hello everyone and welcome to the Gir sty and Steven show an amazing video podcast with sports Stars Entertainment celebrities and other great guests combining one host who has no legs one host who lives in Del Minnesota and another host who seems to never be on the show but now on to the show withraw Dave and maybe even will that's right hello everybody I am back from the Home Offices here in Bal Connecticut for another exciting episode of time and Stephen show and of course uh we've got to talk a little bit of football and I'm not going to be able to talk football unless of course I bring in my co-host so let me bring in my buddy Troy giri who uh will talk about football a little bit well we're going to talk about football a lot in this show but baseball going on how the Twins doing how are we doing uh twins couple games behind those Cleveland Guardians Royals creeped above ahead of them so it's going to be interesting baseball season but uh NFL season just a short kickoff away here so I'm excited for that as well yeah and we got the college game uh coming up too so it's going to be really cool and uh our guest tonight can kind of cover both of those aspects because he is a legendary person that played in college uh LED his team to a national championship in 1983 the Miami Hurricanes and of course uh played in the NFL and in fact I was able to pull up an old song that can describe who Our Guest is tonight the dogs are barking we're all having fun Bernie will lead us to that place in the sun got style class and it's 23 the M VP o the AFC Bernie Bernie oh yeah how you canow yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah bur berie oh [Music] baby that's right the guy in our box here right below that is the legendary Bernie Kar and we're watching some of your highlights and uh man I can't get that horrible out of my mind Bernie do you remember that thing wa well uh Dave and Troy it's awesome to be with you thank you for showing me that amazing song and highlights to start but I must not have scrolled too deep on the email invitation I missed the dress code to put on my Cleveland Guardians hat okay so I did not know that I'd be sitting here in hostile territory as a big baseball fan and our Guardian who we want to be winning the division and fortunately we did Salvage one Victory Troy against your Royals there and um and Dave the Minnesota Twins um I hope you guys stay in third place behind us well we're we're going to talk uh B football the baseball but uh yeah it's been a great summer and we're watching some of your highlights some magical throws and plays from uh when you were with Cleveland and it just it blows my mind when I go back to think H how long like we're talking I was in high school when you were in University of Miami I was a senior you know when you guys won the national championship and now we have flashed forward some 40 years I mean does it feel like it was just yesterday Bernie um I don't feel like it feels like it was just yesterday but before I went on the air today they were showing uh some of the highlights of the University of Miami Florida Gator rivalry that happens to be resurrected this up coming Saturday and they were showing Jimmy Johnson's first W um back in 1984 against the Gaters and my with myself quarterbacking and again it doesn't seem like 40 years ago because it um um it's still fresh in my mind yeah and it's fresh I think in all the the minds of the sports fans that uh that were a part of that in that era so we're just going to talk some football today and uh just talk about your career and the amazing things and things you've overcome uh the health things and everything like that but uh it it's going to be a great show and we're really excited for you to uh to to join us and uh Troy what are your thoughts about our guest tonight yeah well Bernie thanks of all first of all for joining us our good friend Mike Dempsey kind of connected us so appreciate it uh you coming on I want to ask you about that uh 1983 Orange Bowl championship over in Nebraska I mean Tom Osborne Hollard schenberg I mean man what what a game just just can what do you most remember about that game uh Nebraska was known for their defense at that time and and you pretty much uh made him look silly 31 to 20 you guys won your first National Championship uh for University in Miami you know thanks that thanks for starting on a a fun game and a a fun um outcome like that winning the national championship Howard snellenberger um God bless him was really my football father and as our head coach back then he was also the offensive coordinator for the 1972 Miami Dolphins with Don schul the only team to go undefeated still to this day in the NFL with a Super Bowl victory and Coach coach snellenberger like he learned from Don schula who was a disciple of the great Paul Brown here in Cleveland and Howard snellenberger was recruited and a disciple of the Great Bear Bryant from Kentucky and Alabama and he recruited Joe namoth so the convergence of those two old school offenses really laid a amazing foundation for me for my knowledge of of the game and stuff and that kind of old school mentality that type of toughness that the coaches taught you back then and I'm so blessed to have tough guy Old School coaches like that that really and grain the spirit of me into never quitting always giving never giving up and that's very true in football but it was also kind of a life lesson that I didn't know at the time that's really proved invaluable as now I get into the late third quarter early fourth quarter of my life and actually when you get some of the diagnosises that I've had actually probably fourth quarter to overtime of my life so a lot of the things that uh the coach has taught me coach shenberger and going into that Nebraska game as an um 17-point Underdog I don't think we really even knew that or thought about it from that perspective because the coach and that system and that kind of mindset that they taught us back then really made us believe we were the favor we were the best team we weren't underdogs and that kind of I I do the you matter a lot and not just because of the University of Miami and 41 years ago winning the national championship but it taught me about so much of you matter and self-confidence and self-esteem and Coach stellenberg used to say to believe is to be strong and when you believe in something you could almost visualize it happening and that that type of mindset um he instilled in Us in me in particular it really manifested itself on that New Year's night game against Nebraska be able to come and what people thought was a miraculous Victory but to us we expected like we were expected to win and that that kind of uh coaching points from him still reside within me today I was gonna ask you about that to uh a usual number 20 uh tell us how you decided on that for your college number well I was uh as a sophomore in high school I was probably fifth or sixth string and got number 20 in high school and when I got to college I thought I was going to be this the only quarterback recruited then and I get there and Jim Kelly is a senior Mark Rick was his backup who went on to be an amazing coach at the U and University of Georgia and then another freshman was there named Vinnie test verie okay debatably one of the most athletic greatest uh athletic throwing quarterbacks and with speed and strength truthfully a lot of the stuff I'm not and so to get the to the University of Miami and see that that level of competition um is was at first intimidating but then actually it is foundationally for some of the things that that that that taught me in terms of competition not quitting not running from a challenge and when you realize that maybe you're outgunned and you don't you may not be able to start it really is almost like a come to Jesus moment where it really you just you decide are you gonna go for it or as coach snowberger said are you gonna run home to Mommy and complain and say how hard it was and how you got taken advantage of and you didn't get a chance he goes I'm gonna give you a chance because I was I was thinking I was going to have to transfer he goes no I'm gonna give you a chance he goes it doesn't look good for you but he goes you I will let you play and he goes you're the one position where athleticism is important but it's not the number one thing and you need to minimize your things that you're not good at and maximize the things that you're strong at so as somebody who ran a 55 540 and barely got up a buck 85 knew that strength and speed wasn't my strong point but I was blessed I was blessed mentally to be able to be able to piece things together and before the days today now with analytics and math and stuff to kind of decipher stuff I was really doing that kind of stuff back then and that was given me a chance to um mentally use the chess match that they taught me to execute offense and and Bernie you know I don't have any legs and I think I might have been able to outrun you back in the day so that would have been a fun race no no and that's the one thing I want to talk about uh you know you were a 19-year-old kid that was handed over a team to go for a national championship and it it was so funny to see the critics and the scouts say we don't like the way he comes out under Center we don't like his footwork we don't like the way he throws yet you know you were very intelligent you've got a high IQ and you're an offensive offensive quarterback and so how did that work for you being 19 and everybody telling you you're not doing it the right way well I was blessed that um we didn't have social media and we didn't have as much of we didn't have the internet so it was only just a few kind of the papers and TVs and stuff and coaches back then really did a good job of kind of keeping you away from that type stuff so you didn't see it as much and the coaches the coaches they never let you believe that in yourself so they kind of gave you the um kind of funneled information to kind of keep keep you focused in that and I still remember uh to this day coach snellenberg was saying that you you're almost like the quarterback for his team is almost like an eraser I go what do you mean by that he goes you need to erase all the mistakes that us coaches make before it gets to the field and you get to you need to be able to change that and mentally I'm 19 years old and he's believing in me to have a confidence to actually make those changes and that kind of element of trust made me believe that hey if my Coach my football father my teammates believed in me and had that trust in me then I I had to show I I was able to show that was easier for me to pull the trigger it's and that was a good life lesson so when you know somebody you trust and respect has your back it's easier to pull the trigger and for quarterbacks and it's not as clear as it seems with the rush coming at you and the people especially in the old days where they're able to hit you from about any angle in a couple of steps be able to keep that calmness and be able to be able to squeeze it into tight holes or throw receivers open when you know your coach and your players have your back like that and believe in you then it's easier to do that and just like the antithesis when you feel like you're being second guest and stuff and you really are cognizant of your surroundings and the pressure and the stress of it it's somewhat more challenging to actually make those plays uh Bernie uh being from Minnesota I gotta ask you when I told everybody that you were G to be on the show they said oh man we got to ask we want to know about the story about the supplemental draft 1985 the Vikings traded up number two they they were looking to pick you and uh went the other route for the supplemental draft can you tell us the story from your point of view and was it more mostly that you wanted to play for Cleveland being from Ohio well you know what first too as I was coming out um and a little bit to what Dave too was just asking um I also besides Howard snowberger had Earl moral and Earl moral was the quarterback during that and Bob greasy that 72 dolphin team that went undefeated and they fortunately didn't change my throwing motion they said to me that no matter even though it isn't aesthetically perfect and it is it it it doesn't look like most other quarterbacks he goes your velocity on the ball is unbelievable and your accuracy and timing is all that matters and as long as you're accurate and more importantly accurately on time with good timing they didn't care how I through I took that for granted because my high school coach was like that and then the great Earl moral and Howard snowberger also didn't try to change me and said it was about timing so I kind of I'm blessed to have been able to have not been change because I had really good timing and being able to throw and when uh that happened in 85 I'm only 20 years old now uh I'm proud of where I'm at in northeastern Ohio I'm still here here I grew up here about an hour an hour away from Cleveland in the stadium and it's a beautiful area but Northeast Ohio and the manufacturing jobs are struggling here again in 2024 well they were really struggling in the 1970s when I grew up and I like to sit here today as a high society affluent wealthy generational person but the truth is the kosart family we are lower demographic Steel workers um that came over from the old country uh um my grandfather did and went to uh went right into the steel mills and basically everybody before me and my family as the dogs are barking you season but as the as um the jobs um were dissipating um all of our k-ar really were um arly steel workers so in the 70s the Mills closed and nobody we went from having Utopia in the 50s and 60s with everybody having jobs and stuff to basically the late 70s and early 80s of no jobs and and and really serious issues and that was the era I grew up in so um again I'm here I am as a 60-year-old man I shouldn't have to have complete truth serum but really the truth is still to this day I'm trying to pretend to be extroverted and cool but I've always really been introverted and shy and bluntly still today at 60 I'm a Mommy's boy and love that my mom's here in Youngstown Ohio even more so the inability at 20 19 and 20 years old to again I know we're Pros I get a chance to go to the pros and be a professional but I was still a little boy and I could and mom took care of me I still can't cook and clean so that's partly why I'm a major juicer right now in my Vitamix because that's kind of idiot proof for for that so to to um kind of have my family around was one thing but bluntly it and there's three men here on this um on this podcast um as men back in the old days uh older days this was somewhat of a chauvinistic area where I grew up too so men had their pride and my dad I love him he's still alive he's he's amazing man I mean to be able to weather that storm and get me through High School in Borman when there were no jobs there and get a scholarship to college at the University of Miami um when we wouldn't have been able to afford College I can't thank him enough for what he did but it kind of is a sexist uh chauvinistic area and way way that we grew up and bluntly to say hey I came back because I wanted to support my family financially and have them feel good about working and not and people say well why don't you just hand them money you don't hand people money who who want to have their own pride and respect and want to feel like they're earning it so it was partly that um and being around my family because the economy and the jobs for just not just my mom and dad was so dissipated and and I'm not just saying this because I'm talking to some Minnesota guys right now okay but Bud Grant was one of the guys that I looked up to as a little boy and before I realized how painfully slow I was Fran Tarkington is who I thought I was emulating in the backyard scrambling around Okay so for for that to uh have that honor to sit there with Bud Grant and Mike Lynn was the uh general manager then I still remember we had some private meetings to discuss this and Bud Grant Mike Lynn came down and and Mr Lynn kept saying you know hey I have a reputation for being cheap and Frugal and but I'm going to sign you to a big contract don't worry about it and I'm I go sir I trust trust me and this is bad business of me but even to this day I was I'm I'm still secondary to the money in the business and more so to the primary thing of who I'm with and who I'm around and I and I I did say the story I just told you about um the steel mills and my family to Bud Grant and Mike Lynn I'm not sure I know Bud Grant believed it I'm not sure Mike really did and he kept saying you know and then and I kept saying I'm I'm probably and the University of Miami was loaded so I'm like please don't trade don't trade with Houston for this pick because I don't even think I want to come out because I want to stay at the University of Miami and keep playing in that and Bud Grant gave me the greatest piece of advice and it is kind of why I I came out he goes you know Bernie I love how you throw same thing ear moral said to me I love how you throw it's awkward it's unorthodox it's not mechanically sound you're probably going to have issues when you're an old man like me he goes but it's right on time and it's really accurate and um I said I was so thankful of it but he goes you got to remember one thing he goes if you want to stay in college he goes your arm and physics and your physical body does not know whether you're in high school college or the pros and you only have X amount of throws in you every day you throw you have one less X and the way you throw once your elbow goes once your shoulder goes you're done so you may as well use up your throws in the pros because you aren't going to be able to throw forever and I was like wow that was like groundbreakingly ey opening to me and now today is a guy whose right arm is six Ines shorter than his left arm from all the elbow and shoulder issues Bud Grant was no stradamus back yeah well we would have liked in purple but you don't look too bad in the old well it worked out for the Vikings you know they got the late the Hall of Fame Chris dolman so and Cleveland got you Bernie so it worked out for both teams yeah well you know the Chris dolman one and that's even so I played against against Chris at University of Pittsburgh and and in college at University of Miami and then we played a stack against each other in the pros and that's part of kind of I my mission now as as we get older you know back in the old days it I'm not just saying this for a fact but you guys know it really kind of was like War out there and the the mindset to go and and and play wasn't like it was to today and I almost wish it was we were a little more like today where there was a little more fraternization a little more understanding a little more talking um to each other but one of the few guys I did spend a lot of time with was Chris dolman and whether it's I wear this jersey um and I have one with Chris dolman on it I have uh I have another one with Reggie White one with Jerome Brown um kofer with the Detroit Lions was a superstar back then and uh what Steve McMichael is going through right now and other than Steve all the other guys have passed and Chris dolman and and unfortunately um how he passed is you know we all want to remember him as the Chris dolman at University of Pittsburgh we want to remember the Chris dolman of the 80s and early 90s I want to remember the Chris dolman who I love so much who I could always get him on a hard three hut hut and get him to jump off side you know and we'd laugh and giggle about it and um that as opposed to the last few times and the last few years I saw him in the wheelchair and that and some of that stuff really puts it in perspective of some of the Gladiator guys that we idolize and look up to and maybe some of the cost that it takes as we try to age out with somewhat Grace and dignity and somewhat trying to hang on to our our cognitive abilities to be able to enjoy stuff like you Troy and again and Dave I was telling you yesterday Dave stepen speaks I mean I I think I had some problems I have some issues to overcome I'm not trying to stroke you but bro I mean look at how you are look at what you've overcome I mean playing defensive line trying out for the Dallas Cowboys I mean look at we talk we both got cut from Jerry Jones so we can talk about that a little bit later as well but thank yeah Jerry actually Jerry um was probably As Nice a man to me and in a moment of getting cut from the Browns and then not sure where your career is going to be going and then to fall into heaven in Dallas um with that team team in that offensive line and then be able to actually have you know north of 100 quarterback rating and all I really had to do is hand it off to EMT and do a few checkdowns to EMT and moose and Jay novich and Michael Irving and Alvin Harper so was actually really really kind of fun to play us quarterbacks are victims are like life where victims are beneficiaries of the people around us well absolutely sure for sure of that on from the qub back perspective and when you had those 93 uh Cowboys around you it was it was pretty reass uh pretty reassuring yes well we're going to talk about that the Cowboys the Dolphins everything else especially your health and things that have been happening and uh again we are so excited to have you here so don't go away you're watching giri Stein and Stevens right here on [Music] your hi this is Kathy Ireland so excited to share with you today our incredible Cathy Ireland nutrition supplement powders by amoxy we have a beautiful array of powders to help you live a happier healthier lifestyle our focus is on bringing families a nutritious option to complement your daily routine with collagen plus you'll see improvements in your hair nails joints and Bones as well as Skin elasticity and hydration immunity support uses our proprietary green Blends antioxidant powder and digestive support fiber to give your immune system a powerful boost golden oat milk is dairyfree and uses a recipe of turmeric and ginger coconut milk and our mushroom blend to give you more of an energy boost without the crash of coffee and with super greens we have a probiotic and digestive enzyme blend along with fruits veggies and nine types of greens to help help support healthy gut please experience the difference of a Moxy supplements let's get healthier together thank [Music] you one in four people have a disability I'm one of them I'm also a working actor passionate about advancing disability inclusion employers take note people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world we've got a trusted Ally by our side Easter Seals is expanding F employment opportunities for people with disabilities seniors and Veterans through Workforce programs that also provide employers and communities with support to truly make the workforce inclusive that's my Easter Seals make it yours welcome back to the Gir Stein and stepen show and uh we are excited to continue um this amazing discussion with Bernie Kosar and Bernie uh we got a lot to talk about uh we're going to talk some more football here but uh like these little known facts that that people don't realize that you had the opportunity to play for Bill bich when he was starting out as a head coach and things didn't exactly turn out the way you wanted him for in Cleveland could you talk about that experience with that young coach and kind of the feeling of where they left you on this last pass that you ever threw as a Cleveland Brown well it's funny for SE where I drew actually drew that last one up in the dirt there because it wasn't a play that was on the game plan and stuff but you know as I get reflective and I think back and even our first segment you know talking about Earl moral was my coach um Howard snellenberger we mentioned Don schula Jimmy Johnson Marty Schottenheimer uh Bud Carson then a young Bill Bell and stuff and to uh have the honor to um call play for Don schula the honor to call plays for Howard Stenberg honor to call plays for Jimmy Johnson proudly to have be the only quarterback Who uh played at the University of Miami Dallas Cowboys and finished my career with Coach Johnson with the uh Miami Dolphins um it's kind of special to have all those type coaches and then to be B Bill bellich uh quarterback at that won his first football game game for him ironically in Foxboro um against the New England Patriots um from that and actually me and Bill as with almost with all my coaches all the guys I just mentioned and I forgot Jim schner was an interim coach for a while too for us um really loved them um Bill bellich che's obsessiveness okay is is um almost again I try to mask it in my personality but my football personality is almost mirrors what bill bellich was so I actually really love that type of work ethic and that type of x's and o's and that type of intelligence um in preparation so it was incredibly harmonious at first um some of the things he did say you know like diminish skills and stuff you know heck year 10 in the league year nine when he was saying that I I I vly denied it but the truth is our skills are diminishing and for a quarterback who could barely lift a buck 85 and was running a 55540 um and then had probably 25 broken bones by that point in my life and and 20 concussions he was probably more right than wrong in terms of a having lots of years left so actually um some of the stuff that happened yeah at the time I was bummed out crushed hurtt about it but in reality when you look back at it I love the time I had with my coaches and then it actually probably saved me from um one I got to go to Dallas and play great and have get a Super Bowl ring whereas if I probably stayed in Cleveland um we still haven't been to the Super Bowl and the team I did not have to make that decision two years later to leave and go to Baltimore um when the team left so in a way it kind of left me out of some tough some tough situations and I'm I feel so blessed as now a uh an older man in my fourth quarter of my life um with a national championship ring and I wouldn't have had a Super Bowl ring if I didn't bluntly uh get released from Cleveland so I I actually look at a pre collectively you you contributed to this team so I mean you walked off the street and won a game for him and then you you were there in the championship game I mean not too bad yeah it was cool I mean I got to play in probably seven or eight games a few of the playoff games um and then to play some meaningful moments in it like in the NFC Championship Game Troy sustained a concussion and to be able to come in and make a few plays and and throw a touchdown pass and um and to be able to uh that play you showed um against uh the Browns against Denver and throwing that post uh as my last play in Denver to go as a against in Cleveland against Denver to go as a touchdown and then seven days later to be playing for the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys against that Arizona Cardinals hat you had on earlier um you know was is special especially now I mean I actually felt the specialness of that back then but again as time happens and as you get older um I I don't want to sound like I'm living in the past you're an egotist with a swelled Cranium but it's ABS super cool to be reflective of of those moments yeah speaking of uh you know your time in the league you know with all the playoff anguish in Cleveland how special was it to be on the field uh Super Bowl against the Buffalo Bills in the closing seconds taking a knee as the confetti falling down and uh you getting your first uh Super Bowl championship so let me look behind me the Super Bowl is somewhere from taking that knee that Ball's back here somewhere in this in my home office here that was cool the week before truthfully was probably cooler for me and that was back when that was one of the few years that there wasn't a bye in between the Super Bowl so it was just one week so seven days before that knee uh and that Victory against Buffalo in the Super Bowl the NFC Championship Game and again I don't like to see anybody get hurt and especially now knowing this concussion thing and the ramifications unfortunately of TBI or CTE whatever acronym you want to use for um the issues that that are going on up here for myself ex players a lot of military guys um younger than us with the PTSD and that so but really the week before was to with Troy getting hurt to come in and to play the whole second half and bluntly to get the monkey off my back you know after losing three AFC championship games to the great John Elway um to play against Steve Young and the great San Francisco 49ers Ronnie lot always had my number so Ronnie lot isn't Hall of Fame and I contributed to his plaque there with quite a few picks by him so that wasn't one of the games though he got one so for me to get that monkey off my back to actually play in a NFC AFC Championship game where it ended up smiling at the end was massive happiness and I actually I say happiness I bet that's actually probably the wrong word and I uh I was talking to some of my old teammates um uh before this uh Craig wolfley who I competed against Hall of Famer with the uh uh steel maybe not happiness but almost relief when you some of our you win like you say you're happy in that but it's almost you're happy because because you know the cone and you we've talked about a lot of impressive names and you know at again that tail end of your career you also got to be with a a heck of a good quarterback down in Miami so tell us a little bit about as your NFL career ended and that experience of being around Marino well I really am I'm gonna talk I'm talking about Dan Marino and the great Don this play the play that you you designed this play by the way the fake the fake snap yeah so this is that was 94 is that was the first year that we had microphones in our heads I didn't do too well with that um we didn't like all the Talking us old school guys especially the guys like me who called my own plays so I needed some of that time to think in that but I uh I'm pretty obsessive and I do not like to waste plays so I don't like to just throw plays away and one of the plays that um I ran in 1986 and that play was 1994 Jets uh Jets and Pete Caroll and uh boomeri um and that cornerback was Aaron Glenn who's now defensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions but the spike play the clock play is usually run at the end of the half to kill the clock but a lot of times everybody stands around so you if you at the end of second quarter the end of the first quarter you want to get a maybe a shorter field if everybody's off well there's a quick out component to it and they just run a quick out and I could throw that in 2.5 seconds and maybe you get seven eight nine yards to shorten that 50 yard field goal and maybe make it a 42 yard field goal with that and if you're pressed it turns into a fade so I'd run that against the Jets in 1986 in the double overtime game with the Browns rounds in the Jets and that situation came up once or twice in the second quarter to help us get a h um a field goal but then it happened in at the end of the game and I but I didn't throw the pass like Dan Marino I under through it so people didn't really oh no 3850 [Music] gonna get him back he probably have to log out and get back in get released we go to Dallas and we' practice that with North Turner and Jimmy Johnson but the situation never came up now it's 1994 and the Dolphins were playing the the Jets and Dan Marino I pride myself on how accurate and good I throw Dan Marino throws at another Elite level of Awesomeness so his his arm Talent is is next level and he's leading us on a masterful comeback I'm I'm on the microphone with the play calling but in in his ear and stuff but Danny's so gifted under the shess system that he's basically calling his own his own plays but we had had this clock play in there and it just timed up perfect uh to be able to uh catch him off guard and catch them napping like that and and really sneak out of w and uh it looked like you were going to end up getting loss and that was if uh one of the things I'm probably proudest of is now today you go to any pro team offensive defensive playbook any college team offense or defensive playbook and any high school team offens or defensive playbook and they all have the clock the spike play in it and how to defend against it so there's a lot of variations off it now which I I kind of take a lot of pride in well you should and uh we've got a great segment coming up next we're GNA get uh a little down and dirty and get a little vulnerable and talk about the not so good things that have kind of happened uh but the good news is you're on the road to recovery so we are going to talk about that coming up in the next segment you're watching giri Stein and Stevens stay with us Serendipity yacht cruises in events wants you to come party with us we're bringing the fun to the Houston Bay Area stay tuned for all of our incredible events throughout the year featuring amazing food and drinks live entertainment special guests and so much more fun new different Serendipity yacht cruises and events is where you want to be so come party with us it's more than a yacht it's Serendipity I'm Matthew I'm Melissa and together we started fresh clean threads for most of my life I've worn a black T-shirt and most they're too short too baggy or weren't consistent like most guys with a problem I turn to my wife for help from our San Diego condo using my years of apparel experience we set out to make the world's best fitting t-shirt since day one our fresh clean teas were made to offer a flattering fit for all body types be ridiculously soft and comfortable and not break the bank and more than a mill million customers later we still make every T-shirt with the same attention to detail as when we first started and what we've learned from selling so many t-shirts to people around the world is that while the perfect fit and feel are the starting point it all comes down to feeling confident and empowered to live each day fearlessly fresh unleash your confidence at fresh clean threads.com all right I think we've lost our guest I'm gonna have to do a fix right there Bernie are you there there he is there he is okay so oh lost you guys that's all right we're coming out of the break so let's just uh stay right here and I'll I'll fix that out of the break and let's so let's just pretend we're coming out of the break and welcome back to the Geary Stein and Steven show and look at that young kid in the Oval Office there with uh President Reagan Bernie holy cow how about that having the nerve to coach up President Reagan on his arm Talent he has better he has better form than me well that was a special moment there you are Dave oh man just redo that all right let's let's let's I don't know what just happened there we got all kinds of ghost and glavin all right let me pick that up from that spot on the break all right here we go three two one all right thank you fresh clean threads and look at the fresh clean look on that young guy in the Oval Office with former president Ronald Reagan the national champion the University of Miami team visiting the Oval Office Bernie what are your memories look at that young kid you look pretty good there well thank you very much that was uh um co uh President Reagan I was calling him the Gipper from some of his old movies and stuff and I actually wasn't saying this to uh suck up to our president but his his mechanics is way better than mine he's more overand than me wow well that was such a special moment I was glad I was able to find that and uh so many special moments of your career that were positive but you know there are things that take the toll on the professional football players especially back in the day when you didn't have the gear you didn't have the protection uh you didn't have the plays or the referees protecting a lot of the uh quarterbacks and players so it took its toll on you and it's taken its toll over the years so tell us a little bit about what you've been going through and where you are now yeah thanks Dave uh you know I prefer to think about the positive the fun side of of the career and what happened but for the people out there listening the the younger parents uh the younger kids there's absolutely a cost of of that comes along with us from a physical cognitive and then sometimes from a a mental state as us men a lot of us don't like to admit to having insecurities and issues that are ramifications of things that happen to you one physically but then also happen to you happen to you from a mental a mental side of it so as a guy who you know I said this 18 18 months ago I was saying um I've had 40 surgeries 80 broken bones probably a 100 concussions I've had 14ish seizures hope uh the last one in particular I was in a coma for 96 hours and 2017 when I came out of that um coma um the doctor said hey you're a tough guy you made it keep up with your prescriptions and protocols and of those 14 or 15 seizures Troy and Dave probably about 10 of them were on airplanes and there was something probably with altitude so I was flopping bluntly on airplanes on probably 10 of them and I had a propensity to do it more in the Oar airport because most flights don't connect directly to Cleveland so I have have a I have a personal relationship with the Catholic Hospital in Chicago who's done great care of me in some of my issues in that and this one time coming on a flight the last one in 200 hopefully the last one in 2017 um you know I end up in a coma uh for 96 hours after that and like I was saying the doc came up and said keep up with your prescriptions and protocols well I retired in 97 started having excessive surgeries in like 99 2000 and I'm not saying this to blame anybody in the league I appreciate how you prefaced that day but no need to I'm not looking to blame and I I I know what I I signed up to play for um and play play with and that but the um scripting started with the surgeries of back with the pain medications the vicadin the per said the oxycotton when I was playing I didn't really use that much of it but afterwards that became some of the scripts of choice in the in the uh pain management side of it but then also that was a time when they also were trying to increase oxygen blood flow and energy in the brain and um with focus and attention issues and that's when also they started scripting people for a lot of Aderall and viance and that and those uh depression type medication so that combination of literally I spent most of this Century the last three decades on north of probably 70 pills a day and I in was 37 years old in the year 2000 and I was a Mr Mom with four kids and my oldest daughter 10 years old and I'm I'm I'm at my playing weight when Bud Grant and Mike Lynn and Marty shot himer and I was we were going through that whole thing in 1984 1985 I ended up becoming a pro quarterback I weighed 210 pounds so um by 1999 2000 I was quite a few hoos north of 320 and I'm not proud to say that and I have I'm a Mr Mom with four kids at that point and my 10-year-old daughter 90 lbs gets scripted for the same amount of Aderall that her father did over 100 milligrams so are in and I'm not saying in society everybody doesn't need that medicine okay sometimes I think we're over scripted so me and my daughter now have this decade long drought these type issues and for two till 2017 when I'm laying in that hospital bed um in a coma coming out of it I had been taking those scripts for you know parts of three decades so to have had that issue and even though the doctor said staying on that um I developed this whole holistic lifestyle and was able to figure out how to DET bluntly detox myself and slow down the deterioration of my brain so I was I was told in 2017 2 beginning of 2018 that I have five years left of cognitive brain function I couldn't say cognitive um I couldn't enunciate articulate communicate any multiples by this point in the day it would have been this type of this type of interview to be here trying to uh answer had that to yourself and then you will figure out a way to flush yourself and naturally um heal yourself I haven't done a pill or really drank in seven and a half years and the cognitive decline um has absolutely slowed down to the point where um it was surprising 18 months ago to find out after not doing anything uh for seven years other than healing yourself why all of a sudden um I'm diagnosed with Parkinson's and um put on five uh five months four and a half months ago put on the liver transplant list so I interrup having issues of bleeding out and um Parkinson's and being on a transplant list five months ago and to have been told you're gonna have your liver uh your spleen and your gallbladder taken out I was I was pretty discouraged and disappointed and to to have figured out some ways now to have flush and detoxed and to have reversed some of the or at least slowed down the the the Parkinson's and to where you go from shaking now to not shaking um from having melt scores of 28 and 30 where you're I was supposed to be last month and this month um doing the transplant yet to be able to have flush and detoxed myself naturally now and to uh lowered by melt scores um down to six or eight where they don't have to really do do the transplant uh immediately and where my type 2 diabetes and A1C levels have now dropped so much to be able to sit here today in front of you not just saying I feel good to look good and say the right thing on on camera and stuff but to genuinely mean it and not have my Pinocchio nose grow anymore is awesomely refreshing hey I've got really bad news Bernie right when we started talking about all that good stuff your picture has gone I don't see you anymore I heard you but we don't see you so I'm gonna have to do a fix but we got I want to get you back so we can just kind of hear all of that again I hate to make you say it again because it was tremendous um touch anything you want to get out and come back in and see if that fixes it yeah I don't know if it's because you're on I me so I'll leave let me come right back yeah doing it yeah I got some fixing to do yeah the picture the picture's not there his camera's not there his video is there the uh audio is there but there's no no picture I don't know why Bernie you there yeah I'm here I hear you good yeah I don't see you anymore um dang it we got to fix this that's that's the most important part of the show uh what would it have done cell he went on his cell rather than the laptop oh he did he didn't do the laptop there we go all right here we go okay we go so I'm gonna edit this but if we could kind of go back and just I don't even know where we can pick it up just go for it bro I don't mind okay so I'll do the fix here and so um say this let me see if I I'll put me on camera I'll put me on camera and then I'll fix it that way so Bernie as you talk about all the things that they had you on I mean did did this contribute to your issues with your liver and I mean how have you overcome all of this and and where do you stand I know we've talked about the the onset of Parkinson how you battle that you know so all these things that are so compounded is this all part of it is it part of playing or is it part of the the drugs they had you on or is it just a part of everything so I I'm not saying this to blame anybody or to make an excuse um but it's probably a combination of you know the playing the scripting um some of the stuff that players are supposed to do that I did off off the field that I could only blame myself for so from that perspective um but one of the things I've been focused on I'm not sure how many people in the Sports World overly you know would care about this level of detail so I won't take up too much time with it but um the environmental toxins and the poisonings that sometimes are happening in society in the water supply and here I I'm talking to you here at the Northern end of Appalachia here in in the South part of like Portage County and there is a lot of oil and fracking and I have on my farm a a oil well bluntly that leaked into my uh water table and um I have tilt levels of petrol poisoning inside of me on top of high levels of a tracking agent that actually Dr royen from the Cleveland Clinic who was uh Dr Oz's partner um and is the head of functional medicine and I've been on Oprah Winfrey Show 53 times great guy says he's never seen a tilt level of this fracking agent and petrop poisoning inside of a person before and if you look outside I'm um I'm technically challenged so I don't want to m mess with our camera here but if I showed you outside I have a dumbly I have a oil well and fracking well literally um 50 yards from the farm here that leaked into my water table on top of I have I think I am the second coming I'm going to show my age here guys of Eddie Albert and Green Acres so I have nice equipment don't know how to use it and the real Farmers they spray the heck out of the pesticides to get clean food today and I'm living right in the epicenter of toxic poisoning from petro and the oil wells on top of the environmental spraying so I also have a high level of the Roundup in me and th and that ends up really Dr royen says frying your liver a th% more than alcohol and the pills did so both of those aren't helping my issue but that's actually what turned me on um to massively trying to figure out how to flush and detox myself because yeah it's just not me here at this Farm over the last few few decades I've raised my children here and I talked earlier in the show about me and my oldest daughter both get inscripted for Aderall 25 years years ago and she was on the same dosages of me while living out here too you know she also has the oil Petro um poisoning kind of within her and this pesticide stuff so as a dad that in itself makes me nauseous and Incredibly embarrassed and um obsessed yeah I want obsessed and help myself but more so I experimented a t on myself it was an obsession of mine not to get myself better to look good to you guys and you know to do this but to really flush and detox my children and my daughter in particular so I'm I'm really proud of kind of figure out some holistic flushing and detoxing ways to to do this and actually I loved I was paying attention to a couple of your uh commercials during our segment here so you guys should be doing some your uh your fermented super greens as I saw as one of your sponsors out there wants us to be Health oh fumble there we go you got hit with that double whammy though of having now I mean where do we stand with the need of a liver transplant and again being told you have the onset of Parkinson's so the there's probably a correlation to the accelerated quickness that the Parkinson's and the liver materialized when you kind of factor in and you lock in on the Petro poisoning the Roundup poisoning and uh that and then for people out here listening I'm not trying to overly get on a soap box and I know it's challenging with economics and and and uh time these days but it is so hard to eat good and Ultra processed processed packaged fast food is super challenging that actually amplifies some of the issues so um it's one of the things that I I really kind of focus on and love to suggest to people as as some of the healthier ways to try to ward off some of these issues and try to ward off being so heavily medicated to give your own body a chance to heal itself yeah Bernie talk about the website and uh the product d uh that you're near and dear to your heart here well you know what check out the Kosar 19.com it has a little bit of my story some of the things we're doing soon as you guys hit me with the link I'll be excited to put this uh put our podcast up there but it's it's some and again it has the shop things on there but I really have it up there because it is a a way for me to kind of show people who aren't maybe wanting to talk as much about some of their own personal issues and maybe some of their needs with stuff that um I've been able to come up with because with Dr Tony post at University Hospital and Dr royen at the Cleveland Clinic they love protein and the raw coffee powder and what I've as a trustee at the University of Miami I love our sports program but we have an amazing amazing medical school so I do a lot of testing and research with some amazing organizations like at University of Miami The Clinic University Hospital Prime Time Health up here and the ability to that's why I picked up on your uh super greens that you guys are sponsoring which uh we don't get enough fresh vegetables so being able to eat with food is your medicine but then smart supplementation so this raw coffee powder that we've been able to put in for energy and focus in the protein powder is one thing and then for people this is a something that's really important to me we're talking we have an awesome Labor Day weekend coming up this week we have great football games coming on August 31st this Saturday and it's the end of the month and I I'm sitting here in Cleveland Ohio I love my number 19 but I said earlier we 19 people commit suicide today in the state of Ohio okay we've had a hundred people in the last six days overdose death here in the state of Ohio from the fentanyl issue and stuff right now like oxyon was six and seven years ago there I had people addicted and were running out of scripts and saying that there's a shortage of it the same thing is happening today in the Aderall worlds there's 60 to 80 million Americans on prescription Aderall that has meth basely in it and now it started giving a 37 year old quarterback ex-quarterback did in 2000 and a 10-year-old girl in the year 2000 now my middle daughter is a child Psych olist doing special needs kids and they're putting fivey olds on ader ader Rin and viance and that and here is me is a guy who's Quasi on the Spectrum um Troy I sure you could relate to this with some of the issues that happens within your family autism runs in our family my I have some nephews that are uh special needs that um um are able to uh talk in that but need need help in in their late 20s and early 30s so it's special to me to figure out natural ways to find replacements because this is the time of the month where I've lost bluntly some of my teammates because when you hear these scripts and some of the ramifications of these scripts like abuse depression um suicide unfort these are happening and I just lost them here in shagrin Falls Ohio um and one of my ex teammates is a shagrin Falls High School graduate played in Notre Dame won a national championship at Notre Dame he was in the fight in the tunnel um in the 88 fight in the tunnel with the uh Notre Dame and uh the Hurricanes Bob do he blocks for me in the early 90s with Bill bellich and why does he commit suicide on September 25th at the end of the month I spent a lot of time with Junior SE and Dave dur um back 10 years ago 15 years ago when people didn't understand the concussion issues and the ramifications of it and they thought we were bluffing or embellishing or we just didn't grow up because we wanted to play football and that demon in our head was so powerful and we didn't know what to do with it and as men we were afraid to articulate it because men don't cry and men don't have emotions and men are tough well I'd like to think I'm as tough as anybody getting run over from all those guys and it beat me down and I wanted to be able to tell older men it's okay to admit we don't have all the answers and I'm more fixated now on talking to that 37y old dad that was me who didn't know what to do for himself and didn't know what to do for his kids so I just trusted people and didn't know that some of these natural options are out there instead of running to the street now where seven out of 10 pills here in the state of Ohio laced with fentanyl and you're playing Russian roulette with one pill could kill you um I want to be able to show and tell people again not just from a and not at all from a sales perspective but just as a ray of Hope to know there is an option out there that you can get stuff that you don't have to go to the street for and I the beautiful thing about it too is it's naturally detoxifying your blood I did not take it as a replacement for any other drug I took it because I'm doing a study on glucose control and I needed to fix my blood with liver issues so I needed to really experiment on a flushing and detoxing of my liver and type two diabetes to an attempt to get that to dissipate to even give me a chance um to not have to do this liver transplant and bluntly I didn't think it would work as great as it did um matter of fact the docs called me about two months ago and I done besides me telling you I feel good they hadn't seen me and they had me do blood work and they just read my blood report and they go wait a minute I saw you almost dying two months ago and you had these horrible numbers and blood panels now I'm looking at your blood panels and you look like a healthy person like Bernie come on you're gonna get me in trouble you can't have you can't have somebody fake a UR analis and fake a blood test for you and I go wait in the old days I did know how to do that but that actually is my blood and urine in there and to see it me just not telling you and trying to suck it up here for a TV or a podcast but to have it confirmed with blood work um and seeing my A1C levels dissipate and seeing my ability to be here cognitively present hopefully articulate you know on something like this this wasn't the case um a couple years ago I'd be chewing off my tongue at this point and you know Dave you you kind of nicely said earlier in my past if you did some studies on me from some interviews 10 years ago I mean they they were bad so most of us players I don't say it to gloat I don't say it to sit here and say look at me I I say it for people if you're struggling out there follow my journey at k9.com and I have some really really simple healthy things that I focus on detoxifying the body and the blood while increasing oxygen and blood flow to our peripheral and I've got one more followup before we get back to football um I've seen that you talked about when the the Cleveland situation happened that that was the lowest point in your life but let's Flash Forward to where now your life is on the line for your liver and and the onset of Parkinson I mean how is your positivity I mean is this the lowest point of your life or are you excited about what the future is and trying to fix some of these things and set the clock back a little bit yeah great question Dave it's for sure the latter and I actually I'm really excited and people go like hey you're going through all this stuff do you regret getting run over like a train as a quarterback you regret you know sucking it up playing through those injuries taking the pills taking the medications um do you even regret living on this Farm having petrop poisoning and and Roundup