Stephen A. Smith is about to get paid on par with some of the players he talks about on a daily basis on ESPN.
Sources with knowledge of his upcoming negotiations with ESPN tell The New York Post that the First Take host is on the verge of jacking up his salary to $10 million per year.
If he does knock it out of the park like that at the negotiating table, Smith would become the highest-paid on-air talent at The Worldwide Leader.
Smith’s current deal – which still has two years remaining – pays him around $5 million but ESPN is desperate to keep Smith and is willing to break the bank to do it.
Higher-ups at the network are partial to Smith, who also hosts a radio show and appears on many other programs across ESPN’s range of platforms, because he is always willing to go on the air and does not complain about being overused as other top talents have been known to do.
Should negotiations not go as planned, the 51-year-old could take his talent to Fox Sports, Apple, Amazon or DAZN (which is headed up by former ESPN head John Skipper).
“As far as potentially leaving ESPN, Smith has aspirations outside of sports. Smith could do a syndicated daily talk show, a game show, or — and this would be more risky — venture into politics,” according to The Post. “He also may want to be a producer of something to go along with his on-air work.”
Regardless of where he ends up, Smith cashing in appears to be a slam dunk.
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Evan is a senior editor with InsideHook who earned a master's degree in journalism from NYU and has called Brooklyn home since 2006. A fan of Boston sports, Nashville hot chicken and Kentucky bourbon, Evan has had his work published in publications including "Maxim," Bleacher Report and "The Daily Mail."
