Bernie Kosar Wanted Browns to (Re-)Hire Bill Belichick in 1999

Bernie Kosar spent his first eight NFL season with the Cleveland Browns. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, he was a fan favorite, although Bill Belichick, hired in 1991, was less enamored with the immobile quarterback and eventually benched him for Vinny Testaverde in 1993, before releasing him in Week 8.

The move, coupled with Belichick's surly demeanor and mediocre record, didn't go over well with Browns' fans, and by 1995, he was out of work. But Kosar, apparently, isn't one to hold a grudge. According to The Orange and Brown Report, the former Browns quarterback wanted the organization to hire Belichick when football returned to Cleveland in 1999.

Kosar said that Friday morning while serving as a guest on "The Really Big Show" on Cleveland sports talk radio station WKNR (850-AM) with host Tony Rizzo.

"I went to Mr. (Al) Lerner and Carmen Policy in 1998 and told them when they were talking about who should be the head coach of the new franchise, that they should hire Belichick. They laughed at me. They ridiculed me," Kosar said

To be fair, getting ridiculed sounds about right. After all, Belichick didn't exactly endear himself to the fans or the organization, and more than that, he was 36-44 in five seasons, including a 5-11 effort in 1995 that got him canned.

From the perspective of 2009, it seems like a typical Brownsian oversight, but that's like suggesting that teams were stupid to pass on Tom Brady six times during the 2000 draft. Of course, that still doesn't excuse the Chris Palmer hiring, or the decision to go with Butch Davis two years later.

If it's any consolation, Belichick probably would have re-flopped in Cleveland and he'd now be a special teams coach somewhere. Or maybe we'd be talking about the Browns in the same way we talk about the three-time Super Bowl champion Patriots right now. That's a sobering thought if you're a woebegone Browns fan.