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Growing up in Cleveland in the 1980’s, Bernie Kosar was my hero. He was everybody’s hero. Bernie was the thinking man’s Quarterback. His decisions were decisive; his accuracy, pinpoint. He didn’t have the cannon of Dan Marino or the escapability of his nemesis John Elway, but Bernie had the superior intangibles that helped him reach the top tier of quarterbacks in his prime. From 1985, when he took over for the injured Gary Danielson, through 1989, Bernie was “it.” And he was ours.
I still maintain that the downfall of career came on Opening Day of the 1988 season in Kansas City. Chiefs defensive back Lloyd Burress came on a blitz and hit Bernie under his shoulder just as he was letting go of a big throw. I can remember the play so vividly. From that point on, Kosar was never the same. He would go on to start just nine games that season. The Browns actually used four different starters and still finished 10-6, ultimately making the playoffs. Imagine that in today’s NFL. By 1993, Bernie looked like a shell of his former self and then coach Bill Belichick made one of the most controversial moves in Browns history, releasing Kosar mid-season, citing his “diminishing skills.”
Throughout it all, there was nobody in town more popular than Bernie. Here was the kid from Boardman, Ohio who entered the NFL as a 21-year old who wanted to play in Cleveland more than anywhere else. Heck, he had just spent his college days in Miami, but home is where Kosar wanted to be. All he did was lead the Browns to the AFC Championship game three times in four years, starting at age 23. His best games were on the biggest stages. We all knew the words to “Bernie Bernie.”
Last night, I was fortunate enough to be in attendance at the annual Greater Cleveland Sports Awards, which was hosted by ESPN’s Cris Carter. Award winners included former Walsh Jesuit and now Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook (Collegiate athlete of the year), Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon (Professional athlete of the year), future Buckeye and current St. Vincent/St. Mary linebacker Dante Booker (High school athlete of the year) among others. But the biggest award of the night was the Lifetime Achievement Award. Winners of this award in the past have included legendary Cavs play-by-play man Joe Tait, Browns offensive lineman and analyst Doug Dieken, St.Ignatius football coach Chuck Kyle, and “Mr. Cavalier” Austin Carr. This year’s recipient was none other than Bernie Kosar, “The Lord” as he has been referred to around town.
The guy hasn’t played a snap here in Cleveland in over 20 years and he is still arguably the city’s most popular athlete. Kosar also has his demons, which have been well documented, but nevertheless, he is still “Bernie” and everyone loves him.
My table at the awards dinner was right next to the stage. As Bernie walked up and took the microphone, I was literally right there with my boyhood hero. I was so close I could have reached out and grabbed his leg on the raised stage—10-year-old me would have been so jealous. Then came his speech.
It started off well enough as Bernie recounted just how close he and his teammates were during the salad days of 1986 and 1987. He talked about how he is just as close to those guys now as he was then. You could feel the sincerity and the bond he shares with both his teammates and this city. He could have and should have probably stopped right there. But he didn’t.
Bernie began rambling on different tangents, never seemingly coming up for air. He would go from one thing to another, meshing them all together and nothing really seemed to make all that much sense. The longer it went, the more the room grew restless. You could sense it in the crowd. At first, you thought it was just “Bernie being Bernie” and it was kind of funny. But the longer it went, the worse it got.
Here I was, five feet from the guy I thought was the greatest thing on earth when I was a kid, and I could barely even look at him. It just wasn’t funny anymore. It was sad. All of those hits and the clear, hard living he has struggled with since his playing days ended have taken its toll on Kosar. I wouldn’t quite say he is a cautionary tale, but the guy who was the smartest man in the huddle—and in the locker room—is clearly now a shell of himself. I hate to keep coming back to the same word, but the whole thing was just sad to me. Bernie’s speech actually put a damper on what was a great evening.
Luckily, the night was brought back up when the final award of the night was given out as a video montage of Jason Giambi’s dramatic walk-off home run against the Chicago White Sox in late September. Tribe President Mark Shapiro accepted the award. I could watch that blast on a continuous loop all day and still never get tired of seeing it.
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(Author’s note: Thanks again to the folks at Associated Estates for including me as they do every year and a big thanks to David Gilbert and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission for all the work they do for the city. Once again, they put on an incredible event. The image above is via John Kuntz at The Cleveland Plain Dealer.)
28 Comments
Poignant article, TD. Nicely done.
Were Haslam and Banner there?
Sadly, he’s an example of what multiple head shots and alcoholism can do to a person. It doesn’t diminish his accomplishments or who he is as a person, but just goes to show that there are physical limitations to what the human body can endure.
“From that point on, Kosar was never the same.”
I always thought that injury ended his career as well. I also thought the demeaning way Belichick dumped him, the guy that had led Cleveland to its best run since the Paul Brown era, was disgraceful.
It is really sad to see such a bright and accomplished guy wind up having as much difficulties as Bernie has had since leaving football. It seems like it would have been so easy to have been a better story.
Add to that list the psychological effect of being walked all over by people you thought you could trust.
Great read.
I was listened to it on 1100.
Needed to be done but felt bad when they cued the music.
Great read.
I listened to it on 1100.
Needed to be done but felt bad when they cued the music.
I remember a quote from Joe Montana when both Bernie and he were playing. Montana said that Bernie was by far the most intelligent qb in the league. Also, we forget that Bernie still holds the post season record for most yards passing at 500+. My other vivid memory is that he had the best touch on the deep pass of any qb I have ever seen. He many not have had the cannon some had, but the ball was so catchable, it just seemed to drop out of the sky into the hands of the wr. Until he got hurt in the KC game already mentioned, his career was on a path to the hall of fame. It is truly a tragedy that things took of turn for the wors in more ways than one.
Here’s the video piece on Giambi’s Walk-Off! We can’t get enough of it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIkk0Z1h8Q
I’m not usually one for TD Dery’s nostalgic stories but I’ll always be a Bernie Kosar fan, always. Bernie’s had more then a few issues unfortunately which has made him an easy target for some people but I don’t care. I’ll always remember him fondly for his ability to find a way to make a pass regardless of how ugly it was and his leadership. Most of all I’ll always remember how a kid from Boardman, Ohio said he wanted to play for the Cleveland Browns and not only did he do it but he did it well. It may have never had the perfect storybook ending but it happens, it’s life.
Nice job TD Dery!
I was in the hospital coincidentally Ozzie Newsome called me on the phone that week. Someone at the hospital saw how much of a Browns fan I was and somehow arranged it. I’ll always remember that and the game verse the Jets. Or what would eventually follow.
Hammy is just the best. I love how they cut from Underwood for the real call to end the game. Can’t wait for baseball now
Nice write up on a harsh reality that I think a lot of Browns fans don’t want to admit; that Bernie should not be anywhere near coaching that team in any capacity.
I remember that play and that game like it was yesterday. I also recall him gutting it out that season with all sorts of contraptions on his throwing hand trying to come back early and still having moderate success. Was surprised to see that he was here for a full 5 years before being released. Strangely I can’t recall much about those years at all…it’s like the music stopped.
He and Mark Price are all time favorites in a way that I can’t imagine happening again. Of course I’m older and more jaded now and the boyish idea of placing athletes on mantles has long since passed. Wonder if my 4 yr old will ever have a local hero without factoring in max contract extensions, FA and Cleveland market inequities. Listening to Bernie these days makes me think maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Gotta admit, though, Underwood’s final comment in that clip was also pretty good.
Outstanding. Thanks for sharing it.
Agreed.
And also agree with Eric that after watching that; pitchers and catchers can’t report soon enough.
Bernie has earned the right to ramble on. part of growing up is learning that your idols are human. the author should apologize for this hatchet job of an article. if he was a commenter below then craig would ban him
and talk about fantasy land…if giambi could do better than being an easy out in more than 91% of his at bats then the Indians win the division and don’t need that one-shining-moment from him.
Welcome back Ori
not sure who Ori is but im about to be banned. who is ori?
So Awesome. To quote Bart Scott… “Caaaan’t Wait!” Tribe’s on a Warpath.
Yeah, probably not. Dude just turned 43 and his WAR last year was technically -0.5. You add that in with the Tigers clinching with 3 games to go and it really doesn’t matter. Also, the leadership he brought to that clubhouse and the player-coaching he did probably added about 5 wins to that team. I would really love to see him be a player-coach next year. If you want to complain about a player being the reason we didn’t win the division please address the seasons of Cabrera and Bourn.
I look back at my Cleveland sports team fandom and sometimes ask myself why I allow myself to get so emotionally attached.
I always think, what if I just give up on the Browns? I bought that Vikings Cris Carter jersey when the Browns left for Baltimore. I’ve never officially been to Minnesota besides connecting in the airport. My buddy is a Vikes fan. Skol Vikings?
Do I really need to read the Cavs box score when they get blown out by 44 by the hands of the worst team in the league not named the Cavaliers. Do I really have confidence in Grimace coaching my favorite team AGAIN? I live in Atlanta now. The Hawks fan support is terrible, but Phillips arena is pretty nice. They’re never the best in the East, but they always seem to be in the top 5 no matter what their roster looks like. Plus I once made a program on my TI-82 calculator in my Graphics Calculator class in High School with their GM shooting 3’s. “Ferry for Threeeee.”
Then I think about growing up in Youngstown in the 80’s and given the choice, Steelers or Browns. My grandpa was from Pittsburgh and was a die hard Steelers fan. He had the Vindicator cover of the We Are Family 1979 World Champion Pirates right next to the pool cue rack in his basement. He also a poster of The Pride of Youngstown Ray Boom Boom Mancini. The Pride of Youngstown that is, up until Bernie was drafted by the Browns. It was a match made in heaven. I’ve always had a good memory, being able to remember parts of my childhood very vividly as young as two. Going through the Drive and the Fumble at five and six years old was terrible for a little kid, but we had Bernie and we had hope (and next year). I guess it’s in my blood. Thanks Bernie for being you and ingraining such a persistent optimism with my home town teams. I secretly hate you.
“It was sad”
Why we have to be careful when anointing the heroes of our youth. Some might become Bernie.
In all fairness I’m sure we could have all picked someone that has done way worse than Bernie! I’m sure that this is more of a repetitive concussion trauma than an alcohol problem!
The problem is that instead of helping Bernie get the help he needed, we let it go, because Bernie was our “hero”.
I also worshiped Bernie but never understood the constant, kneejerk drumbeat to bring him back to Berea in a real football capacity. Even before it became clear in the last few years that his mind is addled, teaching players is different from playing or broadcast commentary.
Count me as one who agrees that the elbow hit did a ton of damage to the player. Accorsi kept trying to plug the aging line with nobodies rather than high draft choices and Bernie was starting to get whalloped a lot, but when he came back from that particular hit he started doing a chuck and duck thing, like the arm hurt and he didn’t want to get hit there again.
sigh. I avoided this article for as long as I could but had to read it. well done, but all it does is remind me how short even the good era of the 80s truly was for both Bernie’s Browns and also Daugherty’s Cavs teams. Sigh.