Kosar Lobbied For A Belichick Return In 1999

As if the first decade of the reconstituted Browns hasn’t been sufficiently disappointed, former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar recently offered up a nugget that will make fans of the team feel even more miserable about the fortunes of the franchise. “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 [Bill] Belichick. They laughed at me. They ridiculed me,” Kosar told Tony Rizzo of WKNR on Friday morning, per the Orange & Brown Report. Belichick coached the prior incarnation of the Browns to a 37-45 record from 1991 through 1995, before being fired. A year after he was recommended to be the coach of the new Browns, Belichick became head coach of the Patriots. Though it would be unrealistic to assume that the new Browns would have won three Super Bowls in four years under Belichick, it’s fairly safe to say they would have mustered more than one playoff game in ten.