Ex-NFL QB who had 80 broken bones, is battling brain trauma and CTE: Story of Super Bowl XXVIII champion Bernie Kosar
Bernie Kosar, like many quarterbacks who've played in the NFL, has dealt with head-related injuries. The 59-year-old, who took his fair share of hits under center in 12 seasons, is now dealing with issues related to his brain.
He is fighting against Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE. It’s a brain disease connected with continued traumatic brain injuries such as concussions and frequent blows to the head.
Sportswriter Terry Pluto shared a personal conversation he had with Kosar in May. Pluto said Kosar played in a different era and the stadiums weren't what they are today in terms of the turf, explaining the trauma:
“He played in a period where a number of the stadiums had old-fashioned artificial turf. And it's almost like it was concrete, almost, with kind of a rug over it. And so when you'd hit your head on that, it would bounce off of it.
"Then there was the culture around football. ‘Ah, you got dinged in the head. You're OK.’ Bernie said he had one trainer, and all the players knew, they gave you the finger test after you got hit in the head: 'How many fingers?' They all knew the answer was always two.”
Pluto said Kosar wants everyone to know the extent of what he’s been dealing with since his NFL career ended:
“There would be nights where he would go two, three, even four nights, he just couldn't sleep. The skull was pounding, kind of lights flashing. And of course that often led to some of his friends, and even he sometimes, you try to take some sort of drugs to sleep.
"And so, he went through a period of battling all the prescription drugs. He said also he began to develop seizures, and he's had several of them. But the worst was in O'Hare Airport, and he ended up in a coma for five days.”
Pluto added that Bernie Kosar was a massive critic of the NFL's billion-dollar settlement with former players.
Kosar on those possibly with CTE: " Be willing to go to doctors"
The former NFL quarterback had a message to people who could be suffering from similar issues per Pluto:
“Bernie just really wants, first of all, people with CTE to be willing to, you know, go to doctors and be completely candid about what's going on. And he also says, 'I kind of feel like I'm in the fourth quarter of my life.'
"And a lot of the people that he played with, you know, they're dying in their 50s and early 60s, and he's had a couple of them, former players, commit suicide. He's just so grateful that the fans in Northeast Ohio just embraced him. As he said, ‘They've stuck with me through my ups and downs and everything else.’”
Bernie Kosar was sacked 279 times in the NFL, a number that doesn't factor in any other hits he took after or during plays.
Bernie Kosar and his NFL career
Kosar, who helped the Miami Hurricanes to the 1983 national championship, was taken by the Cleveland Browns No.1 in the 1985 supplemental draft. He spent almost nine seasons with the Browns, leading them to four playoff appearances.
The quarterback is third in franchise history in yards (21,904) and fourth in touchdowns (116).
Kosar was released by Cleveland almost midway through the 1993 season and was picked up by the Dallas Cowboys. He won a Super Bowl that season (with Troy Aikman as the starting quarterback).
The Ohio native spent the final three seasons of his NFL career with the Miami Dolphins.