Salary: $24 million per year
Arguably one of the most successful and accomplished American sportswriters and analysts in the world, Bill Simmons is a true favorite of the crowds. Simmons’ distinguished career has included founding the sports and pop-culture website The Ringer, working with ESPN for 15 years, hosting his own podcast called “The B.S. Report” and being one of NBA Countdown’s top analysts for 2 years. He was named the 12th most influential person in online sports by the Sports Business Journal in 2007, making him the highest-rated person on that list to not hold an executive position.
Simmons released his first New York Times best-selling book in 2007 titled “Now I Can Die in Peace”, an anthology book with his best writings on sports throughout the years. He then went on to release another bestseller in 2008 called “The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy” where he pondered various philosophical and historical questions regarding basketball. It’s no secret that Bill Simmons is in love with the various Boston teams, not surprising since his educational and work-related journeys both began in Boston.
Brad Nessler - CBS
Salary: $1.5 million per year
You can catch Brad Nessler's commentating whenever you watch college football or a college basketball game on CBS Sports. The 63-year-old sportscaster from St. Charles, Minnesota, began his career broadcasting for radio stations on Georgia Tech basketball on WGST-AM from age 24 until he was 28. In 1990, Nessler started working for CBS Sports calling various games in NFL and college football and basketball.
The sportscaster also appears annually in the NCAA Football video-game series made by EA Sport. He left CGS Sports for a few years and commentated with ESPN and ABC Sports - before returning to CBS in 2016 as lead play-by-play announcer. In his Twitter account's signature, Nessler claims he's "New to Twitter, but not to the game." He also landed 2 small roles in film. One in 2018's drama "I Can Only Imagine" and another role in the 1985 comedy, "The Slugger's Wife". He played the role of an NFL announcer in the first and as a reporter in the latter.
Paul Maguire - HDNet
Salary: $300,000 per year
Former Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills linebacker Paul Leo Maguire is almost 80 years old and still kicking. At the time of his peak in the mid-’60s, Maguire went on to break many AFL records in punts and punt yards and has since changed careers and become the popular color commentator for ESPN and NBC. The retired AFL player has appeared in many Chick-fil-A commercials during the Super Bowl. He was originally scouted by an AFL representative and was offered an $8,000 salary which was a lot of money at the time.
Maguire was born way back in 1938 in Youngstown, Ohio and has been happily married to Beverly Bauer since 1962. His main career highlights include 3 AFL championships in 1963, 1964 and 1965. He has played a total of 151 games throughout his professional career. Maguire was inducted into the Youngstown Sports Hall of Fame and the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame.
Clark Kellogg - CBS
Salary: $400,000 per year
The CBS college basketball analyst and our favorite NBA2K video-game announcer, Clark Kellogg, was named Mr. Ohio Basketball in 1979 and had a short but accomplished NBA career as power forward of the Indiana Pacers from 1982 until 1986. Unfortunately, Kellogg was forced to retire from basketball due to a chronic knee problem. He began broadcasting with ESPN in 1990 and joined CBS 3 years later.
Kellogg is undoubtedly one of the more insightful and loved college basketball analysts in the United States, mostly due to his kind and loving nature. He claims to have transformed into a devout Christian in the mid-’80s due to a crisis of purpose and often talks about the overwhelmingly positive impact that religion has had on him. He uses his Twitter account that has over 50,000 followers to provide both comments and opinions on basketball, as-well-as promote his love for Jesus. Kellogg was awarded the Coach Wooden "Keys to Life" award in 2003.
Fran Charles - MLB Network
Salary: $1.2 million per year
You can't watch an MLB Network game without watching popular studio host Fran Charles. The popular broadcaster made his debut in MLB network as the host of the 2013 World Basketball Classic and was also the host of NFL Network and the HBO sports series Boxing After Dark.
Charles has commentated on almost every sport, from boxing to basketball and football and even got a role as feature host in EA Sports' Madden NFL 2010. You can often see Charles in pre-game interviews where he gives commentary and predictions regarding upcoming games.