ESPN recently offered commentator Stephen A. Smith a hefty $90 million deal for five years to stay with the network after his current contract runs out in 2025.
And it’s almost assuredly not going to be enough to keep him around.
While the negotiations are at an early stage in the process, the network is nowhere near the mark that Smith expressed as his asking number, according to Puck News.
The current offer equates to roughly $18 million per season but the report suggests Stephen A is looking for a whopping $25 million per season.
Which is an incredible amount of money for a personality who, at least in my circle of sports fans, has never generated the following comment on a significant story: ‘Hey, I wonder what Stephen A. Smith’s take is on this.’
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Stephen A. Smith And ESPN World’s Apart
Journalist James Andrew Miller, in an appearance recently on the “SI Media with Jimmy Traina” podcast, said Stephen A. Smith is demanding a huge number from ESPN.
“He’s looking for a big, big number,” Miller said. “And I also feel, given the content world, he doesn’t even have to have another offer from one entity for that big number.”
The belief is Smith has enough content and interest from outside sources that he could easily coax ESPN into getting what he wants.
A cynic though, might suggest that ESPN’s number is so low that it could be viewed as an insult.
The Question Is – Why?
Stephen A. Smith is an entertaining addition to the ESPN commentary lineup, but he’s just that – entertainment. He is a character actor with a gimmick, much like a WWE superstar. What he adds to the sports analysis game is very little.
He is, as the New York Post’s Phil Mushnick writes, “a stereotypical holy-rolling preacher man but with conspicuous grammatical deficiencies.”
But hey man, that character is going to pay off to the tune of about $25 million/year, isn’t it?
Stephen A. Smith matches the direction that ESPN has decided to take in recent years, especially with his social commentary. It’s exactly the kind of content the network that once focused on sports wants to see.
But the ‘mother ship’ is about to fork over around $125 million and make Smith the highest-paid analyst out there. A guy who thinks you can try a field goal on third down and get a do-over if you miss.
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