Joe Buck – Fox Sports
Salary: $6 million per year
Joe Buck comes from a lineage of sportscasters, with his dad being the legendary Jack Buck, who was one of the best known MLB announcers back in the ’50s. Joe’s career started at the end of the ’90s and bloomed from there as he became the youngest NFL announcer of all time at the early age of 25. Since then, Buck has announced over 40 World Series and All-Star games, making him the most active play-by-play announcer on TV.
Buck’s career has been filled with a lot of controversies and drama, such as him being heavily criticized for allegedly having a bias towards specific teams, as-well-as developing a nasty vocal cord paralysis that hurt his ability to speak loudly due to a complicated hair transplant procedure. The sportscaster from Florida is married to ESPN reporter Michelle Beisner and has two beautiful twin boys.
Boomer Esiason - CBS
Salary: $1 million per year
Considered by many to be one of the most successful NFL players of all time, Norman Julius Esiason, also known as "Boomer" was a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, the New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, and returned in his last year to the Cincinnati Bengals again. He was 4 times Pro Bowl champion in 1988's AFC Player of the Year. Boomer's quarterbacking career has been one of the most successful in history, and he had broken various records by the time he retired. Football Nation ranked Boomer as the 25th greatest quarterback of all time.
After retiring from his career with the NFL, Boomer went on to appear in various commercials and even a few TV shows and films. He also became a part-time color analyst for USA Network while playing, and then transitioned into full-time broadcasting for ABC's Monday Night Football. He claims to be a big fan of ice hockey and plays up to 70 hockey games every year. In 1993, his son Gunnar was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and since then he has founded The Boomer Esiason Foundation in order to help fund research for a cystic fibrosis cure.
Kevin Harlan - CBS, TNT
Salary: $400,000 per year
We all know Kevin Harlan as the full-time voice of Monday Night Football and for his Super Bowl commentary. Harlan is currently the play-by-play caller for CBS Sports of both NFL and NCAA Men's Basketball tournaments. With over 37 years of experience with broadcasting, this veteran play-by-play commentator is known by almost anyone who watches sports on CBS or TNT.
Harlan began his broadcasting career during high-school, calling play-by-play for their basketball, football, and ice-hockey games. He was quickly picked up by the NBA's Kansas City Kings at age 22 and has since joined various networks and it doesn’t look like he’s stopping! In 2017, Harlan was chosen by the NSMA as the National Sportscaster of the Year. Harlan is married with 4 kids. Olivia Harlan, his daughter, is married to popular NBA player Sam Dekker and also works for ESPN as a sideline reporter. Harlan is also the VP of the Made to Flourish charity, which empowers pastors.
Billy Packer - CBS
Salary: $500,000 per year
Retired basketball analyst, Billy Packer, spent over 30 years as a college basketball color analyst. He has been the subject of numerous controversies and was considered out of touch with the game by many fans. Their biggest criticism towards Packer was his overly harsh manner of broadcasting, supposedly judging the young college player the same way you'd judge a professional NBA player.
To some degree, Packer was seen by many as a film's antagonist. His many controversies ranged from calling Hoya’s guar Allen Iverson a "tough monkey" to suggesting the Kansas Jayhawks rigged their games through poor lighting. One of his most bizarre publicity-stunned adventures involved Packer hiring a psychic to help find O.J. Simpson's murder weapon. The notorious broadcaster is also the author of "Hoops, Why We Win", "The Golden Game” and a few others.
Rebecca Lobo - ESPN
Salary: $60,000 per year
At 6'4", Rebecca Lobo is one incredibly tall woman! Lobo is one of the original players from the WNBA and debuted with the New York Liberty. She continued playing with the team before moving to the Houston Comets and retiring the following year. Her career was cut short by an anterior ligament tear that forced her career to its premature end. She has since become a reporter and color analyst for ESPN, mostly focusing on WNBA and women's college basketball games.
The popular NBA player was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 as well as the basketball hall of fame. In 2003, Lobo married sportswriter Steve Rushin and has since given birth to 4 children. Lobo helped her mother write a book called "The Home Team" that details the struggles that her mom had endured in battling breast cancer. The mom and daughter duo have since founded the RuthAnn and Rebecca Lobo Scholarship which offer Hispanic students financial aid. In 2017, she was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Lobo dominated the courts as a college player before turning pro, with one of her crowning achievements being her team's 35-0 win in the 1995 national championship.