NFL running back Giovani Bernard retires at age 31

Giovani Bernard (Erik Drost, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Frankie Tadded of Sports Illustrated on Friday, National Football League running back Giovani Bernard of Davie, Florida retired at the age of 31. The product of the University of North Carolina spent 10 seasons in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals (2013 to 2020) and two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2021 and 2022).

This past season, Bernard only played eight games for the Buccaneers because of an ankle injury, and had eight rushes for 28 yards. He was below running backs Leonard Fournette of New Orleans, Louisiana, Rachaad White of Kansas City, Missouri and Ke’Shawn Vaughn of Nashville, Tennessee in rushing yards on the Buccaneers roster.

In 135 NFL regular season games, Bernard had 937 rushes for 3783 rushing yards and 22 rushing touchdowns. He also had 367 catches for 2989 receiving yards and 14 touchdown catches.

To begin his NFL career, Bernard had an immediate impact. In his rookie season of 2013, he had a career high 1209 yards from scrimmage (695 rushing yards and a career-high 514 yards receiving), and was third in the Associated Press Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. Benard was behind Green Bay Packers running back Eddie Lacy of Gretna, Louisiana and San Diego Chargers wide receiver Keenan Allen of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Bernard reached 100 yards rushing thrice in his career. He had a career-high 137 yards rushing on October 12, 2014 in a 37-37 Bengals tie with the Carolina Panthers. Bernard also had 123 rushing yards in a 24-19 Bengals win over the San Diego Chargers on September 20, 2015, and 116 rushing yards in a 26-17 Bengals win over the Detroit Lions on December 24, 2017.

In the postseason, Bernard has played six games. He had 34 rushes for 123 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown, along with 22 catches for 160 yards. Bernard’s lone postseason touchdown came on January 16, 2022 in the NFC Wildcard Game, a 31-15 Tampa Bay win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Bernard had a two-yard rush to begin the scoring at the minute mark of the first quarter.

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