Bernie Kosar, Awaiting a Liver Transplant, Faces Dire Medical Situation

Bernie Kosar is looking for a hail mary. 

Since August, the former Browns quarterback has been waiting for a liver transplant. On Nov. 12, he shared on X that he was supposed to receive one over the weekend, but the surgery was delayed because the organ was “infected again.” In subsequent posts, the 61-year-old says he’s had five "aggressive procedures” to help stop internal bleeding. As of Nov. 15, he remains at University Hospitals, where he said doctors had “kind of stopped the bleeding” but that he “really still needed that liver.”

“I’m really trying to stay positive,” he said in a video. “[I know] that so many people love, support and are caring and want to help.” 

In July 2024, he shared exclusively with Cleveland Magazine that he needed a liver transplant and that he was facing the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease. Kosar, who graduated from the University of Miami as a top prospect, also talked to us extensively about his time in the NFL. The pressure of playing for his hometown, he told us, spiraled into addiction and challenges with mental and physical health for decades to come.

READ MORE: Bernie Kosar Always Gets Back Up 

“Your whole dynamics of self-confidence and self-esteem and self-worth massively change,” he told us then. “And once you do it at that level, you become a-whole-nother level of a person in terms of competence — at the expense of your health.”

Yet, in more recent years, a focus on sobriety and wellness had improved his life cognitively, physically and spiritually. 

“I want to spread that message,” he said. “People are so sad and depressed. I want to give people hope. It’s tough to talk about. But now as I enter the fourth quarter of my life, it almost feels like a responsibility.”

A GoFundMe fundraiser to support Kosar’s mounting medical expenses raised more than $45,000 as of Saturday morning. The quarterback has also asked for support through his Kosar Wellness company. 

Through these challenges, Kosar has appeared upbeat, consistently reminding those around him and the people who follow him that “U Matter.” The words of his former coaches Howard Schneleberger and Don Shula are keeping him inspired, he said in his most recent video.

“How you do little things is how you do all things, and each day when you wake up you never stay the same. You get better, or you get worse,” he says. “That foundational advice couldn’t be any truer today. I make the conscious decision each and every day to be better, especially to all the people, family and communities that we’re able to touch in the course of our day.”