Stephen A. Smith appears to have gotten what he wanted from ESPN on his next contract: lots of money.
Smith has agreed to a new five-year, $100 million contract with ESPN, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported on Thursday. The deal calls for Smith to continue hosting his daily sports talk show “First Take.” However, Smith is set to have fewer appearances across the network and will not regularly appear on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” pregame show. With more free time, Smith is expected to do more political commentary.
Smith had been earning $12 million per year on his previous deal. His annual salary will now increase by 66.67 percent as he’s getting a raise to $20 million per year. That’s the exact amount Marchand previously reported Smith was expected to receive. Smith was hoping to surpass his ESPN colleagues on his new deal, and he has done that.
When it comes to those in sports broadcasting, Smith trails just Tom Brady and Charles Barkley in terms of annual reported salary.
Stephen A. Smith's new contract places him among the top three highest-paid sports broadcasters 💰 pic.twitter.com/vXFfB2FBMr
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) March 6, 2025
Fellow ESPN personalities Troy Aikman ($18 million), Pat McAfee ($17 million) and Joe Buck ($15 million) are highly paid, but now will trail Smith.
Smith making that kind of money shows just how far he has come. The 57-year-old began as a journalist and rose to fame locally as a columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He began to dabble more in multimedia in the early 2000s when he started to appear on “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” and host weekend shows for FOX Sports Radio. A certain author of this story produced Smith’s first ever solo radio show around the 2003 time period. Smith began his TV and radio career with ESPN in 2005. 20 years later, he is a $100 million man.
