Lisa Salters – ESPN
Salary: $2 million per year
The feisty journalist and former women’s basketball player from Pennsylvania, Lisa Salters, is a highly accomplished woman who was recently conducted into the Montgomery County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame. Salters began her career in sports and journalism when she received her bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism. While studying, she also tried her hand at basketball, even though she wasn’t exactly the tallest basketball player in the world. Standing at just 5′ 2, Salters became the school’s shortest player in history when she became a guard for the Lady Lions basketball team from 1986 to 1987.
The accomplished journalist went on to join ESPN as a general assignment reporter in the year 2000 and has had a very interesting career that included both sports and worldwide news. She has covered various high-profile topics outside of sports, such as the Oklahoma City bombing trials, the Matthew Shepard murder, the crash of TWA Flight 800, and both the civil and criminal O.J. Simpson trials. Salters was nominated for a Sports Emmy Award in 2008 for her story “Ray of Hope” about organ donations.
Mike Patrick - ESPN
Salary: $6.5 million per year
Just last year, 36 year ESPN broadcasting veteran Mike Patrick officially retired from broadcasting. The 74-year-old had an extensive broadcasting career that spanned over many sports and events. Patrick has contributed to the network by covering NFL games in their Sunday Night Football series for nearly 20 years, not to mention calling over 30 basketball championships over his 14 years of being the play-by-play broadcaster for Women's Final Four.
Outside of ESPN, the recently retired broadcaster did some play-by-play commentating for the Cleveland Browns pre-season football games. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, Janet. In his final interview with ESPN, prior to leaving the network, he expressed how happy he was for the people he got to work with on-air and behind the scenes. ESPN aired a tribute, narrated by Rece David on SportsCenter to commemorate Patrick's long and important career.
Reggie Miller - TNT
Salary: $250,000 per year
After 18-years in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers, Reginald Wayne Miller is widely considered to be the team's greatest player of all time. Miller quickly rose to prominence through his excellent 3-pointers and in-ring trash talk. Both 5 time NBA All-Star, Miller, and his sister have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. With an incredible record of over 25,000 points throughout his career, Miller is the 14th highest scoring player in the NBA. He was also chosen as the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year in 2002.
Nowadays Miller is a game analyst for TNT's Thursday Night Doubleheaders, he also contributes to The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio. A documentary film directed by Peabody Award-winner Dan Klores was made about Miller and his team's famous win against the Knicks, the film's name is "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks".
Bob Ley - ESPN
Salary: $2 million per year
Long-running and beloved ESPN host Bob Ley has recently announced that he is officially retiring from sports commentary and hosting after nearly 40 years of work with the network. The 64-year-old broadcaster announced his retirement and wrote "Thank you for a great run," on Twitter. As a multiple-time Emmy Award winner and one of the network's most recognizable voices, Ley was the longest working on-air employee in ESPN history as he joined merely three days after the network launched in 1979.
His various awards include the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Studio Host, the Golden Blazer of Fame and more. The veteran sportscaster provided the first live national reports during the 1989 World Series earthquake in San Francisco and was the host and commentator in many of the largest events in sports over the past 3 decades. In his personal life, Ley is married and has 2 kids. He also serves on Seton Hall University’s board of regents.
Tony Romo - CBS
Salary: $4 million per year
Like many other retired NFL quarterbacks, Tony Romo led an incredible NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys that lasted 13 years from 2003 until 2016 and ended up in a career-ending injury. He broke many records including passing touchdowns, passing yards, most games with at least 300 passing yards, and games with three or more touchdown passes. Romo also holds the fourth-highest passer rating in the NFL at 97.1. He was quickly picked up by CBS Sports and worked as the lead color analyst for the network's NFL Casts.
The retired Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks agents claim he wants to become the highest-paid NFL analyst on TV, and allegedly asked for a $10 million contract. Romo is currently making 4 million dollars annually and is yet to be the first one to break the 8-figure barrier as an analyst. He also claims to be a devout Christian and talks often about his faith and love for Jesus.