Giovani Govan Bernard (born November 22, 1991) is an American football running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at North Carolina, and was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft. Early years 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. He 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, he 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. College career 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 the ACL in his right knee 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. His season-high came against Georgia Tech on September 24, 2011, rushing for 155 yards. In mid-October 2011, Bernard 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. Bernard 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