Kosar: Don’t expose McCoy to Steelers

By STEVE DOERSCHUK

The Canton Repository

CANTON

Time flies. Bernie Kosar blew through Stark County on Monday a few days after the 25th anniversary of his first game as a Cleveland Brown.

On Oct. 6, 1985, Kosar trotted onto the grass at Municipal Stadium as a 21-year-old injury replacement.

Times were bad. The stadium held 80,000 but only 62,139 were there for Browns-Patriots game.

Three of the previous four years brought losing records. No one was captivated by Gary Danielson, the quarterback Kosar replaced.

Kosar smiles about the anniversary as the latest rookie quarterback, Colt McCoy, prepares — amid an injury mess — for what could be his first game as a Brown.

“I wasn’t supposed to play in my first year, either,” Kosar told the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club. “In a perfect world, you sit out the first year, learn, evolve and get ready for the second year when hopefully you understand the game.

“But the game is so violent ...”

Kosar relieved an injured Danielson in the second quarter of his first game. He went 9 of 15 for 104 yards. He threw a pick, but the Browns won.

“Then we had to go to Houston to face Jerry Glanville’s blitzing Oilers,” Kosar said.

Kosar somehow milked 208 yards out of just eight completions. But the Browns won again. The gangly kid from Boardman was a hot ticket just like that. The next home game, against the Raiders, drew 77,928.

The Browns somehow made the 1985 playoffs, partly because running backs Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner each rushed for more than 1,000 yards.

Kosar watched Sunday’s Atlanta-Cleveland game in a booth with Mack. Quarterbacks Seneca Wallace and Jake Delhomme both left the game with ankle issues that might knock them out of Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh.

The only options might be to play McCoy or fourth-year pro Brett Ratliff, who was signed off New England’s practice squad Monday.

“I think Colt is a solid to a good quarterback,” he said. “But right now, we’re victims or beneficiaries of the guys around us. Right now, I’m not sure we have the pieces to help complement any quarterback, let alone a rookie quarterback.”

McCoy was 45-8 as a Texas Longhorn and 34-2 for his Texas high school. The team that drafted him in Round 3 is 10-28 since 2008.

Kosar’s advice on the rookie?

“Do you want to put Colt McCoy, in his first game, at Pittsburgh ... No. 1 defense, Troy Polamalu ... and the way they’re playing, and the way we’re struggling and ... Peyton Hillis may not be able to play.”