The Browns preseason TV broadcast crew will feature two generations of Cleveland quarterbacks providing analysis on the team's quarterbacks of the present and future.
Play-by-play announcer Jay Crawford and former Browns quarterback Tim Couch will be joined by Cleveland legend Bernie Kosar and Dustin Fox, both of whom will man the sidelines and provide real-time analysis, for three of the team's four preseason games. They'll have fans covered for the Browns' three locally televised preseason games -- Aug. 9 at New York Giants, Aug. 17 vs. Buffalo and Aug. 30 at Detroit -- on News 5. The Browns' Aug. 23 game against the Eagles will be nationally broadcast by FOX.
"I'm absolutely excited to get back and do it, even more so to be on the sidelines," Kosar said. "For me to be down there, I enjoy watching the interaction of the quarterbacks, the different players to each other, the players to the coaches, the communication of how people come on and off the field, how they call plays, how they respond to making a good play and sometimes more importantly how they respond to making a bad play. I think it will be insightful for the people watching. I think it will be interesting and fun to see how the mechanics are happening. I have a certain way I think things should happen on a sideline that's conducive to winning."
Last year, Kosar and Fox, a former Ohio State star and NFL player who has provided color analysis for ESPN college football games over the past five years, worked together on a film breakdown series on "The Hue Jackson Show," which aired weekly during the season on News 5. They'll continue that series in 2018 on top of their new assignment together.
"It's been so much fun working with Bernie over the last year," Fox said. "It's really an honor for me. I grew up watching Bernie and now I get a chance to sit down with him and not only do a segment with him, but now we get a chance to take it to the game broadcast, which I think is going to be such a cool experience for our fans. You're going to get a chance to hear analysis from Tim in the booth and then come down to the sidelines and get me and Bernie."
Over the past five days, the entire broadcasting crew has spent time together watching Browns practice from the sidelines at training camp. For Couch, it was his first Browns training camp since his playing days, which came to an end with Cleveland in 2003.
Couch and Kosar have had a relationship ever since Couch was tabbed with the No. 1 pick in 1999. They share plenty in common with their respective NFL experiences and will team up to deliver it on their upcoming broadcasts as they analyze veteran starter Tyrod Taylor, No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield and the rest of the Browns' quarterback room.
"We're going to have some great insight, especially from the quarterback position with Bernie down on the field and me being up in the booth seeing it from a different point of view," Couch said. "Just getting both of our opinions will be excellent for the broadcast, especially with the quarterback situation now, Baker being the No. 1 pick and Tyrod being the veteran starter. We've both been through those situations before and we've been in both positions, so it will be interesting."
Crawford, a 30-year sports broadcast veteran, has a special connection to both Couch and Kosar. The lifelong Browns fan lived and died with the Kosar-led Browns of the 1980s and covered Couch as a high schooler during the early part of his career in Hazard, Kentucky.
"Being selected by the Browns to call the pre-season games instantly became my favorite assignment," Crawford said. "Learning I'd share that honor with Tim Couch in the booth and Bernie Kosar on the sideline takes it to another level. We're all excited to bring the games to the most loyal fan base in all of sports."
