Originally noticed playing basketball as a teenager, Bernard was invited by former New York Giant and Atlanta Falcon defensive end Osi Umenyiora to participate in the 2024 NFL Nigeria camp.
Bernard would work out at several other football camps over three years in Africa before he was selected for the NFL’s International Player Pathway program class of 2026, the same program that produced Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata, an Australian, who was chosen in the seventh round of the 2018 Draft.
Uar Bernard: “It’s a dream come true for me because I’ve worked hard for this. I’ve not played football, but I’ve gone through some drills that made me believe that I’m going to get better every day. I thank God for everything. I thank God for life. I thank God for the opportunities given to me to be drafted by the Eagles.”
Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman: “We wanted to take the chance on the kid. Obviously, we’ve had great success with that program. We spent a lot of time with him. Coach [Defensive Line / Senior Defensive Assistant/Associate Head Coach Clint] Hurtt went down there and spent the day with him, worked him out. You know, just for us, it was a passion project. Obviously, he’s got a lot of tools in his body. Understand it’s going to take time. It’s going to take a lot of time here. It was pretty cool. We spent a lot of time talking about unusual, you know, and certainly unusual with that guy.”