NFL Star Bernie Kosar Diagnosed with Liver Failure and Parkinson’s Disease

Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and liver failure, he said in a new interview with Cleveland Magazine on Tuesday, July 9.

The NFL legend, 60, was diagnosed with cirrhosis, the third of four stages of liver failure, in March 2023, and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in mid-February 2024, he said.

Kosar told the publication that, as the new year rolled around, his “body gave out on” him.

“I went into the hospital and got a massive blood transfusion,” he said. “It was like: ‘How are you alive? How are you moving? Because your hemoglobin levels are so low.’’’

Dr. Anthony Post, a hepatologist for University Hospitals, told Cleveland Magazine that “liver disease does tend to fluctuate,” adding that  Kosar is “on that wave thing where it goes up and down.” 

“He’s in a good phase right now, but anything bad could happen,” added the physician. 

Dr. Michael Roizen, the emeritus chief wellness officer of Cleveland Clinic who is also treating Kosar, said there is a 90% chance the retired athlete will need a new liver. Transplant surgery “is a difficult thing: difficult to get the transplant, difficult to live with it,” Roizen told Cleveland Magazine.

“Remarkably — you know, he takes a lot of supplements, he’s been exercising and has been on a good diet and is taking the medications that we’ve prescribed him and we’ve been following him pretty closely so — he’s really gotten a lot better,” Post said.

“I wish you could have seen me three months ago,” Kosar said. “Actually, maybe not, because I looked like death. I felt like death. E. coli blood poisoning. Heart trouble. And I really thought I needed the liver transplant ASAP. I was in bad shape.”

He explained that since he has a “regimen of juicing, black coffee and smart supplementation,’’ as well as intermittent fasting. “Basically, I’m using food as medicine and avoiding the processed foods, the foods with inflammatory properties,” he said.

“It’s amazing that you can feel as good as I do despite all this stuff going on. I can see that what I’m doing is making a difference. I strongly believe it will continue. Time will tell.’’

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The former athlete mentioned how he “strongly believe[s] in the power of positive thinking.” 

“I believe that positive energy can be manifested in our brains, and I love to live in the space of positivity. I want to think about things that are helpful,” he explained.

“I visualize good health. It’s not so much that I’m trying to sell it to myself, or that I’m in denial, as it is choosing to be positive,” he said. “Because everybody’s got something. We’ve all got health issues to some degree, we all have bumps in the road.”

Kosar, a native of Youngstown, Ohio, spent most of his NFL career with the Browns. He also played with the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins before retiring in 1996.