Michael Smith has been in what The New York Post’s Andrew Marchand described as “gold-plated purgatory” since his and Jemele Hill’s take on the 6 pm SportsCenter ended in late 2017.
Hill moved on from ESPN after a series of head butts with the company over her political commentary. Marchand reports that Smith, who elected to stay in Bristol, is spending the last two years of his contract largely outside of public view.
Smith can be seen filling in on a number of ESPN’s afternoon shows including Around the Horn and Highly Questionable from time to time, but outside of a Sunday afternoon radio show, he has no regular duties.
When SC6 ended, Smith was offered a package of fill-in work and NFL reporting jobs by the network. Marchand reports that because Michael Smith was under contract specifically to host SportsCenter, he had the right to refuse those assignments and did.
Both ESPN brass and Smith himself declined to comment for Marchand’s story.
There are still 2 years left on Smith’s contract, which pays him $2.5 million annually. He first joined the network in 2004 as an NFL insider.
