Browns icon Bernie Kosar opens up on battling Parkinson's disease and liver failure - "Felt like death"

Bernie Kosar is one of the longer-tenured quarterbacks in the history of the Cleveland Browns. From 1985 to 1993, he was the face of the franchise, leading them to the playoffs in five straight seasons and taking them to the AFC Championship game thrice.

However, 28 years after he played his final snap, the one-time Pro Bowl quarterback has been fighting a more important battle: the one for his life. Speaking to Cleveland Magazine on Tuesday, Kosar recounted his struggles with liver failure/cirrhosis, which first emanated after he attented the Browns' playoff-clinching defeat of the New York Jets in December:

“My body gave out on me. I really felt like I wasn’t going to make it home. I s**ked it up, though, and continued to avoid the doctors until the new year.

"Then I went into the hospital and got a massive blood transfusion.It was like: ‘How are you alive? How are you moving? Because your hemoglobin levels are so low.’’

He fell seriously ill again while he was travelling to Las Vegas for Super Bowl LVIII. Around the same time, he was also found to have Parkinson's disease. Kosar was eventually flown back to Ohio in March and spent that month in and out of hospital, at one point even looking very different from usual:

“I wish you could have seen me three months ago. Actually, maybe not, because I looked like death. I felt like death.’’

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Bernie Kosar's doctors say Browns legend's health has been improving as liver transplant looms

The good news about Bernie Kosar is that, after what seemed to be a near-death experience, he has recovered rather qulckly. Anthony Post, a hepatologist at the University Hospitals leveland Medical Center who has been leading his treatment, is cautiously optimistic:

“Liver disease does tend to fluctuate. So he's on that wave thing where it goes up and down. He's in a good phase right now, but anything bad could happen.”

Another of his doctors, the Cleveland Clinic's Michael Roizen, says a liver transplant is at least 90% necessary, even if the subject has to suffer for it:

“He is a wonderful and tough human being. but undergoing a transplant, no matter who you are, is a difficult thing: difficult to get the transplant, difficult to live with it.’’

Bernie Kosar has been dealing with various health issues stemming from concussion sustained during his playing career. He once enrolled in a therapy program and has recommended it to other players.