1. It’s no secret that ESPN has made a big effort over the past year to avoid handing out bloated contracts.
Kenny Mayne was asked to take a 61% pay cut. MMA reporter Ariel Helwani recently left the network after his contract expired. Trey Wingo also recently departed.
Maria Taylor, who does sideline reporting for college football and studio hosting for the NBA, is currently in contract negotiations with ESPN, but this particular situation has had some interesting (and pretty public) twists and turns.
According to New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand, ESPN offered Taylor nearly $5 million per year, up from her reported salary of $1 million per year, during negotiations last year.