With his historic five-year, $100 million-plus contract extension, Stephen A Smith pulled off what most of us can only dream of: more pay for less work.
Where Smith previously hosted an ESPN Radio show and, from 2019 through this season, cohosted NBA Countdown, the new deal only commits him to hosting First Take each day. Yet in spite of that, Smith is going from $12 million to $20 million annually.
Some of us in our cluttered home offices or saggy khakis might be jealous, but Smith isn’t as unique as he seemed at first blush when the news broke. Instead, Smith’s latest ESPN contract is a product of a new moment in sports media.
The mascot era is here. All the highest-paid sports personalities are not only talented but living, breathing, attention-grabbing publicity machines.
In the 1980s, as Bristol’s upstart 24/7 sports network grew into the Worldwide Leader, top executives Howard Katz and John Walsh were uneasy about this future. According to James Andrew Miller’s ESPN oral history, “Those Guys Have All the Fun,” Walsh “wrestled” with the potential for an individual brand superseding that of ESPN.
“I said to John, ‘To be in this genre you’ve got to accept the fact that we’re going to have to build personalities who people will want to listen to, and they may not act like everyone else,'” Katz told Miller. “He wrestled with that a whole lot. In fact, I don’t think he ever got comfortable with it.”
For years, ESPN tamped down power grabs from top talent like Keith Olbermann, Bill Simmons, and Dan Le Batard. The four letters were the brand, not the individuals.
Smith’s rise from disposable junior talent back to ESPN and ultimately to this king-making new contract precisely charts the end of that blueprint. Smith is ESPN, and this new deal appears to confirm that the network knows this, too.
In a world where attention is a commodity, life is consumed a vertical video clip at a time, and the scope of commentary grows for everyone, the ability for ESPN to claim Smith matters more than ever. They pay for the acronym “ESPN” to be on the chyron when Smith goes on with Sean Hannity, Bill Maher, or The View. They are paying for Smith to plug First Take on his own podcast. They are paying for @firsttake and @ESPN to be in Smith’s Instagram bio.
As traditional media broke into a bunch of smaller, independent parts over the past decade-plus and the cable business that propped up ESPN decayed, this transition was inevitable. Rather than Smith proving his worth to ESPN, the network is now (at least in part) paying for being connected with one of the most recognizable and impactful voices in media.
On The Stephen A. Smith Show over the weekend, Smith explained why it took so long for his contract to be finalized. The reason, Smith said, was his desire for complete freedom. And he got it.
To be clear, Smith earned that freedom by earning the trust of his bosses with how he handled himself and keeping clean of opinions that might make ESPN look bad. But in addition to the idea of Smith “working less,” this freedom is another win for Smith on top of his massive raise.
While Smith is one of the only sports media personalities you might regularly see on news networks and late-night shows, he’s not the only mascot.
With TNT Sports set to lose the NBA, Inside the NBA star Charles Barkley is expected to increase his presence across the network’s sports programming. Barkley already pops up on the NCAA March Madness studio show and alongside Wayne Gretzky on NHL coverage. But with Barkley under contract for $21 million a year, the network is ideating on a potential Inside Sports show and other ways to get their mascot on as many platforms as possible.
That’s not to mention Barkley’s constant appearances on radio shows and podcasts.
If you were tuned into Fox on Super Bowl Sunday, you saw that network’s mascot everywhere. From Bourbon Street to fake Bourbon Street, Tom Brady was on air roughly every hour throughout pregame coverage. Through the rest of his first year, the most highly paid talent in the history of sports media appeared on Big 10 football coverage, IndyCar commercials and Colin Cowherd’s daytime show in addition to his regular presence on Fox social and video platforms.
Just since he joined Fox, Brady has also appeared on huge YouTube shows from Dude Perfect, MrBeast and Bryson DeChambeau.
Earlier this year, Fox Sports president of production Brad Zager acknowledged the mascot also helps the network pull in other revenue streams.
“What Tom brings with his ability to get sponsors and clients, everybody is motivated to be a part of this brand,” Zager told The Athletic.
On his new deal, Smith won’t have a formal, full-time role on any live sports studio show. But that might mean we actually see him more. Monday Night Countdown, the newly licensed Inside the NBA, heck maybe even College GameDay — they’re all on the table.
It sounds insulting to call Smith a mascot. He is much more than that. But to get to the salary stratosphere he’s now in, that’s the role he will fill.
Even at a network that resisted minting stars for so long, Smith represents the ESPN brand rather than vice versa. And if his new contract is any indication, ESPN is glad to be along for the ride.