Jeff Fisher blasts Bernie Kosar for in-game comments

The St. Louis Rams were trailing the Cleveland Browns in a meaningless preseason game on Thursday night. Second-stringers, third-stringers, the mass of players battling for roster spots were duking it out in the usual kind of football you expect to see in the late quarters of an August exhibition. That's when Bernie Kosar spoke up.

Kosar went after third-string quarterback Kellen Clemens, telling the audience "I can't stand watching him play." His comments came as the booth relayed a fairly typical in-game story, this one about Clemens meeting the Pope at a mass once.

Then, Kosar added, "the Rams receivers are horrible."

Head coach Jeff Fisher shared his thoughts on Kosar after practice on Saturday.

"First off let me say this, the Cleveland Brown organization is a first class organization from top to bottom and it has been that for years and years and years," Fisher began.

"I guess I'm a little disappointed - I feel bad for them - that they had someone doing the broadcast feel the need to speak that way about players, specifically on our team and coaches for that matter. I'm just surprised that Bernie has such a lack of respect for players and for this game. So, to be honest with you I lost a lot of respect for him."

Fisher pointed out the context of the game, in the most diplomatic way possible, which made Kosar look even worse for his comments.

"This game is a preseason game, players are playing hard," Fisher said. "It's highly unlikely that he knew anything about our football team but felt the need to make those comments. I don't think they were justified."

Kosar's been in trouble before for his on air behavior. He gave a rambling interview on the radio in 2012 that had people wondering about his sobriety, something he's struggled with in the past.

Fisher fired back at Kosar with a well-placed shot at his past too.

"Again, Bernie's got his issues - they're well documented."

The Rams coach also defended Clemens as you would have expected him to do.

"Kellen played well," Fisher said. "He played hard and made plays. He got guys deep and had a drop. He played well."

Here's video of Kosar's comments from Thursday night.

I suspect we'll be hearing an apology from Kosar soon enough.