Jay Feely’s federal election filings reveal CBS salary

Earlier this year, Jay Feely announced he’d be leaving his post as a sideline reporter on CBS’s NFL coverage to instead run for office.

The longtime NFL kicker turned broadcaster is seeking the Republican nomination in Arizona’s 5th congressional district. To comply with federal campaign regulations, Feely recently disclosed information about his finances to the House Clerk. And according to a report by Daniel Libit and Lev Akabas in Sportico, those disclosures included his salary as a CBS NFL analyst last year.

Feely primarily worked on CBS’s sixth NFL broadcasting team alongside play-by-play announcer Tom McCarthy and analyst Ross Tucker last season. Occasionally, for some of the network’s bigger broadcasts, Feely would contribute as a special teams analyst. 2024 marked Feely’s 10th year at CBS. He began in his special teams analyst role in 2015, one year after his retirement, before taking a regular sideline reporter role in 2017.

According to the federal election documents reported on by Sportico, Feely listed his CBS earnings at $220,000 for 2024.

While announcer salaries are pretty commonly reported for the upper-echelon of talent, it is rare to get a glimpse of what the so-called “middle class” is earning. We all know that Tom Brady is making $37.5 million per year to call games at Fox. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are well into the eight-figures at ESPN, as is Tony Romo at CBS.

But Feely was more or less your run-of-the-mill sideline reporter. Sure, he had a lengthy NFL career, which sets him apart from other sideline reporters. But he’s not a household name like Brady or Romo.

And clearly, it pays to be a household name.