Former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Turk Schonert dies at 62 of heart attack
Turk Schonert, a Cincinnati Bengals quarterback for the majority of his National Football League career, died Thursday of a reported heart attack near his South Carolina home after turning 62 years old earlier this week, the team confirmed.
Schonert played for the Bengals from 1981 to 1985 and again from 1987 to 1989. His greatest highlight as a player was relieving Bengals starter Ken Anderson in the Bengals’ first game of their 1981 season – which concluded with Cincinnati’s appearance in Super Bowl XVI. In the game, Schonert rallied the Bengals from a 21-0 first-quarter deficit to beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-21.
The former Stanford star finished the game 9-for-18 with 130 passing yards as well as 41 rushing yards on seven attempts.
“It’s a shock. I’m just glad we were able to see him at the 30th and spend some time,” said former wide receiver Cris Collinsworth of last season’s celebration of the 1988 AFC champions.
Boomer Esiason, one of those MVP quarterbacks, found himself Thursday consoling Collinsworth, Schonert’s closest friend on the team, when he told him it was O.K. to cry.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Collinsworth told him, “because every time I think of Turk I want to laugh.”
After his playing career, Schonert coached quarterbacks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1992 under Sam Wyche, his head coach with the Bengals.
He also was a quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills (twice), the Carolina Panthers, the New York Giants and the New Orleans Saints. He served as the Bills’ offensive coordinator in 2008.
Schonert was on hand for the Bengals’ 50th anniversary celebration in 2017.
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