Salary: $2.3 million per year
The play-by-play broadcaster of Monday Night Football and co-analyst with Booger McFarland, Joe Tessitore is an accomplished sports broadcaster and was a finalist twice for Sports Illustrated’s Sports Media Person of the Year entry. Tessitore’s announcing style has been a fan favorite over the years and has captivated audiences since early in his career. His signature charisma and commentary style have often been dubbed “the Tess Effect” for causing big movements in the social media landscape whenever he announces a game.
Born in Schenectady, New York in 1971, he began his career as a sports anchor fairly early at just 23 years old when he became a sports broadcaster for KXAS-TV in 1994. Since then, he became a boxing announcer on ESPN during Tuesday and Friday Night Fights, and would also go on to appear in college football and college basketball games. Tessitore has also produced various documentaries for ESPN’s 30 for 30 show, and took the role of executive producer for the ESPN critically acclaimed film “Roll Tide, War Eagle”.
Ernie Johnson, Jr. - CBS, Turner Sports
Salary: $300,000 per year
If you've been watching MLB on TBS or Inside the NBA on TNT, you've most likely had a chance to listen to the commentary of Ernie Johnson Jr. The 3 time Emmy Award-winning sportscaster and father of 6 recently wrote the fantastic autobiography: "Unscripted: The Unpredictable Moments That Make Life Extraordinary". In the book, Johnson tells his life story and provides many lessons and inspiring tales, including his fight with cancer.
Johnson is also the recipient of the first-ever John Wooden Keys to Life Award and the Musial Award. He currently lives with his wife Cheryl in Braselton, Georgia with their 6 children. By the way, 4 of his kids are adopted. You can enjoy Johnson’s commentary in the popular video-games NBA Live 98, and annually in NBA 2K15, and every year since, all the way through NBA 2K19.
Dan Patrick - NBC Sports
Salary: $5.5 million per year
Famous radio host, actor, and sportscaster Dan Patrick has been a favorite in the public ear for the last 40 years. He worked at ESPN from 1989 to 2006 as an anchor, while also hosting The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN Radio from 1,999 to 2007. During a 2007 episode of his radio show, Patrick announced he would be leaving ESPN to go on his own and be a free agent, claiming that he was starting to take his job at ESPN for granted. Since then, the successful media personality joined NBC Sports as co-host of Football Night in America and stayed with the network until 2018 after turning down a contract he was offered.
Patrick met his wife while working at CNN, and was inducted into the Mason High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000. He also went on to make many appearances on film and television thanks to his friendship with actor Adam Sandler, and even appeared in music videos twice.
Kenny Albert - Fox
Salary: $500,000 per year
Kenny Albert comes from a long line of sportscasters, including Mark, Al and Steve Albert. Since his career first began in 1990, the successful American sportscaster is the only one in history that has done play-by-play commentary for all 4 major professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL). He was born in New York in 1968 and was exposed to sports from a very young age. By age 22, Albert had already graduated from New York University with a degree in broadcasting and journalism and had already done various jobs relating to sports including becoming the official statistician for the Rangers on the radio.
Albert has had a fairly regular career and has managed to stay away from any controversies or drama. He was nominated in 2016 for the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Media Personality. One of his most noteworthy achievements is calling the play by play of 4 different sports in 4 days. The accomplished play-by-play commentator currently resides in New Jersey with his wife Barbara and 2 daughters.
Bill Walton - ESPN
Salary: $5 million per year
With over 100,000 Twitter followers, Bill Walton is still very much an active participant in the NBA scene at age 66. The retired NBA player had a legendary career back in his day, with an NBA Most Valuable Player pick and two NBA Championships, he was an obvious inductee for the Basketball Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Walton had to retire in the late '80s due to repeated sports injuries. In his NBA career, he played a total of 90 games for the Celtics with an average of 55% shooting rate and a total of 468 games in his entire career.
Walton began working for CBS, NBC, and ESPN as a broadcaster, it wasn't easy though. He reported having suffered a serious stuttering issue when he was just 28 years old and had to overcome it before being able to get paid for his voice rather than his skills on the court. In 2003, he debuted his own show called "Bill Walton's Long Strange Trip" on ESPN. Walton also became acclaimed as a broadcaster and received an Emmy Award for "Best Live Sports Television Broadcast" and the CoSIDA Dick Enberg Award. In 2016, he released a memoir of his life called "Back from the Dead: Searching for the Sound, Shining the Light and Throwing It Down". The book was a New York Times bestseller for 2 weeks. He also appeared briefly in the popular film "Ghostbusters" and various NBA video games.