May 24, 2013

Wishing Bernie Kosar Well

January 28, 2011 by 24 Comments

The rumors started buzzing out of WKNR on Twitter, and Scott talked about it earlier this week.  Now Terry Pluto is speculating about possible destinations and roles in various organizations.  As we Clevelanders often do, many are figuring out what this means and how they feel about it.

How do you balance your love for a guy like Bernie and the thought that he could be joining an organization other than the Browns?  Is it a betrayal by Bernie to Cleveland?  Is it a betrayal by Mike Holmgren and the new leadership in Berea?  They already have a track record with former players after the Jim Brown situation and the Browns Ring of Honor stuff last year.  Is this starting a pattern?

In a word, no.  I can’t tell you how to think, but this is how I am thinking about it.

Bernie Kosar will forever be number 19 here in Cleveland.  He will forever be known as the player for the Cleveland Browns.  Our loyalty has been unwavering for him over the years including his somewhat tumultuous stints as color commentator for Cleveland Browns pre-season games.  It isn’t a requirement that he continues to work here in Cleveland now in order to remain an all-time Cleveland Brown.

Look at Ozzie Newsome.  In many ways as Art Modell has remained the number one target of Cleveland sports fans’ vitriol over the years, Ozzie Newsome has been spared.  Many of us wish he was in Cleveland with the real Browns, but that has less to do with his history as Ozzie Awesome on the old scoreboard at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and more to do with his tremendous track record as a personnel man in Baltimore.

Maybe the Browns, and subsequently the fans, are missing an opportunity by not employing Bernie Kosar in Berea.  If Kosar gets a job outside of Cleveland and lights the world on fire as Newsome has, I am sure we will all curse the day that Kosar wasn’t locked up long-term.  Still, jobs and life are all a matter of timing.

With Tom Heckert’s first draft in the books and as he and Holmgren prepare for their second, it hardly seems like an opportune time to shake things up yet again for Kosar.  Certainly you can’t support the Browns making a move like that because we are sentimental as fans.  In many ways, the fans mixing a player’s legacy with current team business has been harmful as the Jim Brown distraction showed a season ago.

Again, I can’t tell you how to think, but I wish Bernie Kosar well.  I don’t begrudge the current Browns for not hiring him.  I don’t begrudge Kosar for looking elsewhere as he works through his bankruptcy issues.  Bernie Kosar the player will always be a Cleveland Brown just like Ozzie Newsome.

Just as long as Kosar doesn’t decide to announce his next gig on TV with Jim Gray.

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  • Fern

    to whoever does hire him, for their sake I hope they don’t include “preseason games tv color analyst” in his job duties
    haha

  • stin4u

    This should be a non issue. Bernie doesn’t play football anymore, and he has no reason to decline a position if offered. It’s not like we’re going to love him less (we shouldn’t) or he’ll love the town less. Good luck Bernie.

  • http://www.60bpm.com/ Robbie

    @Fern — I love Bernie as a color man. So, he isn’t the smoothest or most charismatic guy, but he knows football. I love listening to him break the plays down before they happen. I’ll miss him!

  • OmegaKing

    I think people demand entirely too much loyalty in a situation like this. What’s the guy supposed to do? If offered a good position in another organization, is he supposed to wait by the phone and hope the Browns call?

  • Chuck

    I think Bernie would be a great addition as a QB coach. I mean even in his state when he calls pre-season games, he can still read a defense better than anyone. Imagine him instilling that ability into McCoy! Would be a huge mistake for Holmgren to overlook that, and let him go to someone else.

  • Corey

    Bernie and Mark favorite Cleveland Athlete’s of all time. That being said I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t want him to have a postion within the Browns as anything more then a scout. The guy couldnt even handle his own finances. Good luck Bernie

  • MallaLubba

    I loved his knowledge as a football commentator but his delivery was almost unbearable. What ever it is that takes him off that stage, I’ll welcome. Somebody tell him that you can, actually, do voice exercises.

  • The Conductor

    Bernie Kosar wants to know if the carpet matches the pubes.

    Bernie Bernie, oh, how you can throw. Super Bowl. Go BROWNS!

  • Lyon

    Like previously mentioned, I wouldn’t mind having him as QB coach. Dude could read Defenses with the best of them. Share that knowledge with Colt. Better to do that than let him make some other team better.

    But, I understand HOlmgren not wanting to force him upon the new coach.

  • The Conductor

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX7FKDI-fGQ

    i miss the 80′s.

    BERNIE BERNIE!

  • NJ

    I agree that this is a non-issue. That said, it does make me a little sad that the organization couldn’t find some place for the guy. I mean, teams seem to have more coaches than players nowadays so why not throw the guy a bone and see how he does?

  • Eric D

    Letting Bernie go to another franchise would be a HUGE mistake. Look at all the successful franchises right now. The Patriots have kept Drew Bledsoe on as an advisor, Pittsburgh has Neil O’Donnell, and New Orleans has Bobby Hebert. OBVIOUSLY KEEPING OLD QUARTERBACKS AROUND FOR NOSTALGIC REASONS IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS! NO ONE DENIES THIS!!!

  • Harv 21

    @ Eric D: note that the Steelers wisely eschewed Bubby Bristor, Bernie’s rival. The great organizations make it look so easy.

    On a related note, let’s give the devil his due: don’t remember another organization being the slightest bit interested in hiring Ozzie when he retired. There was some sarcasm when Modell moved him up to a position of real authority with the Ravens. Might be Modell’s best football-related decision. Or maybe it was just the proverbial blind pig finding the acorn.

  • subadai

    I would like to see if he can really coach. I have no doubt about his ability to read defenses. But imparting that knowledge is another thing entirely. I think it would be good to see him go somewhere else and have another organization assume that risk. If he’s successful, we can always hire him later. If we were to hire him and he fails and Holmgren had to fire him I think that NE ohio would literally explode. Boom. Blown to smithereens.

  • Mark

    Who could ever be mad at Bernie for leaving to try for a dream job? Not me.

  • MrCleaveland

    What’s all this “betrayal” talk? There is no betrayal. If the Browns don’t want Kosar, he has every right to find a job somewhere else. I hope he finds a good one.

  • http://www.clevelandfrowns.com Cleveland Frowns

    Agreed that you can’t be upset with Bernie if he decides to go in another direction, even though he doesn’t really seem to know what kind of position it is that he’s looking for.

    Still have to wonder why the Browns can’t figure out a way for him to contribute effectively. Losing Bernie would be another troubling sign that a franchise owned by an absentee anglophile continues to lose connection with the Cleveland community.

  • http://www.inktreeinc.com BomberDawg

    Cleveland Frowns is on the right track. It’s less about any sort of betrayal and more about the breakdown of the NFL’s connection to the cities their teams represent. I am just thankful that I was around when players were members of teams first and were individual players second (i.e. “he was a Brown, he was a Raider, he was a Niner” etc).

    Big thanks Bernie for being one reason I have always loved Browns football so much. Like yourself, we’re typically not the prettiest looking team on the field, but we [used to anyway] have more heart and character than any other team that would join us on the field.

    I say retire 19 before he goes. For real.

  • Reggie Ruckus

    I don’t blame Ozzie for going to Baltimore, I blame Al Lerner for partnering with that hack Policy when he should have made Newsome an offer he couldn’t refuse (an ownership stake in the team plus control of the team) to come back here and run the Browns. Lerner also listened to Policy and screwed Kosar over after Bernie helped them get the expansion franchise.

    I wonder if Bernie would be wanting to get involved with a football team fulltime if his finances hadn’t soured. I seem to remember that his business ventures were always the reason why he never wanted to get involved with coaching or the front office in the past.

    @18, I’d like to see Bernie’s number retired but I think that’s something that should only be down for hall of famers. I’d make an exception for Bernie given his contribution to the franchise but I find it inexcusable that Ozzie’s #82 is still in circulation.

  • Joe

    Good luck to Bernie…whatever he ends up doing!

  • http://www.inktreeinc.com BomberDawg

    EVERYONE sincerely needs to give Bernie this 15 minutes to watch these 2 videos. They are amazing…and show what an insane talent and Cleveland treasure this guy really is. You’ll be happy you watched these. I promise:

    Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ynbjeNaeVs&feature=related

    Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Eps_NSvXo&NR=1

    Thanks Bernie.

  • chuck r.

    I enjoy Bernie as color man, his delivery does not bother me as much as Joe Bucks melodramatic style. Now thats annoying! Good luck Bernie!

  • Fern

    I’ll add an “in my humble opinion” to comment #1… I respect those of you who could get past HOW he was speaking to actually understand WHAT he was saying, haha, I however could not

  • Mike

    Lets see….. Bernie failed at real estate in florida, before the economic down turn! Than out of the blue hes going to be a co-owner on the Cleveland Lingerie league footbal franchise which i guess went bust, because he probably forgot he was going to do that? Than he was going to replace Jim Brown, but he forgot that to. Now hes headed where? Dont ask him cause he doesnt know? He forgot what he was going to do this week let alone last week! Takin as a whole, he did his absolute best for the Browns long ago, i know, me and my dad watched every game! He took to many hits to the head and really, should be the poster child for the NFL’s head inj policy once they figure what thats going to be! QB coach….i bet one of the posters here could do a better job at that, and you could pick one of them totally by random and still have better success!