FanHouse BernieKosar

Bernie Kosar spent his first eight NFL season with the Cleveland Browns. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, he was a fan favorite, although Bill Belichick, hired in 1991, was less enamored with the immobile quarterback and eventually benched him for Vinny Testaverde in 1993, before releasing him in Week 8.

Since the days of Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar, Cleveland Browns fans have seemingly had a love-hate relationship with their starting quarterbacks ... and by "love-hate," I obviously mean they love to hate them. After suffering an Aaron Rodgers-like slide on draft day, 2007, Brady Quinn was supposed to change all of that and become the franchise quarterback Dawg Pounders have longed for since, well, Otto Graham.

On Tuesday, new head coach Eric Mangini made the announcement that Quinn will be competing for the starting job in 2009 with five-year veteran Derek Anderson.

If Eric Mangini is trying to win friends and influence people in the greater Cleveland area, he sure has an odd way of doing it. In one of his first orders of business as the Browns new head coach, Mangini has decided to change the culture in Cleveland by ripping down a mural containing Jim Brown, Otto Graham, Lou Groza and Paul Brown. Because nothing says change in culture like removing a tribute to the most important people in franchise history and replacing it with, well, nothing.

The mural was located at the team's practice facility in Berea, Ohio, and in its place is a spectacularly bland, plain white wall. Exciting. I'm guessing this is to represent what the Browns have accomplished since the players mentioned above hung up their cleats. Or, perhaps, it represents that Mangini has absolutely lost his mind and is about to get a face full of fist from Jim Brown.

Yesterday I mentioned that while Browns owner Randy Lerner waited for Patriots vice president Scott Pioli to make up his mind about the GM job, Eric Mangini was emerging as the unofficial favorite to replace Romeo Crennel.

Still no word on Pioli's plans -- he's scheduled to meet with the Chiefs this week -- but they might not matter as far as Lerner's concerned; National Football Post's Mike Lombardi is hearing things: "I hear - and keep hearing - it is Eric Mangini's job in Cleveland, and he is already assembling a staff."

You know, if true, I think that's a solid move for the Browns. Not splashy, but solid. Mangini got run out of New York after missing the playoffs two of the last three seasons. Part of the problem, apparently, was that he was meticulous in his preparation, but couldn't motivate Kris Jenkins to eat a cheeseburger.

Sound familiar? Bill Belichick was a mediocre NFL head coach during a five-year stint in Cleveland in the mid-'90s, known as much for his winning personality as for being responsible for running Bernie Kosar out of town.

Five years later he re-emerged in New England, and now sports three Super Bowl rings and has people calling him genius (just like Jim Zorn but the exact opposite).

The IRS are an understanding bunch. So Bernie Kosar, former player of paid professional football in the NFL at the U (Miami) shouldn't be worried about the latest news re: his taxes.

The Miami Herald reports that he owes the IRS $228,806.21 -- give or take -- based on a lien filed by that same wonderful governmental institution.

The tax man is trying to sack Bernie Kosar, former Hurricane and NFL star. The Internal Revenue Service filed a $228,806.21 lien -- income tax owed for 2006, according to Broward County records. Kosar is also delinquent on his 2007 property tax for his Weston home, on Paddock Road in Windmill Ranch Estates. He failed to pay $52,724.95 due last March 31 and now owes $59,881.49 with penalties, interest and other charges.

Kosar -- developer, restaurateur, Arena Football team president, and Florida Panthers limited partner -- says the tax bills fell through the cracks. "I just found out about it." He intends to make good.

Kosar, who played for the Browns, Cowboys and Dolphins, went through a contentious split from wife Babette that became final in December. He says some of the tax notices went to his old address. "When you go through a divorce and you have to switch all the names and all of the paper and all of the accounts, this stuff happens."

Now, far be it for me to mock a recent divorcee (I'm not one myself, but I can smell karma cooking from a mile away). How-ev-AH, I've tried using the old "sent to the wrong address" excuse once or twice in my life, and let's be honest folks, no one actually buys that. Ever.

For those of you looking forward to the supplemental draft to break up the drudgery between now and the start of training camp, I have some bad news: it's been canceled due to lack of interest. That's right, this year, you won't be able to sit in front of your computer and wait for random NFL.com updates alerting you to which team team took a fourth-round flier on a player you've never heard of.

"No one applied at the time of the deadline," 49ers general manager Scott McCloughan confirmed Thursday. The NFL sent out a memo to all 32 teams informing them of the announcement Wednesday.

The cancellation comes as a surprise because there had been rumblings that several players were considering applying, including high profile talents such as Southern California middle linebacker Rey Maualuga, Oklahoma State tight Brandon Pettigrew and Mississippi State offensive tackle Michael Brown.

Yes, surprising, indeed. Last year, the Chargers forfeited a 2008 fourth-rounder to take Georgia cornerback Paul Oliver, and a round later, the Ravens grabbed offensive tackle Jared Gaither, who could be in line to replace Jonathan Ogden.

Oliver only appeared in three games last season, but Gaither made two starts, and heads into training camp tentatively penciled in as Baltimore's left tackle.

According to NFLDraftScout.com, only 37 players have been selected via the supplemental draft since its inception in 1977, with Bernie Kosar, Cris Carter and Brian Bosworth among the most noteworthy. One of these names is not like the other.

That didn't last long. Jim Bates, hired a year ago to shore up the Broncos defense, is now out of a job. The Denver Post's Bill Williamson writes that Bates and head coach Mike Shanahan reached a settlement on the remaining two years on Bates' contract. (Pithy version: Shanny canned Bates.)

"I'm very thankful for the opportunity and very saddened that things did not work out," Bates said in a statement. "I had the opportunity to stay, Mike has been very fair with me, and the final decision, for the Broncos and for me, was to step aside."

The early favorite to replace Bates is Bob Slowik, currently the Broncos' assistant head coach-defense.

As I wrote last week, the writing was on the wall with Bates. His seven-in-the-box approach to rushing the football never worked, and it even caused football savants like Bernie Kosar to question what the hell the Broncos were doing.

Maybe Bates wasn't given enough time to make it his defense; the guy did have success in Miami and Green Bay. Whatever, he won't be out of work for long. Four teams are currently looking for head coaches, and those head coaches will also need a staff of assistants. I can't imagine Bates doesn't show up somewhere in 2008.

It looks the Broncos could pull a "Cam Cameron" on on first-year defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Bates had success at previous stops in Miami and Green Bay before coming to Denver 51 weeks ago, but this year has been a disaster. As the Rocky Mountain News' Dave Krieger notes, here's what head coach Mike Shanahan said when Bates was hired:

"There's no way if we had (gone) to the playoffs that those guys would be here because they had so many other opportunities," he said of Bates and defensive line coach Bill Johnson.

So in a way, it's Shanahan's fault -- both directly and indirectly -- that Bates was brought on. If he had stuck with Jake Plummer, the Broncos almost certainly would've made it to the postseason, and some other team would've snatched Bates up before Shanny got the chance.

Instead, Plummer was benched, Cutler took over, the Broncos missed the playoffs and here we are.

From the beginning, Bates' seven-in- the-box base scheme didn't work here. In fact, during the preseason, Cleveland Browns broadcaster Bernie Kosar wondered aloud why a team with cornerbacks like Champ Bailey and Dre Bly wouldn't take advantage of their man coverage ability by moving a safety into the box to help against the run.

Look, when Bernie Kosar can game-plan you from the press box, you're probably not doing something right. Who knows how this ends up, but the Broncos might want to make sure they have a go-to guy if they can Bates. I mean, when this dude is back in the mix, it's definitely a sellers market.

Charlie Frye heads home this weekend. The Seahawks will travel to Cleveland to face the 4-3 Browns. Those four wins, by the way, match last season's win total.

Anyway, Frye, who chose not to participate in the weekly conference call with the Cleveland media yesterday, did offer his thoughts to the AP on getting traded 15 minutes into the 2007 season:

"I don't think anyone realized that rope was going to be that short ... But that's the way it went down. ... What people don't realize is that the regular season is a whole different level ... It wasn't going to happen in Week 1. You really can't base the season on what you saw in Week 1, because there are too many weapons on offense."

It's hard not to feel bad for Frye. And he'd come off looking like the scapegoat if Derek Anderson hadn't morphed into a conventionally throwing Bernie Kosar. Heading into last week's Rams game, Anderson ranked ahead of Carson Palmer, Matt Hasselbeck, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers in passing efficiency.