Salary: $16 million per year
Richard John Vitale, also known as Dick Vitale, is the popular and intense college basketball ESPN broadcaster who’s known for his awesome catchphrases and passionate remarks. Before his career as sportscaster began, Vitale was known to basketball fans all across the nation as a fantastic head coach for both high-school, college and NBA teams. He was inducted in 2008 into the Basketball Hall of Fame and even had a basketball court named in his honor. Vitale is a strong supporter of the V Foundation, which is a charity that mostly focuses on funding cancer research.
The accomplished head-coach and broadcaster also has massive popular appeal and used his likeability to appear in everything from video-games, food commercials and various films and TV shows – mostly playing himself in a variety of self-aware roles. Vitale also released an autobiography in 2004 and has since written 9 books in total. He also claims to have received the Sports Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award and uses his famous “this is awesome, baby!” catchphrase in everything from book promotions to the headline of his website.
Boomer Esiason - CBS
Salary: $1 million per year
Considered by many to be one of the most successful NFL players of all time, Norman Julius Esiason, also known as "Boomer" was a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, the New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, and returned in his last year to the Cincinnati Bengals again. He was 4 times Pro Bowl champion in 1988's AFC Player of the Year. Boomer's quarterbacking career has been one of the most successful in history, and he had broken various records by the time he retired. Football Nation ranked Boomer as the 25th greatest quarterback of all time.
After retiring from his career with the NFL, Boomer went on to appear in various commercials and even a few TV shows and films. He also became a part-time color analyst for USA Network while playing, and then transitioned into full-time broadcasting for ABC's Monday Night Football. He claims to be a big fan of ice hockey and plays up to 70 hockey games every year. In 1993, his son Gunnar was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, and since then he has founded The Boomer Esiason Foundation in order to help fund research for a cystic fibrosis cure.
Tiffany Cherry - Sky News Australia
Salary: $500,000 per year
The beautiful and inspirational Australian sports broadcaster Tiffany Cherry is best known as the AFL's first female boundary ride on Fox Booty and the host of various Olympic Games including the 2010 winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. She is active on social media and her Instagram is a wonderful collection of family photos and inspirational sports events. Cherry made her television debut as a reporter in Seven Network's Talking Footy show.
She hosts the Sportswomen Australia weekly podcast and her aim is to inspire women and create an equal playing field in sports. Cherry also created and produced the first all-female sports radio show in Australia named "The Hen House".
Ryan Ruocco - ESPN
Salary: $2 million per year
The ESPN, Yes Network and DAZN Emmy award-winning sportscaster, Ryan Ruocco is a relatively new figure in the sports arena. His career began in 2006 as lead play-by-play broadcaster for the YES Network and he has since managed to accrue 6 Emmy Award nominations and a Marty Glickman Award in 2018. As part of the younger generation of sportscasters, Ruocco has an active social media profile and often uses Twitter to publish commentary on NBA games. He is currently co-hosting the Uninterrupted's R2C2 podcast with Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia.
At just 32 years of age, the young sportscaster seems to have a long career ahead of him and is already considered a rising star by the various sports networks. In a recent interview, Ruocco described his career as a "dream come true" as things are definitely accelerating and getting better by the year for this young broadcaster.
Mike Fratello - NBA TV, TNT
Salary: $300,000 per year
Former NBA basketball coach Mike Fratello, also known as "The Czar", is currently known as a studio analyst for NBA TV and often appears in TNT as a commentator. He was awarded Coach of the Month and Coach of the Year on multiple occasions and has a head coaching record of 667-548 and a 54% winning percentage. This puts Fratello in the top 20 NBA all-time regular sessions wins list.
In his personal life, Fratello is involved with various charities including his "Friends of Fratello Foundation". He is also a member of the Orthopedic Council at the Cleveland Clinic. He claims to be a wine enthusiast and even has 2 wine labels named "Fratello di Sangue" and "Fratelli". Originally from New Jersey, Fratello is married to Susan Fratello and they have a son and daughter.