The Bizarre Link Between Bernie Kosar and Terrelle Pryor

If the NFL rules that former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor is ineligible for a supplemental 2011 Draft, he may have former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar to blame.

Per the National Football League’s rulebook dedicated to players entering the league post-draft, it appears that Pryor’s well-documented situation may not fall within the guidelines set forth. To be considered eligible for the supplemental draft, a player is to have flunked out of school, getting kicked off of the team or graduating from school and opting to leave early are three of the items considered viable circumstances, as Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel discussed late Tuesday.  However, lost in Wetzel’s piece calling for the league to bend this very rule in Pryor’s case – allowing him to enter into the NFL – is the line item that mentions Kosar as the watershed moment in supplemental draft history.

In 1985, it was Kosar’s gaming of the then-loose system which allowed the native of Boardman, OH (about an hour-long drive east of Cleveland) to hand select the team of his choice, his hometown Cleveland Browns.  It was also in 1985 where the Minnesota Vikings and Houston Oilers agreed to a trade that would allow the Vikings to move up to the second-overall spot in the draft to hopefully select Kosar had he fallen past the woeful Buffalo Bills.  Kosar graduated from Miami a year early, ultimately avoiding the rule that was in place against underclassmen entering the draft.

The Buffalo Bills had interest in Kosar, but were forced to settle for eventual Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith. Unfortunately, Minnesota would have to settle for would-be Pro Bowl defensive end Chris Doleman fourth overall after moving out of the second spot in a deal with the Atlanta Falcons.  The latter trade would be made due to the fact that Kosar was not eligible for the actual NFL Draft as the Hurricanes product chose to delay the submission of his paperwork to enter said draft despite already having declared for it via press release – a move intentionally done to ensure he could end up a member of the Orange and Brown.

The Browns would made a trade with the Bills to get the first pick in the supplemental draft, giving them a boat load of picks in exchange, easing the pain endured by not getting to select the quarterback a few weeks earlier. It also helped that the Bills would be obtaining Jim Kelly in the not-so-distant future once the USFL would collapse.

Naturally, the Vikings and Oilers were none too pleased, threatening to sue the league if they were to let Kosar enter the league via supplemental channels.  Kosar’s camp threatened legal measures if he were forced to enter the actual draft following a delayed submission of draft-eligible paperwork.  Caught in a bind without a rulebook to fall on, then-commissioner Pete Rozelle left the decision in the hands of the much-desired quarterback.

And the rest, as they say, was history. While the loophole would be abused occasionally for the next few seasons, it would eventually be closed with rules put in place in 1990 and an additional layer in 1993 which instituted those mentioned above.

Which leads us all back to Pryor, the quarterback who many feel is to blame for the recent resignation of former Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel.  Like Kosar, Pryor was highly coveted at his previous level of play, even holding national signing day hostage, only to announce his intentions to join the Buckeyes some time later. An athletic freak, once dubbed LeBron in Cleats when the likeness was a name many in Ohio enjoyed discussing, Pryor’s on-field abilities – especially with his legs – were unmatched at the collegiate level; the anti-Kosar in this instance.

Also anti-Kosar was his perceived unwillingness to learn a more Pro-style system have cast doubt in the eyes of many as to whether Pryor can succeed at the NFL level or not.  Wetzel claims that it was not Pryor who locked out the players for the past several months. But just as there were no rules in place prior to Kosar’s journey into the league, there are specific rules in place to ensure that a player like Prior cannot game the system merely because he’s not welcomed back at his former school, a move Pryor deemed was in the “best interest of his teammates.”

What the NFL opts to do in this very instance remains to be seen.  In the situation 26 seasons ago, Kosar was a highly-touted pure passing quarterback that appeared destined for greatness due to his amazing accuracy.  Today, Pryor is a giant question mark with more teams not interested in using a future draft selection on someone who may not have a natural position on the field and could be a considerable gamble off of it.

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Image courtesy of Sports Illustrated