Bernie Kosar

Bernie Kosar
Born	Bernard Joseph Kosar Jr. 11/25/1963
Birthplace	Youngstown, Ohio, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Football player, broadcaster, businessman
Known for	Quarterback for the Cleveland Browns; 1983 Miami Hurricanes national championship
Education	University of Miami

Bernard Joseph Kosar Jr. (born November 25, 1963) is an American former professional football player who spent twelve seasons as a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). A native of northeastern Ohio, Kosar rose to national prominence at the University of Miami, where he led the Hurricanes to a national championship as a redshirt freshman in 1983. He maneuvered through the NFL's supplemental draft in 1985 to begin his professional career with his hometown-region team, the Cleveland Browns, for whom he played from 1985 to 1993. Kosar later played for the Dallas Cowboys, with whom he won Super Bowl XXVIII as a backup, and finished his career with the Miami Dolphins from 1994 to 1996.

Over his NFL career, Kosar completed 1,994 of 3,365 pass attempts for 23,301 yards, throwing 124 touchdowns against 87 interceptions and posting a passer rating of 81.8. Following his playing days he has remained a public figure in Cleveland, working in broadcasting, business and football front-office roles. In recent years his health—particularly a 2025 liver transplant and subsequent procedures—has drawn extensive local media coverage.

Early Life

Kosar was born on November 25, 1963, in Youngstown, Ohio. He grew up in the Youngstown area and attended Boardman High School in Boardman, Ohio, where he played quarterback. His ties to the Mahoning Valley have remained a recurring element of his public life; he has continued to make appearances in the region long after his playing career, including as a featured guest at a "Champions Among Us" fundraiser in Springfield Township in 2026.

By the time he finished high school, Kosar stood 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 214 pounds—a frame well suited to the dropback passing style he would later refine in college and the pros.

Education

Kosar enrolled at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, in 1982 and played college football for the Miami Hurricanes from 1982 through 1984. He was known during his college years as much for his classroom work as for his play on the field, completing his undergraduate degree on an accelerated schedule. His early graduation became relevant to his professional career, as it allowed him to pursue entry into the NFL outside of the traditional April draft cycle.

Career

College football

After redshirting in 1982, Kosar took over as the Miami Hurricanes' starting quarterback as a redshirt freshman in 1983. That season he led the program to its first national championship, capping the year with a victory over Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. In 1984 he continued as the starter and was part of one of the most memorable regular-season games of the era, a high-scoring shootout against Boston College that ended on a last-second Hail Mary pass by the Eagles' quarterback.

Kosar left Miami after the 1984 season with two years of college eligibility remaining, having graduated early.

Entry to the NFL

Because Kosar finished his degree after the 1985 NFL Draft order had been set, he elected to enter the league through the supplemental draft rather than the regular draft, a route that allowed him to influence which team would select him. He was taken in the first round of the 1985 NFL Supplemental Draft by the Cleveland Browns, the franchise closest to his Youngstown-area home.

Cleveland Browns (1985–1993)

Kosar spent the bulk of his professional career with the Browns, for whom he played from 1985 through partway through the 1993 season. During the late 1980s he quarterbacked Cleveland to a string of playoff appearances, including multiple AFC Championship Games, contests that became defining moments of the era for the franchise's fan base.

His tenure in Cleveland ended in November 1993, when head coach Bill Belichick released him during the season. The release was a notable moment in NFL coverage of the period and remained a frequent reference point in retrospectives of both Belichick's and Kosar's careers.

Dallas Cowboys (1993)

After his release by Cleveland, Kosar signed with the Dallas Cowboys for the remainder of the 1993 season. He served as a backup to Troy Aikman and saw meaningful action when Aikman was injured during the postseason. Dallas went on to win Super Bowl XXVIII at the end of the 1993 season, making Kosar a Super Bowl champion.

Miami Dolphins (1994–1996)

Kosar signed with the Miami Dolphins in 1994, returning to South Florida where he had played college football. With Miami he served primarily as a backup to Dan Marino over three seasons. He was on the Dolphins' active roster during the November 1994 game against the New York Jets in which Marino executed the famous "fake spike" play to defeat New York, an event that ESPN later revisited at length on its 20th anniversary. Kosar retired following the 1996 season.

Career statistics

In 12 NFL seasons, Kosar completed 1,994 of 3,365 pass attempts (59.3 percent) for 23,301 yards, with 124 touchdowns and 87 interceptions, for a career passer rating of 81.8. A game-by-game log of his career is maintained by Pro-Football-Reference. His Browns-era single-game and franchise passing marks were referenced in later ESPN analyses of contemporary quarterbacks chasing similar records.

Post-playing career

After retiring as a player, Kosar moved into broadcasting and business. He has worked as a television analyst on Browns preseason and pre/post-game programming and was involved in the launch of an Arena Football League franchise in Cleveland in the late 2000s.

Kosar also pursued a range of entrepreneurial ventures over the years, some of which were affected by financial difficulties. Federal bankruptcy filings related to him have been logged in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.

In 2011, Kosar made a cameo appearance in the science fiction film I Am Number Four.

Personal Life

Kosar has been the subject of significant coverage regarding both legal and medical matters. In 2014, he pleaded to a reduced charge of reckless operation in connection with a drunken-driving case in Ohio, a development reported by USA Today.

Kosar has also spoken publicly about the long-term effects of repeated head trauma sustained during his football career and has undergone treatments aimed at addressing those effects, including a course of therapy that received attention in industry coverage of brain-trauma treatments for retired players.

In 2025, Kosar underwent a liver transplant. He has used his public platform to honor the family of his organ donor, Bryce Dunlap, a 21-year-old North Olmsted, Ohio, resident; in May 2026, on what would have been Dunlap's birthday, Kosar publicly recognized Dunlap's family. In the months following the transplant, Kosar was readmitted to the hospital for additional procedures, which he documented through social media posts shared while he was a patient.

Recognition

Kosar's status as a public figure in Cleveland sports has continued more than three decades after his arrival in the city. He has been a regular fixture at Browns alumni events and other community functions, and his presence at public gatherings is routinely covered by local media.

In June 2026 he was photographed at a Cleveland Guardians baseball game with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, an appearance that drew attention from sports outlets covering both teams.

He maintains a personal website on which his public commentary has been posted, and his identity is catalogued in the Virtual International Authority File for library and archival reference.

Legacy

Kosar's career intersects three distinct strands of football history: the Miami Hurricanes' rise to national prominence in the early 1980s, the Cleveland Browns' run of competitive teams in the latter half of that decade, and the broader story of player health that has emerged in the years since his retirement.

At Miami, Kosar was the starting quarterback for the program's breakthrough 1983 national championship, a season that helped reshape the school's football identity for the decade that followed. At Cleveland, his arrival via the 1985 supplemental draft, engineered specifically to steer him to his home-region team, is frequently cited as one of the more deliberate maneuvers by a player to choose his NFL destination, and his subsequent Browns teams of the late 1980s reached multiple AFC Championship Games.

The end of Kosar's Browns tenure—his in-season release by Belichick in 1993—remains a touchstone in the franchise's history and a recurring subject in retrospectives of Belichick's pre–New England coaching record. His subsequent Super Bowl ring with the Cowboys in the 1993 season and his role as Marino's backup during Miami's "fake spike" win over the Jets in 1994 added late-career chapters to a résumé already defined by his Cleveland years.

In retirement, Kosar's public discussion of brain trauma treatments and his 2025 liver transplant have made him part of broader public conversations about the long-term health of former NFL players and about organ donation. By repeatedly highlighting the family of his organ donor, Kosar has used his public profile to bring attention to donation programs in northeastern Ohio.

External links

• Draft Day movie clips on snip.ninja