Giovani Bernard

Giovani Govan Bernard (born November 22, 1991) is an American former professional football running back who played 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels and was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft, spending eight seasons with the team. After being released by the Bengals after the 2020 season, Bernard then played two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before retiring.

Bernard was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, the son of Haitian immigrant parents, who own a dry-cleaning business in Boca Raton, Florida. He began playing football for the local tackle football league, the Boca Jets. Bernard played football at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was teammates with Florida State safety Lamarcus Joyner and New England Patriots running back James White. While in high school, Bernard was ranked the No. 2 running back in Florida by the Orlando Sentinel and the No. 12 running back in the United States by Rivals.com. He is the younger brother of former Oregon State running back Yvenson Bernard.

Bernard was recruited by many schools and first committed to Notre Dame, but ultimately decided to play for the University of North Carolina.

Bernard enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and played for the North Carolina Tar Heels football team from 2010 to 2012. During the third day of practice, he tore his ACL after trying to cut away from a defender and redshirted for the 2010 season.

Bernard recovered from the injury and became the starting tailback for the Tar Heels in the 2011 college football season. He became the first North Carolina running back to rush for at least 100 yards in five straight games since Ethan Horton in 1984. Bernard's season-high came against Georgia Tech on September 24, 2011, when he rushed for 155 yards. In mid-October 2011, he was added to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, presented annually to the best player in college football. During the 2011 regular season, Bernard's 1,222 rushing yards ranked 20th among NCAA Division I FBS players. He also had 326 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns in 10 games. Bernard was the first running back to eclipse the 1,000-yards plateau at North Carolina since Jonathan Linton did it in 1997. He was also the top freshman running back in the nation in yards per game that season.

In the first year of head coach Larry Fedora's spread offense in the 2012 season, Bernard increased his rushing yards per game, average yards per carry, and receiving yards. He also returned punts for the first time in his college career. On October 27, 2012, Bernard returned a punt 74 yards against NC State in the last 30 seconds of the game to break the tie and win the game. He led Carolina in scoring for the second year in a row and averaged 198.1 all-purpose yards per game, third in the country behind two receivers. The head coaches in the ACC voted Bernard to All-ACC first-team and Bernard was second in player-of-the-year and offensive player-of-the-year voting. He also won the CFPA Punt Returner Trophy for the 2012 season. Overall, Bernard finished the 2012 season with 1,228 rushing yards, 12 rushing touchdowns, 490 receiving yards, five receiving touchdowns, and two punt return touchdowns.

On December 14, 2012, Bernard announced that he was entering the 2013 NFL draft. Bernard was projected by the majority of analysts and scouts to be selected anywhere from the first to third round. He was ranked the fourth best running back and 67th best prospect by NFLDraftScout.com. Bernard was invited to the NFL Combine and completed all the drills and the entire workout. He was satisfied with his performance and decided to only participate in positional drills at North Carolina's Pro Day.

Bernard was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round with the 37th overall pick. The Bengals previously traded quarterback Carson Palmer to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for the pick used to select Bernard, and a 2012 first round pick that was used to select Dre Kirkpatrick. Prior to Bernard, a running back from North Carolina had not been selected in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft since Natrone Means was selected in the second round with the 41st overall pick by the San Diego Chargers in 1993.