Stephen A. Smith has been clear about feeling underpaid by ESPN.
He was the highest paid at the Worldwide Leader in Sports until Pat McAfee joined and got a salary worth $17 million annually, a significant bump from the estimated $12 million per year deal Smith signed in 2019.
After his reported $12 million annual salary was topped by major acquisitions like Pat McAfee, Stephen A. Smith wants to be ESPN’s highest-paid talent again.
Smith recently on OutKick The Show and asked by host Clay Travis whether it was important to him to be the highest-paid personality at the company and didn’t hesitate to make his thoughts on the matter known.
He also made it clear that he will never forget how the company let him go back in 2009 and even threatened to leave should his demands not be met.
“Yes. I’m not stuttering,” Smith said when asked if he thinks he should be the highest-paid person at ESPN given the work he’s doing. “Hell, yes, that’s absolutely true. I’ve mastered my own business in the world of sports television.”
‘Clay Travis, I’ve been number one for 12 years. April 1st will mark 12 consecutive years I’ve been number one. Not only have I been number one every year, I’ve been number one every week and every month of every year for the last 12 years. You don’t get to say that about too many people.
‘I look at whether it’s Pat McAfee, it’s Mike Greenberg, it’s Scott Van Pelt, it’s Troy Aikman, it’s Joe Buck, it’s Kirk Herbstreit. The list goes on and on. I’m so honored to have the colleagues that I have, that I work with at ESPN every day.
‘And at the end of the day, it would be nice one day for this man to stand before everyone and be like: “I’m number one and this says I’m number one.”’
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Smith also brought up Tony Romo’s deal at CBS in which he signed a 10-year contract for $17.5 million per year in 2020. It was the largest sports analyst contract in TV history at the time.
He then continued: ‘I’ve got my own YouTube channel. I’ve got my own show – it’s not even just a podcast, it’s a show with a fully loaded television studio. That’s what I built for myself, that could go linear or digital. The list goes on and on.
‘I’m doing all of these things. I’m not doing all of that to be in second place. I’m not doing all of that to look up at somebody else to see that they’re making more than me when I’m producing superior ratings and revenue. No, I’m not doing that. And I’m not apologizing to anybody for it.
‘I’ve been treated incredibly well by ESPN, I expect to continue to be treated well by ESPN. Again, I’ve got great relationships and what have you, but this is a business and Disney has a right to run its business the way it sees fit, ESPN does as well.
‘But if they do, so do I. I hope that we’re able to work it out. I’m confident that we will, because I’m incredibly happy there. We’ll see.’
Just as ESPN is in the business of making money, so is Stephen A. Smith.
Smith’s personal salary is $8 million a year, but he also has a $4 million-per-year production contract.
