Report: Bernie Kosar files for bankruptcy

MIAMI, June 19 (UPI) -- Former star NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, The Miami Herald said Friday.

Kosar, 45, also an all-American signal-caller at Miami (Fla.) in the 1980s, said in the filing Friday his debts total $19.5 million, including nearly $1.5 million to the Cleveland Browns, the team for which he played from 1985 to 1993; $3 million to his ex-wife Babette; $725,000 to Jim Ferraro, the owner of the Cleveland Gladiators, an Arena Football League team; and a number of other major unsecured creditors, including Tampa's Florida Bank.

The report estimated his assets at between $1 million and $10 million and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million.

The report said the filing comes is the latest of several setbacks following his NFL retirement in 1996, while with the Miami Dolphins.

He owns a home in Weston, Fla.; his wife divorced him in 2007; and the Florida-based Bernie Kosar Steakhouse went out of business last year.