC Sports and has a net worth of around $20 million. He has earned several awards during his career, including five Emmy Awards for outstanding sports personality.
Stephen A. Smith ($10 Million)
Arguably one of the most entertaining sportscasters of all time, and perhaps the most influential sportscaster today, Stephen A. Smith is a figure who divides audiences. There is no in between when it comes to Stephen A. You either love him or you hate him. The guy has as strong an opinion about any given topic as anyone you will ever meet in your life. From his legendary Kwame Brown rant to people using the Snapchat baby filter to make his rants even more legendary, this guy is prime-time television and he earned every single penny of the $5 million he makes every year.
More than that, he has earned every single penny of the nearly $10 million salary he is supposed to start earning from ESPN once they renew his contract.
Skip Bayless ($13 Million)
Before Max Kellerman joined him as co-host of First Take, Stephen A. Smith had someone who was arguably the worthiest foe he could have in a debate show. Skip Bayless was the Yin to Stephen A’s Yang or vice versa. They managed to clash against each other’s opinions at every single point, no matter the subject. And that made for one entertaining show.
Nevertheless, after Skip left ESPN to join Fox Sports, he took quite a bit of the audience from First Take with him to his new show alongside Shannon Sharpe. Bayless is still as successful as ever, pulling in a salary of around $5 billion and has a net worth of around $13 million.
Dan Patrick ($25 Million)
Another member of the old guard, 63-year-old Dan Patrick has been in the game since he started working for a local TV station in Dayton, Ohio in 1979. From there, he worked for CNN, ESPN, ABC, Sports Illustrated, NBC, and now he is at Bleacher Report. An all-around talent, Patrick is mostly known for his work with football, as he has covered the sport for as long as most people can remember. Still, he can talk about basketball, the Olympics, or probably any other sport you can name.
Before making the move to Bleacher Report, he was pulling in a $5.5 million salary and has a net worth of around $25 million.
Bob Costas ($45 Million)
The higher we go on this list, the bigger the guns get. Now, we have 67-year-old Bob Costas, who is currently working for the MLB Network and makes around $7 million a year. One of the things most of these guys have in common is that they are versatile and they understand sports as a whole, despite most of them having a particular niche where they are exceptional.
Costas is no different, as he has covered virtually everything during his tenure with NBC Sports, from boxing to golf, baseball, NASCAR, basketball, football, hockey, the Olympics, and even thoroughbred racing. Yes, the man has covered everything, and it is no surprise he has a net worth of around $45 million.
Troy Aikman ($25 Million)
Being one of the best athletes in the history of a sport certainly helps a pundit get a platform and have people actually listen to what he says when he talks about his sport. That is exactly the case we see whenever Troy Aikman is on television talking about football. A three-time Super Bowl champion, six-time Pro-Bowler, a College National Champion, and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, you will have a hard time finding someone who can make a good case for saying Troy Aikman does not understand football.
The man was a legend when he played, and he is still a legend while commentating on games and making his opinions heard on television. His salary is supposed to be somewhere around $7.5 million a year.
Thierry Henry ($60 Million)
The appeal of soccer has risen in the U.S. over the past couple of years, even decades, some might say. One of the main reasons for that is American clubs have been able to bring talent from Europe. Most of this talent comes from players who are too old to be competitive in the big European leagues. Nevertheless, some of these guys have enough star power to draw attention to the games and bring people to the stadiums. That was exactly the case with Thierry Henry when he came to play for the New York Red Bulls.
He keeps going back and forth between a media career and a managing career since retiring, but the French superstar made a salary of around $6 million a year.
Jim Rome ($75 Million)
Years come and years go, and the one thing we can all be sure of is that Jim Rome is still going to be the highest paid sportscaster in America. The man has had the most popular sports show in the country for so long that it is not surprising at all that he gets paid a ridiculous $30 million a year in annual salary from his various TV and radio shows.
Yes, while the other guys on this list are making $5 million or $6 million, this man is pulling in $30 million. It almost doesn’t seem fair, but when you have cultivated as large an audience as Rome has over the years, you get to reap the fruits of your success. And let’s just say he can buy a lot of fruit with that money.