#NFLVideos: Giovanni Bernard: Overcoming the Loss of His Son, Training for an Ironman, Investing in Real Estate

Giovanni Bernard: Overcoming the Loss of His Son, Training for an Ironman, Investing in Real Estate

there was a hurricane that came and wiped out Augusta and like power lines were down. I I can’t remember the name of it, but they cancelled that that Iron Man half iron. Um and then essentially I was like, “Well, my wife’s going to the hospital next week. I really ain’t got no other time. I’m just going to go do it by myself.” So I literally did a 70.3 by myself in South Florida. Uh it was like September so it was probably heat index like 102 103 and just got actually absolutely baked and it was yeah it was tough. What’s up everybody? I’m Peanut Tilman and this is the NFL players second acts podcast and with me as always my trusty co-host Roman I smoke the bear harper. Yeah, I don’t know. Um, thank you. Appreciate it. Really looking forward to this next guest that we have, man. He’s been a very entertaining running back in the league for a long time. And now he’s doing different things in his second career. Man, I really want to get into it and let him dive and share with us exactly how he’s been living out his dream. Second round running back uh in the 2013 NFL draft, played 10 seasons, played for the Bengals and the Bucks. Now he’s in real estate and he is a photographer. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the pod Giovanti Bernard. I feel like we got to get like real applause or we need to get because we need to sign dope ass intros and then it’s just like like two people clapping like your mom bigger room. It’s a bigger room this time. Sometimes it gets really loud. Sorry, Gio. It’s just it’s all good. We’re going to be working on it. We’ll we’ll we’ll put that in on YouTube version. All right. We’ll add that in. Um, well, welcome to the pod, man. How how’s life? Life is good. Uh, it’s been busy. I could I could I could definitely say that it’s been busy. And, you know, a lot of people talk about, you know, retirement and just, you know, how, you know, difficult it is to, you know, go into that next chapter and this and that, but to be honest, man, it’s been it’s been busy, but it’s been so much fun and it’s been so rewarding. Um, there’s a lot of stuff. I mean, I’m sure we’ll kind of get into it a lot, but I’ve learned a a lot about myself to be honest and um it’s just been a lot of fun, man. I really appre, you know, really enjoyed it and really appreciate you guys having me on here. Why has it been fun and tell me something interesting that you maybe have learned about yourself in retirement? So, in December, uh my wife and I had twins. Um I think when you add two to the already one that we had, um it creates, you know, some some different, you know, aspects that I saw on IG. I didn’t know you were both twins. I thought you just had like some little babies like No. Yeah. So, we had identical girl twins. Um they were born early. Um it’s there. It’s a long kind of story, but at the end of the day, uh the girls came, you know, girls came early. They’re healthy. Um they’re growing. All the markers are great. Um but it was a very rare type of pregnancy. The type of twins that they were, they’re called monommono twins. Essentially, they shared the same sack and the same placenta from the mother. So, there was no real border in between them. So, with that being said, it’s a high risk because the umbilical cord can get wrapped around either one of them. Gotcha. So, my wife essentially spent 10 weeks bed rest um at the hospital and I was just back with my son um at the time and uh just doing the thing. Yeah, just doing the thing. Do you get them confused? To be honest, every once in a while I do, but we have earrings to distinguish the two. So Ka has like little, you know, hearts on there and then uh Shay, she has like little moons. So I only reason I said that I was on my IG was doing some research this morning and this this feed popped up and it was parents getting their twins confused and and it was most of most of the time it was the dad. The dad couldn’t tell who who was. To be honest, it really don’t matter at this age. You know what I mean? Like they they really doing the same. The dad couldn’t tell who who was. And then the boys, he had it there was these older boys and they started messing with their dad and it was like let’s get him. And he did they came out and he goes, “Ah, and he he’s cursing. He’s looking.” He’s like, “God dang it. Look, I just need so and so to do the pick up the trash and so and so do the leaves. That’s all I need.” And they were like, “Well, which one is who, dad?” And he’s like, “God dang it, guys.” And they’re probably like 12 and they knew their dad couldn’t tell them apart. So yeah, hopefully they can help. I’m sure at one point or another, like I’ve already gotten them mixed up. That’s that that’s that’s beside the point. But as I get older, hopefully I can find different signs on on the both of them that says, “Okay, you are you and you were them.” And yeah, so we’ll figure it out. I just think that’s so cool. Like I’d actually never heard of this mono mono. Yeah, it’s the rarest type of twins. And it’s because it’s identical. Fraternal twins can can be hereditary, so you know, passed down by genes and all that, but identical twins are by chance only. So pure chance. And we had the highest risk, lowest percentage of survival type of twins and they’re healthy. That’s so cool. What a blessing. Yeah. I just had That’s the blessings. People like I want a boy. I want a girl, bro. At the end of the day, cuz I had a I had a daughter, some heart complications, whatever. Um, at the end of the day, you just want healthy kids. Boy or girl, I just want healthy kids. And sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but even before then last year, we had lost one. Um, so we lost his his name was Gabriel and we lost him at 22 weeks. So my wife still had to kind of go through the entire process and that was a court accident. So nothing that we did wrong. So it was just just how it worked and and now we got blessed with two. And dude, it’s it’s unbelievable this past, you know, really since I retired what life has kind of been like, you know, and obviously I learned a lot about myself when I say that in the sense of, you know, just having I’m I’m big on my faith. um just putting full just letting go of control cuz when you’re playing you try to control everything. You kind of you know you try to right but there’s some circumstances and some times where you really just have to let go and just let God kind of take you know take that wheel and to just drive your life and really this past year has kind of been one of those moments where I just let go and um and he blessed us with two two two additional you know and um just super thankful that they’re healthy that they’re doing their things and um yeah just super grateful. That’s probably one of the hardest things though is when you when you’re dealing with something uh just uh in a life event, a very serious life event, and you got to let go. For me, I know with my daughter, her her um her health situation about that. I I didn’t know that. Oh, yeah. No worries. No worries. Um she had she ended up having a heart transplant after the whole thing. But you read since day one, you’re young and have faith. Have faith. Have faith. You think you have faith until you actually go through something. Then it’s like, “Oh, wow. I really got to I know I say it, but now I really got to practice it.” And it was probably the hardest thing I had to go through because I didn’t have any control over it. And big, strong, small, tall, physical, you got money, you can you think you can. Yeah. You can just do what you want to do because you got money. And this was one of those situations where you couldn’t do nothing. And it’s just like, I just got to pray. Kind of feel a little helpless, but I just got to drop to my knees, start praying, give it to the Lord. It’s Yeah. I’m just say it test 100% a testament. So, I I know exactly what you’re going through or what you went through. So, yeah. And to be honest, my wife is she’s really been, you know, people talk about the man being the leader of the family, this and that, but you know, it’s one of those things that how my wife has handled herself. Um, and to really still be the type of person that she is has blown my mind. You know, sometimes you don’t really see your wife going through struggles like that. You know, like, you know, I’m not going to say like things were given to her, this kind of stuff, but, you know, we never really had a big, you know, moment like that as a as a, you know, being in a couple. Um, and when something like that happens, you you have no idea which way it’s going to go. You can go left, you can go right. You don’t you don’t really know. But to for us to have stayed the way that we did and for us to learn about each other the way we did um during that process, man, it was just Yeah, it was unbelievable. And I’ve Yeah, she’s So, if anything, that process, would you say it brought you and your wife closer together? Oh, 100%. And you know, you know, people talk about regrets and things like, man, like as much as I want Gabriel to be here with us, I don’t think we would have had the twins if we didn’t. And I don’t think my wife and I’s relationship would be as strong. Mhm. Not that not saying that we were, you know, that things were happening before. Not not at all. Like we were great, but I think you reach a different level when you go through a life event like that. Absolutely. You know what I mean? And um No. You know. Yeah. So, it’s just kind of one of those things like I just we saw a different side of each other and we leaned on each other. And that’s what you want in a relationship, right? Well, I want to say this, man. Uh it’s a blessing to hear both of you guys sharing that story again personally. Uh from somebody that has not had to go through a tragic moment like that from my lucky self. He’s so lucky, man. It’s just, you know, it’s just what what God has for all of us is for us. And you really don’t get to pick and choose on your own. And so, um, I’m going to switch gears a little bit and try and get talk about a little bit about your career. Um, you know, we all have the these moments. You’ve talked about a few moments that you shared with us in your post uh post retirement career, but I want to go back to your NFL career. What was your first welcome to the NFL moment? My rookie year, we had Vontz Perfect. Um, you know, we had Ray Maluga, we had Taylor Mazize, we had, uh, Reggie Nelson, we had James Harrison was on our team at the time. Uh, we had Carlos, we tons of guys on the defensive side of the ball. And when I was in college, you know, you coming out like you’re a running back, nobody really trying to tackle you in practice, you know, they kind of keep it easy, whatever. And you, especially when you have uppers on, right? You just have uppers, no lowers. And, you know, and you were also the main man in North Carolina. Yeah. So, so nobody’s touched me, right? Everybody just, you know, threw it on. Let’s just you was deal with this man. Go ahead. So it was just tagging off, right? So that’s kind of what I expected. It was like the third day, you know, when you could start putting pads on. So we just did uppers only that day. And um I’ll never forget, man. I went through that line smooth broke through like a you know, got that got up to the secondary. George Eloa, he’s from Boise State. He was secondyear guy at the time. Came up and just put that shoulder right in my chest. He was a safety. Yes. Oh, went down and then it was just like, okay, everybody’s going to tag off on Gio today, right? That was early in practice. Vontz hit me later on in practice and then I got hit by somebody else later on in practice. After practice, Marvin Lewis called everybody up and put his arms. He said, “Go, come here.” Put his arms around me in the middle of the huddle. Said, “This is our guy. We don’t want to hurt him.” You know how you know how soft I felt, bro? He he took so much pride pride from me by saying that. You could have left me in the back. Don’t even say nothing. Don’t bring me up in front of everybody. I’m a rookie and Oh, come on, man. So, man, ever since that day, every time I have put that helmet on, as long as we got a helmet on, it’s full contact of me. You know what I mean? So, I learned a lot from that little moment. But I’ll never forget somebody just bringing somebody up in the middle of the entire team. Hardox was on us, too. So, that was on it, too. So, and then he put his arms around me said, “Hey, man. Hey, fellas. this is our guy. We don’t want to hurt him, right? We want to take care of our own. I’m just like, goodness gracious, man. Don’t do that to me. So, that was my welcome to the NFL. Was the hardest hit you took? Probably practice. And probably in practice. Okay. Hardest one. Hardest one. What about gamewise? Someone just gave you the business where you was just like, “Yeah, dang, coach. I don’t even want the ball no more. He got me too good.” Yeah. I mean, I know I had one in uh it was a wild card game 2015 where Shayer hit me and I was knocked out, but I you know, when you get knocked out, you don’t really know what you don’t feel nothing, right? I just got knocked out. I woke up. I’m cool, right? But as far as like hits like that, you you know, you kind of have to stumble off the field to, you know, or they call timeout. You have to they have to come get you. Um, I was playing against the Colts and it was a swing route and Vonte Davis and and I had worked out with him and you know obviously all the stuff that has happened. Um, I’ve worked out with him down here. He was a Miami guy and we would work out quite a bit and you know I’m playing against him so you know we met each other before the game just chopping it up whatever. I had a swing route you know little swing route to the left and it was covered too. He was just chilling there. Andy didn’t see him. It is what it is. got me right. It was like one of those Reggie Bush heads. You remember that? Yeah, it was kind of like that. I was actually was that the same effect though? Was it like Oh yeah, it was that. It was that rolling on the ground. Can’t breathe. I didn’t roll on the ground. But you know I it hurt me, right? So I got up, went to the sideline cuz it was definitely I they had to come get me. Like I got off to the sideline. I came back. It was a third down play. I was on first down, missed second down, came back for the third down play. Same type of play. It was more of a checkown this time instead of like a played route. same type of hit, same location, same person. And I was like, “Come on, man.” I just laid there. I couldn’t do nothing. So, that was it. So, going into this uh wild card game, let’s let’s go let’s go back to that. What was what was one of the memories you take away from that game? Well, cuz it was it was a back and forth like Yeah. And and I think part of it too is like we played Pittsburgh later on in the season that year and um it was like a little screen pass to myself and it it got intercepted by somebody and then Andy tried to make a tackle on that play and mess his thumb up. Mhm. So we were hoping that he would be ready for this wild card game, but he wasn’t. AJ McCarron had to step in and play and he played well, right? Um, we just dropped the ball with how we reacted to certain situations in the game. It is what it is. I was knocked out by, you know, third quarter, so I was already out. But, you know, it’s just that’s part of it, man. Like you, you know, certain teams that don’t necessarily make it every year. And that was kind of one of the years where we we’ve had the teams. We’ve been in the wild cards. We had we had the players to do it. It was just we weren’t experienced enough to go deep into the playoffs or we haven’t had the experience of going deep in the playoffs to really understand what it takes to win that first wild card game. So, it is what it is, man. A lot of people learn a lot of things and um yeah, it’s part of the game. When you first got into the league, all right, your first three years, you go for over a thousand yards in each of your seasons. First three seasons. I mean, at that point, was it NFL easy? Like how did you expect the rest of your career to kind of go after that? I’m sure we’re having that much success early. I’ve always been the type of person I never had fun playing. I was always just like I got to I got to get it. Simple as that. Like ain’t nothing to it. Especially growing up down here. Like it’s fun to play the game, but at the end of the day, there’s parents and there’s coaches, there’s fans betting on, you know, six-year-olds. Well, you also went to St. Thomas, correct? Yeah. So, it’s it’s a real thing, right? So for me it was all about like you got a ball and that’s that’s it, right? And um so for me, you know, those first three years that I was doing my job, right? And I and I felt that I never I never really appreciated doing the job. I just did it because that was that was second nature. Whether good or bad, what it is what it is, you never smell stopped to smell. Yeah. No, like now I do. Now I think about it, I’m like that was kind of decent. You know what I mean? Like you good, right? And to be honest, like and it was kind of part of the later career when I spent a couple years in Tampa. Some of those memories were some of my most favorite cuz I I was it was I didn’t care about the yards. I didn’t care about the TDs, man. Like I didn’t care about any of that. I was just I just want to go out and have fun and play ball, right? And I remember there was a game against the Dolphins. Uh it was my first year in Tampa and I had messed up my knee. I some MCL thing and I came back that game, missed one game, came back that game and my first play was a third and I don’t know maybe third and six and you know I come in they they expecting some you know some route from the running back right I ran a choice it was in the goal line against Miami and I was able to score and that touchdown was probably my most favorite touchdown that I’ve ever had in my entire football career and it wasn’t because okay I scored it was because the fact that I missed a game and the fact that I enjoyed coming back that I just just took in the moment and that I was just I was able to earn my spot in a way. I don’t I don’t know. It was weird, but I enjoyed that moment and that was probably one of my most memorable touchdowns to be honest. What was it like being in Cincinnati and you guys were rolling like y’all you guys are winning but you just can’t get over that the wild card hump. That must be terrible. Yeah, man. It was it was tough. And you know, it’s one of those things like we we always had the players to do it always. We we just never understood and I think that comes from the experience of playing in the in the playoffs, right? Like having that exper having having some guys that come in whether you know you know trades, whatever it may be, some guys that have had that experience to play what what does it take, right? Um we just didn’t we didn’t know. Um most of the guys that were you know that I was with those guys have we’ve we were all drafted by Cincy. We were all there, right? So, we never just had that experience, but um we always had the, you know, the caliber team to be able to do it. We just for whatever reason lose our cool, whatever it is. I don’t know. I want to talk about the timing of your career, too. Maybe like when I put it all together, cuz I don’t think I realized this about you, Gio. Um was that So, 2020 was your last year with the Bengals. Yep. And you guys didn’t go to the playoffs that year. No, we we was trash. So, that was the same year that the Bucks won the Super Bowl, correct? All right. Then you go to Don’t tell me that. And then I was like, here we go. So then you go to the Bucks and 2021 was the first year. Yep. And then won the wild card, but the Bengals went to the Super Bowl that year versus the Rams. For sure. For sure. All right. And then All right. But it was the one season uh where you played you actually did win a playoff game. So that was good. Yeah, for sure. And I think if if that game hadn’t happened versus the Eagles, that wild card game, cuz uh Lenny was like the main guy, but he wasn’t playing that game. So, and to be honest, a lot of the guys weren’t I think everybody was like, “All right, we’ll just wait.” Cuz they they knew the type of team that they were, and they’re like, “We’ll just wait till the second game. We’ll just wait, you know, so we’ll just miss this wild card game. Y’all y’all good.” Yeah. Y’all replacements just handled that real quick. I felt like I had a decent game. Had a couple, you know, couple catches, couple carries, whatever. Um and we ended up winning that game and that was my first playoff win, right? And um Cincy obviously went to uh the Super Bowl and did what they did. And yeah, and like I it was weird cuz I didn’t I didn’t really feel like I missed out. I I didn’t like I I enjoyed cuz again I was telling this like I enjoyed myself so much that year cuz I just took a different approach to the game. like I my mind was just it was somewhere else. And um yeah, I just really enjoyed that year and I was able to make some really good uh friendships on that team. Really good people over there. Um and yeah, man, I I you know, I I’ve always been the type of person, you make a decision, you live with it. It is what it is. Forget about everything else. I want to get into the your second act. Yeah. Right. So, you’re done playing football, you’re in the second act, you’re in retirement. How did you get into photography? Yeah. So, I will say that I’ve seen I’ve seen some of your pictures. Yeah. Yeah. To be honest, I really haven’t done much lately with photography. Yeah. Bro, that’s plenty of like two brand new. It’s um so yeah, it to be honest, the photography thing kind of started like way back when in like 2016. I tore my ACL in Cincy and you know, I was like, I got to get out the house. you know, yeah, I’ve already done like my rehab, whatever. And, you know, I’m done for the day. I’m I don’t really feel like sitting in on meetings. And so, I just, you know, I picked up a camera. That’s when Instagram and social media was kind of, you know, just jumping off at that time. And I take photos, whatever. And, uh, my wife, you know, my wife’s beautiful and I love taking photos of her. And, um, so she became, you know, like my little muse and I would just take photos of her. And I was wondering, I thought that was his wife. I figured it was your wife. I saw the stalking her. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I just figured it was because it’s like damn it’s the same woman. She pregnant in this one. I’m just assume that’s his boob. I’m just that’s his boob. Okay, good. I was She’s a natural model the way she does her poses and stuff like that. Good. Um so yeah, so she you know she she became that person and uh you know eventually I started just ended up just doing like you know I did the maternity photos, I did our engagement photos, I did you know the kids photos and stuff like that and um it just became fun. I pick it up every once in a while. I don’t really have the time now, but what I do have the time for is cycling. Like I’ve really actually picked up on cycling and um running and just endurance sports. Um that’s kind of to be honest, I really feel like that’s my second act more so than photography. I ain’t Yeah. Get into it. Tell me. Yeah. So, when I retired from Tampa, it was about I we just had exit meetings and it was like one or two and I knew I was done. I was like, I’m done. Like I I walked off that field. Um I was like, I I already know I’m done. Um, so that next day after the exit means I got back home. I was like, I’m going to go see how far I can run. And we was in Tampa close to Bay Shore. And I was like, I’m just going to see. I ran like a mile and a half. My back was all tight. My legs were just, oh man, it was brutal. But there was something in me that said, “Ah, okay. Let’s try to get better.” Right? So, I just picked it up and I just would try to go further and further and further and then I would reach a point, okay, let me see how fast I could do, you know, 3, four miles or whatever. I would just do that and then long story short, I would just wake up early at 5:00 and I would just did that for like a good year. While I was running down here in South Florida on A1A, I met this I ran into this guy, his name’s Mike and uh he was an Iron Man guy, right? He did, you know, that swim, cycle, run kind of guy. And he was like, “Man, like you rolling like you could you could pick it up, right?” And I’m like, “Yeah, you know, I used to play ball.” So we just started chopping. We started running together. And then um he was like, “You should just get a bike, right? just just get a get a road bike. I was like, “All right, I’ll go, you know, go drop, you know, a couple couple hundred.” That’s how it starts. Yeah, that’s how it started. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, “All right, I’ll go pick up a bike, you know, whatever.” Yeah. I was go pick up a bike. And then, um, we went, you know, I did my own little thing and I went 30 miles like on the first day. And he texted me. He was like, “Why would you ever ride your bike 30 like how did you feel?” I was like, “Fine.” And um, yeah. Then it just kind of progressed into this thing of, “Well, you should you might as well just try swimming like see see how you can.” Did you know how to swim before? No, I mean I’m sorry. I knew how to swim, but not like not no lap nothing in like around with the homies just leisure like Yeah, I’m going to sit I’m going to sit right here with my drink and then Yeah, I’m not going to drown. No, I’m not going to drown. I’m going to be all right growing up down here. You got to be all right. You know, you got to be an eight swimmer. You got to be all right. So, um, so yeah. So, I went into, you know, little swimming hall of fame in Lauderdale and did like a, you know, a 50 and like, dude, I was like, it was it was it was brutal. it was impossible. And I was like, people do this for like a mile and they do this for 2 miles? Like, are you crazy? So, again, you know, that mentality just kind of picked up and just got better at it. And um, you know, I ended up hiring a coach cuz I wanted to do this uh 70.3 in Georgia. And this was this was when I I wanted to do this one specifically because it was prior to my wife having to go to the hospital for the twins. So, I had to do it. That was the only date that I had. So, I had like nine weeks to learn how to swim, you know, really run long distance and then bike and, you know, that whole thing. There was a hurricane that came and wiped out Augusta and like power lines were down. I I can’t remember the name of it, but they canled that that Iron Man half iron. Um, and then essentially I was like, well, my wife’s going to the hospital next week. I really ain’t got no other time. I’m just going to do in the I’m just going to go do it by myself. So, I literally did a 70.3 by myself in South Florida. Uh it was like September so it was probably heat index like 102 103 and just got actually absolutely baked and it was yeah it was tough but I did it. So where did you do the swimming at? You did the swimming. So I did at the swimming hall of fame there. I have my bike there. Then you boom. Yep. And then um once I got back my wife was like she would meet me at these little checkpoints and uh when I started my run she would drove next to me on the golf cart you know whether handing me water or whatever. And then uh essentially I just ran back home and yeah, that was it. Dude, that’s awesome. I like that. That is a lot of people wouldn’t do that. No, not by themselves. Iron Man by yourself is So I’ll hold on to that. I didn’t You had You had your wife there committed with you. Yeah. You know, you mean shout out. Shout out to the wife. You held him down. It’s all good. You said something before you talked about your Iron Man. I I think it’s important. Well, I wanted to hear is that you like I knew I was done. Yeah. Was 10 years? Was that always a goal? Because it sounded nice. Yeah. Cuz for me, somebody told me like, you know, you can play nine, 10 years, like if you keep your head on, right? So for me was like, okay, 10 years is what’s up. So like that was just the goal. That was mine. 10. Yeah. 10 out of it. Like every year after that was just like a it was like a was a bonus. But 10 just sound Yeah. I think I to be honest, I really do feel 10 one 10 sounded nice. I like, you know, I didn’t I didn’t want to try to scrap for another two or whatever it may be. I I didn’t want to do that. Like I had other passions outside of football that I I really just really wanted to go after, right? And like I think one of the things for me growing up or in the earlier parts of my career, I was always excited for what life looked like postball. I I just was excited about it. I understood like I had to do what I had to do. Like I get all that, but I was excited for all of the fruits and of all the stuff that I’ve done, whether that was pee-wee football, high school, whatever. I was excited to, you know, hopefully experience that once I retired. And thankfully enough, man, I got 10 out of it. And I was like, I’m cool. I’m going to go home. You know what I mean? Like, I’m good. And, you know, I enjoy, you know, I enjoy being around my peoples. And um my little one was at the time where I I enjoyed like spending the time with him. I take him he’s like my little partner. I would just take him everywhere, right? So um just truly enjoyed that that and it wasn’t it really wasn’t a hard decision for me at all. Like I was like I’m good. So I know you’re into real estate. I’ve dabbled into it a little bit but I just it doesn’t interest me. It’s kind of slow and I don’t want to say boring. It just doesn’t Yeah. I like the end result. Like I can go in, I see the house, but I don’t have that vision. I I I I can’t be like, “Oh, you know, we can tear this out and knock a wall down.” Are Are you a guy that does that? Because I know you’re into real estate now, right? You do everything from the rehab from start to finish. You got multiple homes. Essentially, the way I’ve kind of thought of it, I remember in 2014, so this is my second year. My brother told me about like, “Yo, he’s like, “Yeah, people are doing this thing called house hacking.” like they you know they live on one side they rent out the other with multif family. I was like ah whatever that’s I wasn’t paying any mind. Mhm. 200 later that off season 2014 I bought my first like investment property. I bought a duplex like down the street from my spot. Right. I got a rent check for like might have been like $2,100. I was that was the greatest rent check I’ve that was the greatest check that I’ve ever received. Yeah. And I became hooked then. And to be honest, I’ve just kind of grown and I’ve learned and that that’s what I would do like on my off time. I would just like look up properties and in South Florida and just look up multif family units and see what I like, see what I don’t like, areas that I like, areas that I don’t like. And I became familiar with uh you know, just things that will rent well. Um, so I I typically try not to go after the, you know, the the really dumpy spot that you can, you know, renovate and do, you know, add cost to it, all that kind of stuff. I try to just find a a good enough property in a great area. Just like anything, location, location, location. Um, and just been able to build, you know, build my portfolio that way. So I, to be honest, I haven’t really, except for one, um, I bought all of them while I was playing. They’re all paid for and it just comes in and I don’t really think about it. I hire a property management company to oversee the day-to-day because I don’t want I don’t want to call about toilets like blame you dude. I ain’t got time for that. So, you know what? They handle that and you know they just you know we’ll talk every once in a while about you know hey this happened. Hey, we got to do this, this, and that. And um yeah, and then we acquired our first one out of the state uh in Colorado, and we’ve actually used that one for ourselves. And um yeah, it’s just been a lot of fun to really just kind of build that portfolio. That’s so cool. Um I saw on your IG that you and your wife got baptized together, correct? Yeah. Day before. Was this the wedding? Sorry, my bad. No. Oh, it was before the wedding. Yeah, day before the wedding. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Tell me about it. Cuz I It looked really cold. Yeah. So, we were um so my wife’s a flight attendant. Uh she works for Delta. She’s been a flight attendant for 13 13 years now. And she it was funny. We had this conversation. She says, “I’ve been working I’ve been, you know, working professionally longer than you have.” I’m like, “Come on, you ain’t going to try me like that.” Um so, yeah. So, um she’s been a flight attendant for Delta for, you know, 13 years. And, um so one of the perks with Delta is that you can fly for free, right? So we would just hop whatever flight that looks good in standby, right? There’s nobody on the flight, we would just go. So we did we would do like three day three-day trips to Paris like during no like uh during OTAAS like you know you get done with practice on Friday, hop on that flight, you know, da da we have Monday off or whatever, come back, you’re good. Like you just had, you know, we did Valentine’s Day, we literally just went to Paris for dinner, came back, we flew first class, and we had to pay nothing but the international tax fee, which is like $100. Um, so I always, we’ve always enjoyed doing that, right? Then there was a time um, you know, I spent a, you know, I enjoyed myself a little bit. I’m not going to say I didn’t, but I ended up buying a car um, a Porsche and pre-COVID, they did this thing called a European delivery. Different brands do it and where you can go to the factory where the car is built and you could drive your car around the area, wherever, bring it back to them, they’ll ship it back to the US for you for free. So we did that. So we went to Germany. It’s we went to Suggart, picked up the Porsche, drove it to Italy, spent a week in Italy, and we went we drove to uh Como. We stayed in Ko and I we had just gotten engaged that trip. And so the trip was really about the car, not the engagement, but um I’m just kidding. It’s all good. Um so yeah, so and long story short, um ended up just deciding on doing um having our our our wedding there. We did a 50 person wedding. um rented out two villas side by side. Um essentially paid for everybody for two nights to be there. Um a lot of people made trips out of it. Um yeah, it was beautiful and you know we obviously got baptized the day before the wedding and and uh the day of the wedding it was absolutely beautiful. It was like I don’t know 50 50s upper 50s. Um yeah it was just beautiful man during that time. It looked beautiful but it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we asked all of our guests this question. Um, Mount Rushmore. You get four picks of people that have had some type of a positive influence on you and helped you become the man you are today. Outside of family, no, it can be anything. It could be anything. Anybody. This is your personal Mount Rushmore. You get four picks. Okay. If you could put those four people on the mountain, who would they be? Obviously, I I I’ll combine everybody cuz I got a lot of people. I’ll combine everybody like familywise. like you know I’ll give my slot you know my wife her own slot so that’s that’s one um but my family obviously like my brother uh my dad u those are two individuals that you know they took care of me my mom passed away when I was younger that was huge and um those are the two individuals that you know they they just did things that I just until now I never really saw. Um so that’s that. Um Chris Carter is one of those individuals. Um I played little league football with his son. He was my coach and you know he went ended up playing high school ball with his son like the one that only catches touchdowns. Yeah, that’s the one. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Coach Carter. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, he was uh instrumental in my football career for sure into just, you know, getting to where I am. Um deciding to go to St. Thomas, uh deciding to do this, deciding to do that. Um and he helped out our family quite a bit. And he didn’t have to, you know, he didn’t have to. he was still playing at the time, so he didn’t have to do any of that. Obviously, you know, I’m I’m a big faith person, so God obviously like he’s was one of those individuals with, you know, ultimate power and, you know, I’ve learned to just let everything go and and I and I’m grateful for that, man. I’m grateful that I’ve this retirement journey has been what it has because I’ve learned a lot about myself that I never knew while I was playing. Um, so I got a team chaplain. Um, he’s now with the Carolina Panthers. uh Lamorse Crawford and his family. Oh, nice. Um I still, you know, have I I literally just got off the phone with them every week. Every Wednesday, we do a call at 10 a.m. Um just to catch up, talk about life. Um but him and his family, him and Meg, his wife, they were huge into my journey uh to becoming a man. And they were the ones that baptized us in uh in KO. And um yeah, their family means a lot to our family. And um yeah, it’s a solid pick, man. Good job, Gio. Appreciate you, man. Um, I will say this, man. I I appreciate you, man. A lot of times we talk to some guys and they talk about the struggle here and the understanding of this journey in their second chapter. And man, I’ll be honest, dude, you’re flourishing. You You walk around with a great smile. You have an amazing attitude. It’s infectious. God has continued to bless and shine on you, and you you can tell. Yeah. I appreciate and uh I I’m really really love what I see out of you. This is my first time I’ve got to meet you personally. I’ve seen your watching both y. So, yeah, I’ve seen your career from afar and, uh, my boy Trey Boston would always talk about you as well. So, uh, dude, Tion, keep doing your thing, man. You You are going to continue to crush life, man. You are. You’re doing a great job. I appreciate it, man. Thank you guys for having me on. Yeah, it’s been awesome, man. No doubt, man. Apologies. We were late. It was It was Man, listen. I understand. I want to go to casino. It’s okay. So that was for those that don’t know our driver took us to the Hard Rock Casino. So that’s why we was a little late. So yeah. Well, we’re going to get out of here, man. Wherever you pick up your podcast at where Apple podcast radio app, make sure continue to give us a like, subscribe, follow, leave a couple comments, and you can also check us out on the NFL pages YouTube channel. I’m Peanut. This is Roman. That’s Gio. And this is the NFL players second act podcast. We out.

On this episode of NFL Players: Second Acts, Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper are joined by former Bengals running back Giovani Bernard to find out what he’s been up to since he retired three years ago.

Giovani opens up about the loss of his newborn son and the joy he’s found in becoming a parent of twin girls. He also explains how he dealt with the Bengals’ lack of playoff success during career and why he decided to retire after ten years.

Then Giovani shares the multiple passions he’s found in second act, including photography, endurance sports, and investing in real estate.

Timecodes:
0:00 – Start of episode
1:50 – Giovani on overcoming the loss of his newborn son and having twins
8:53 – Giovani shares his welcome to the NFL moment
13:18 – Giovani shares his memories from the 2016 Bengals-Steelers Wild Card game
14:38 – Giovani reflects on his NFL career and missing out on Super Bowls due to timing
19:34 – Giovani on getting into photography
20:39 – Giovani explains why he got into endurance sports and completed a half Iron Man
26:23 – Giovani talks about investing in real estate
29:18 – Giovani on getting baptized and married
31:19 – Giovani shares his personal Mount Rushmore
35:59 – End of episode
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