Salary: $5 million per year
With over a million Instagram followers and 3 Super Bowl championships, the buff Shannon Sharpe could easily replace his current TV career with one in modeling. The retired NFL wide-receiver played for the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens and went on to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011. Sharpe is another case of a retired NFL player leveraging his exposure beyond TV and building a massive social media following. He definitely knows how to play to the crowd and frequently uploads everything from funny personal videos to inspirational messages.
Sharpe retired in his prime while holding various NFL records, such as the most receptions, most receiving yards, and most receiving touchdowns. He was also the first-ever NFL player to collect over 10,000 receiving yards. His post-playing life has been fairly drama-free, except a controversy from 2010 when an alleged ex-girlfriend filed a restraining order against him. The allegations were investigated and were quickly dismissed as bogus.
Scott Van Pelt- ESPN
Salary: $1.5 million per year
Scott Van Pelt, one of the nation's favorite sportscasters on ESPN's SportsCenter, has had a long career of almost 30 years in various broadcasting jobs. Van Pelt began his sportscasting career at WTTG-TV, then moved to work at the Golf Channel and hosted some of the network's most popular shows between 1995 to 2000. His twitter profile has over 2 million followers and he has posted over 52,500 tweets during its lifetime.
Van Pelt has also appeared in a few films lately, most notably in Creed 2 as himself. He was originally born in Brookeville, Maryland, and studied radio, television, and film at the University of Maryland. He also owned his own show for a short time, called the "Scott Van Pelt Show". However, ultimately he had to leave the show in 2009 to focus on his work with ESPN and the show's name was changed to SVP & Rosillo.
Suzy Kolber - ESPN
Salary: $3 million per year
Suzy Kolber originally joined ESPN in 1993 and has been a mainstay there for the last 20+ years. Born in Philadelphia, the popular sideline reporter has a Bachelor of Arts degree in telecommunications and began her career with CBS Sports as a videotape coordinator. From there Kolber began taking freelance assignments as a reporter and producer for various media outlets, until securing a position with ESPN. She has since covered many different assignments with the network, from the NFL, to bicycle stunt events and even tennis. Her most popular gig so far is as the sideline reporter for ESPN's Monday Night Football with Michele Tafoya.
Kolber received nationwide attention during an incident that happened while she was covering a 2003 New York Jets game. During a mid-field interview with former Jets quarterback Joe Namath, the recognized retired player stated twice on live television that he wanted to kiss her. Kolber reacted in the best possible manner by responding, "Thanks, Joe. I'll take that as a huge compliment." Since then, her career has been mostly free of drama and controversy.
Hannah Storm - ESPN
Salary: $130,000 per year
Award-winning journalist, producer, director and philanthropist, Hannah Storm, is best known as ESPN's SportsCenter Face to Face Anchor. Storm joined ESPN in 2008 and has been there ever since. Her career officially began in 1989 as CNN Sports Tonight anchor and has been on the rise ever since. Storm has written 2 books to date, one about university life and the other about raising confident and successful daughters through sports. She also contributes often to various publications including Cosmopolitan, Nick Jr., Family Circle, Child, and Notre Dame Magazine.
Near the end of 2012, the anchor suffered severe burns to her chest, hands, and face from a grill explosion that occurred at her home. After just a few weeks of hiatus, she returned to co-host the Rose Parade with bandages and has since made a full recovery.
Mike Patrick - ESPN
Salary: $6.5 million per year
Just last year, 36 year ESPN broadcasting veteran Mike Patrick officially retired from broadcasting. The 74-year-old had an extensive broadcasting career that spanned over many sports and events. Patrick has contributed to the network by covering NFL games in their Sunday Night Football series for nearly 20 years, not to mention calling over 30 basketball championships over his 14 years of being the play-by-play broadcaster for Women's Final Four.
Outside of ESPN, the recently retired broadcaster did some play-by-play commentating for the Cleveland Browns pre-season football games. He currently lives in Virginia with his wife, Janet. In his final interview with ESPN, prior to leaving the network, he expressed how happy he was for the people he got to work with on-air and behind the scenes. ESPN aired a tribute, narrated by Rece David on SportsCenter to commemorate Patrick's long and important career.