Bernie Kosar: Learning to Scramble

Any football fan knows that scrambling is the way a quarterback can gain more time and more opportunity. But anyone familiar with Bernie Kosar s football career knows he didn t beat you with his physical prowess. Possessing slow feet, an awkward throwing motion and unorthodox mechanics, the kid from tough, blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio did not look like a prototype NFL quarterback. How he beat you and he beat a lot of people over the course of his college and NFL career was with a savant-like level of football intelligence and an indomitable will to win. Chronicling his rise from the hard-up steel town of his birth, to prominence as the leader of the University of Miami s first national championship team, and then to glory in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, the ride was not smooth and seldom came without a high cost. Kosar s well-documented struggles came largely after his playing career ended, and the combination of physical, marital, familial, and financial issues transcended his uncanny ability to break down Xs and Os and ultimately cost him heavily. Exploring his personal battles, Learning to Scramble is an unvarnished and completely authentic account of an extremely talented man s ability to not only learn from his mistakes, but to evolve and develop new ways of approaching life. It s a distillation of what can be done with just a little more time and a little more opportunity all you can accomplish when you learn to scramble.

Born in Youngstown, Ohio and raised in suburban Boardman, Bernie attended Boardman High School, where he earned Parade Magazine All-American honors as a senior for the 1982 season. Kosar chose to play college football at the University of Miami, and started all 12 games as a freshman in 1983. He lead the Hurricanes to an 11 1 regular season and a berth in the Orange Bowl against top-ranked Nebraska. In the game, Kosar passed for 300 yards and two touchdowns, and the Hurricanes topped the Cornhuskers 31 30 for Miami s first national championship. Kosar earned Orange Bowl MVP honors for his performance. In 1984, he set Hurricane season records with 3,642 yards and 25 touchdowns, was a second-team All-American and finished fourth in Heisman Trophy voting. Kosar s career completion percentage of 62.3 percent is still a Hurricanes record. In 1985, Kosar announced that he wanted to go home to Ohio as a member of the Cleveland Browns and that he would forgo the regular NFL Draft and make himself eligible for the supplemental draft. He led the Browns to three AFC Championship games, set a league record by throwing 308 consecutive passes without an interception, and set a record for consecutive playoff games with at least three touchdown passes. He went on to play for the Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins before retiring in 1996. In 2007, he brought the Arena Football League s Gladiators to Cleveland. Currently, Bernie can be seen on WEWS's weekly show. He can also frequently be heard on WTAM's Mike Trivisonno show on Mondays at 3:35pm and Thursdays at 4:40pm