CLEVELAND, Ohio — After wrapping up practice on Friday, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski visited Bernie Kosar at University Hospitals, where he’s recovering from a liver transplant.
Kosar, who had the transplant on Monday morning, posted a photo of himself on X standing next to Stefanski in his hospital room, in street clothes and no longer attached to all the tubes and wires.
“Coach Kevin visited me today, and even from this hospital bed, I felt the whole Dawg Pound cheering me on,” Kosar captioned his post.
The visit came just four days after Stefanski revealed that he corresponded with Kosar the night before the transplant to wish him well.
“I just want to let everybody know we’re thinking about Bernie as he’s going through his medical situation here,” Stefanski said on a video conference Monday. “I was able to text with him last night and he knows that we’re with him and he’s with us. So just sending all the good vibes, good thoughts I can to Bernie right now.”
Stefanski also made it known just how much Kosar has meant to him and his family over the year.
“Bernie’s my guy,” he said. “I know that this town has such a special relationship with Bernie from his playing days and then the impact that he’s had on this community over the course of all these years. I didn’t have that experience with Bernie prior to coming here, but since I’ve been here, he has just been such a supportive person of me, so kind to my family. I think he sees my family every game day and just is so good to them. So he’s a special, special person. He’s a special Cleveland Brown, and we are all rooting for him and we are all right there with him right now.”
Kosar, 61, told cleveland.com’s Terry Pluto that it was a matter of life or death before he had the transplant, including multiple surgeries to stem internal bleeding.
“It was bad,” he said. “But I never believed I’d pass. I just didn’t. I was praying. I felt God’s presence. Lots of people were praying for me …I felt God wasn’t done with me yet. I just felt it.”
He thanked the Browns for helping to save his life, especially Jimmy and Dee Haslam, their daughter Whitney, and her husband JW Johnson, who are also part of the ownership group.
“They really stepped up,” he said. “The Browns have paid my insurance all these years. I took that for granted. They didn’t have to do that. The Haslam and Johnson families … my medical bills have been millions and millions … they have been there for me. I’m telling you, I would not be alive without them.”
He said he wants to help others heal like he has.
“There are things we can do to make ourselves better. I think of all the head injuries I’ve had … all the pain. But I got through it and now this … here I am.”
Kosar has asked for prayers and support for the family of the late Bryce Dunlap, 21, who donated the liver. A devoted Browns fan, he died earlier this week after a medical emergency
Thanks to Dunlap and others, Kosar, who will turn 62 on Wednesday, has more than most to be grateful for this Thanksgiving holiday.
“This is the first day of the rest of my life,” he said.
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