Top 10 Most Influential Personalities in Sports Media

With the sports media landscape changing more and more every day, and everything becoming more fractured and niched, the number of people who wield a considerable amount of legitimate power and influence in the sports world is dwindling. However, there are still certain sports media figures who constantly draw the attention of athletes, set the agenda for sports conversations and generate massive reaction from sports fans.

Using those criteria, and as part of Sports Illustrated’s inaugural Power List, launching Thursday, July 13, here are the top 10 most influential personalities in sports media right now. 

One note: Pat McAfee does not appear on this list because he got a separate write-up as part of SI's Top 50 Most Influential Figures in Sports.

1. Charles Barkley

How big is Barkley’s influence? LIV wanted to hire the basketball analyst to cover golf. There isn’t a sports media figure who has more power than Barkley. His words matter and make an impact with everyone across the NBA including the league office, front offices and players. His clout, however, is not just limited to the NBA. Barkley’s opinion on virtually any topic always draws interest and reaction.

2. Stephen A. Smith

ESPN has given Stephen A. a lot of power, and now he’s expanded his reach and empire by doing a lot of work outside of ESPN, including his own podcast, which is not affiliated with the network. As with Barkley, athletes and front office people pay attention to what Smith says. He drives daily conversations with First Take and draws more reaction than anyone in sports media. 

3. Big Cat and PFT

The hosts of Barstool’s enormously popular Pardon My Take not only have influence over their millions of listeners, but they’re probably the most popular sports figures with athletes across all sports. They not only get the biggest names in sports on their podcast, but athletes also want to engage and interact with the duo more than anyone else in sports media.

4. Peyton Manning

The Hall of Fame quarterback hasn’t just had success with ESPN2’s ManningCast, which he hosts with his brother, Eli; his Omaha Productions company has churned out content across all sports, making Peyton one of sport’s biggest influencers in his post-playing career. Despite having not played since 2015, Manning remains a massive figure in the NFL world.

5. Adam Schefter

Football is the most popular sport in the United States, and Schefter is the NFL’s top reporter. More than 10 million Twitter users hang on Schefter’s every word because when there’s a big NFL story, the overwhelming majority of time, it’s coming from the ESPN insider.

6. Kirk Herbstreit

Herbstreit already had the most significant voice in college football, but now he’s added the NFL to his portfolio, calling Thursday Night Football games with Al Michaels for Amazon Prime Video. He’s also been part of College GameDay, one of the greatest sports studio shows of all time, since 1996.

7. Adrian Wojnarowski

Like Schefter, Wojnarowski is the authority in his sport with six million NBA fans following the ESPN reporter for his “Woj bombs.” Actually, “fans” doesn’t even cover it. Players also pay close attention to those Woj bombs, with some even finding out they’re on the move from a Wojnarowski tweet.

8. Bill Simmons

Many people like to downplay Simmons’s influence and power, but that’s nonsense. The man behind The Ringer still has one of the most important and powerful voices in sport thanks to his enormously successful podcast. Simmons was one of the first, if not the first, sports media figure to get into the podcast game, and he’s still going strong all these years later, often landing No. 1 on Apple’s charts.

9. Jeff Passan

It seems like every single meaningful baseball story gets broken by Passan. He was also a major player in early 2022 during MLB’s lockout, with exclusive reports on negotiations between the players and owners.

10. Tom Brady

Brady hasn’t officially started his broadcasting career, but Fox is still committed to making the legendary quarterback its lead NFL analyst in 2024 despite Greg Olsen drawing rave reviews from fans and media members for his performance in that role. No matter how good Olsen is, Brady is going to get that job after this season. That’s power.