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The Daily Tar Heel

Giovani Bernard playing rookie season at Cincinnati

Since April, former North Carolina tailback Giovani Bernard has signed a $5.253 million contract with the Cincinnati Bengals, scored two NFL preseason touchdowns and starred in the HBO series “Hard Knocks”.

But he’s jealous of you.

That’s right, Bernard, a second-round pick in this year’s NFL draft, might be living out every football player’s dream but, like most people, he wants what he can’t have.

He wants to go to class.

“I definitely miss Chapel Hill,” Bernard said Tuesday. “I heard today was the first day of classes so I’m a little jealous of all the guys that were able to go to class and I was in meetings all day.”

After all, Bernard is only 21 — the youngest player on the Cincinnati Bengals’ roster. When he entered the draft in December 2012, Bernard still had two seasons of college eligibility left.

As the youngest — and second-shortest player — on the team, Bernard has taken up the role of the team’s kid brother.

Assuming the role of the younger sibling to 88 men on the training camp roster is just one of the many drawbacks of being a rookie.

Like all rookies, Bernard is subject to pranks and other welcoming activities orchestrated by team veterans. But he’s found a way to avoid the dreaded rookie haircuts.

“I usually just grab cookies from upstairs in the training room,” Bernard said. “And just hey, they need cookies and stuff? I’ll just say, ‘Man, I’ve got a cookie for ya. Here you go, bud.’”

Former UNC teammate and fellow tailback A.J. Blue didn’t know until recently that Bernard was fending off the veterans with bribes, but he isn’t surprised.

“He’s a very unique guy and that comes in all types of ways with him,” Blue said. “I’m not a bit surprised about the cookie deal. I thought it was just because he was a great player.”

Like most younger siblings, Bernard also goes through his share of teasing — but after spending a year with coach Larry Fedora, lighthearted jabs about his height are nothing new.

“I think I’m used to it now,” Bernard said. “I think Fedora kinda just already battered it into my brain that I’m short, so I just go with all the short jokes now.”

Bernard’s Cincinnati teammates not only tease him about his size, but also his ride.

In the first scene of the “Hard Knocks” season premiere Bernard admits to driving a car not usually a part of an NFL player’s fleet of vehicles — a gold Honda Odyssey.

“It’s not my car, it’s my girlfriend’s mom’s car, so I may buy it off of her if my funds are pretty good,” Bernard said, laughing. “But we’ll see how it goes.”

For the first few weeks of training camp, Bernard managed to evade his teammates’ taunting about his non-glamorous ride, but after the publicity from the show, that anonymity was over.

He might have been temporarily invisible in his nontraditional ride, but he’s anything but on the field.

Under the tutelage of league veteran BenJarvus Green-Ellis, featured in Gillette Deodorant’s Built for Training web series, Bernard has thrived in the preseason, scoring a touchdown in each preseason game.

In his first game against Atlanta, Bernard got plenty of touches and scored a touchdown.

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But he’s not satisfied with simply putting points on the board.

“I had a previous carry it was like 43 yards or something and I got down at the one yard line,” Bernard said. “So that’s probably why I didn’t like it so much, because I knew I could’ve gotten it in the play before.”

With his game-winning touchdown against N.C. State nearly a year a go, Bernard instantly became a part of Tar Heel lore — but the rest of the country might not have been as aware of the young gun.

The visibility and face time he’s getting Tuesday nights on “Hard Knocks,” and likely to get Sundays, are changing that.

“I’m sure he is, he’s got a pretty face,” said Fedora when told that Bernard was on camera frequently. “You guys all know and we all know how special a guy he really is. And I’m not talking about just as a player, but as a person.

“He’s a quality young man. Now the entire country is getting to see that through that show.”

Bernard is busy taking care of business in Cincinnati for the next few months, but he could be back on campus in the near future.

“I want to finish school right now, but I don’t really have the time to,” Bernard said. “I’ll definitely be back very soon taking classes and what not.”

Will he take classes in Chapel Hill?

“Eventually,” he said. “Eventually.”

sports@dailytarheel.com