Former Cleveland Browns quarterback and current in-house TV analyst Bernie Kosar has been reprimanded by the team for harsh comments he made about the St. Louis Rams during a preseason game.
Browns CEO Joe Banner reprimanded Bernie Kosar's "personal and unprofessional approach'' during the broadcast, reported Cleveland's Plain Dealer. Rams coach Jeff Fisher had complained and the Browns said Kosar called him personally and apologized on Sunday.
"We don't condone the personal and unprofessional approach that Bernie took with some of his comments during the broadcast Thursday night," Banner said in a statement. "We’ve spoken to Bernie, he understands that, and we would expect the situation is resolved moving forward. We’ve also reached out to the Rams organization and have shared those same sentiments."
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Fisher took offense to numerous comments Kosar made about his team, reported
ESPN.com.
"I feel bad for (the Browns) that they had someone doing the broadcast feel the need to speak that way about players, specifically on our team and coaches for that matter," Fisher complained on Saturday. "I'm just surprised that Bernie has such a lack of respect for players and this game. To be honest with you, I lost a lot of respect for him. It's highly unlikely he knew anything about our football team, but felt the need to make those comments. I don't think they were justified."
ESPN.com reported that after a broadcaster told Kosar a story during the game that St. Louis backup quarterback Kellen Clemens had recently met the Pope, Kosar said, "Bless me father for I have sinned. I have to watch him the whole fourth quarter."
Later, Kosar called the Rams' receivers "horrible." He said of Rams' receivers coach Ray Sherman, "I'm checking through the itinerary here of guys, of coaches to see who the receiver coach is, to make sure I don't know this guy because he's not doing a very good, either," according to ESPN.com.
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Cleveland Browns fans have come to Kosar's defense, saying the offending comments takes what Kosar said out of context to what was going on during the game.
"We wrote a comprehensive article transcribing what Kosar actually said, something that should have vindicated him," said Chris Pokorney of the site
DawgsbyNature.com. "Instead, the Browns' statement gives some form of validation to the disgraceful remarks resorted to by Fisher and (Sports Illustrated's Peter King). I have been behind pretty much every move that the Browns' organization has made thus far, but they really dropped the ball here."
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