Bernie Kosar

This guy had a beautiful head of hair

If Bernie Kosar were an actor, he would be Billy Zane. Almost everyone knows who he is and the team he became a star with (similar to Billy Zane’s roles in “Titanic” and “The Phantom”), but Bernie Kosar is equally as mediocre a quarterback as Zane is an actor. They both had some bright spots early on in their careers, but quickly faded from the spot light only to become small footnotes in the annals of mediocre entertainment.

Kosar made headlines as the starting quarterback for the University of Miami Hurricanes. Though redshirted as a freshman in 1982, Kosar would go on to have an historic and storied college football career. In 1983, Kosar led his team to a 11-1 finish and an appearance in the Orange Bowl against powerhouse Nebraska. Behind Kosar’s precision accuracy, the Hurricanes went on to defeat the heavily favored Cornhuskers en route to U of M’s first national championship.

The following season, Kosar was on the losing end of one of the most memorable moments in college sports history: the “Hail Flutie.” This game is recognized as the game in which Doug Flutie famously scrambles out of the pocket and hurls a bomb into the endzone in the closing seconds of a close game with Miami. Boston College won the game 47-45. This was one of many painful moments to come in the life of Bernie Kosar.

Determined to play in his home state of Ohio, Bernie Kosar was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 1985 draft. Although criticized for being painfully unathletic and once being described as “famously immobile,” Kosar was nevertheless an accurate passer and was widely regarded as one of the most intelligent quarterbacks of all-time. He had an “unwieldy” and awkward side-arm throw that made the ball appear like a wounded duck flying through the air. But his passes got to where they needed to and that was good enough for the Cleveland Browns.

In his rookie year, Kosar was thrust to the helm of Cleveland’s rushing-oriented offense when starter, Gary Danielson (who?), went down to a shoulder injury. Completing only 50% of his passes for 1,578 yards, 8 tds and 7 picks, Kosar led the Browns to a 4-6 record in 10 starts, but managed to sneak into the playoffs with an 8-8 record. Kosar must have really eaten his Wheaties the day of his first career NFL playoff game as he went 10 of 19 for 66 yards with a touchdown toss and a pick (wow). The Browns would lose the game 21-24 to Dan Marino’s Miami Dolphins.

Encouraged by Kosar’s strong play at qb, legendary coach Marty Schottenheimer retooled his offense in the off-season, naming Kosar as the permanent starter and making his offense more pass-oriented in light of Bernie’s tremendous accuracy and decision making ability. Under the tutelage of Schottenheimer’s offensive genius, Kosar threw for a career high in both yards (3,854) and completions (310) that season. Coupled with 17 touchdowns and a league best 1.9% interception rate (he threw only 10 picks in 531 attempts), the Browns finished as the best team in the AFC with a 12-4 record. In the divisional playoffs against the New York Jets, Kosar threw for a NFL playoff-record 489 yards in leading the Browns to a dramatic 23–20 comeback victory in double overtime (BIG). The only thing that kept the Browns out of the Superbowl that year was John Elway’s 98-yard game tie-ing drive in the final seconds of the 1986 NFC championship game.

The Browns would return to the playoffs the following season as Bernie Kosar had a career year in which he was selected to his first and only pro-bowl. That season, Kosar threw for 3,033 yards, a career high 22 touchdowns with only 9 picks and a passer rating of 95.4 in only 12 starts. Kosar led the Browns to a deja-vu NFC championship game against the Denver Broncos. Sadly, the Browns would fall once again to the late game heroics of John Elway.

After being sidelined by injuries for most of 1988 Kosar had another career year in 1989. Kosar threw for 3,533 yards, 18 scores and 14 picks en route to the Browns 3rd NFC title game appearance in 4 years, though Cleveland would lose once more to Denver.

After that, Bernie Kosar did not have another winning season as a starter for the rest of his career. He did, however, win a superbowl with the Dallas Cowboys in 1993. Following his release from the Cowboys, Kosar lived out his days as a backup to Dan Marino in Miami.

The most significant thing about Bernie Kosar as an NFL quarterback is his league record of throwing 308 consecutive passes without an interception. He set this record over the course of two seasons (1990-1991) and still stands to this day.

With career totals of 23,301 passing yards, 124 touchdowns, 87 picks and 1,994 completions, Kosar’s numbers are decent given the fact that he only was a starting quarterback for 7 seasons. If he had managed to stay healthy and compete at a high level, there is no telling what BK could have accomplished. He was a really good quarterback early in his career, but burned out when he should have hit his prime.