On Tuesday, that story arc bought even higher when the 24-year-old vast receiver earned a spot on the Falcons’ initial 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent.
It was the most recent unlikely accomplishment for Bernhardt, whose one season of school soccer got here final yr as a quarterback for Division II Ferris State, which he helped to a 14-0 report and its first national championship.
Before that, Bernhardt had a legendary profession as a lacrosse participant at Maryland, the place in 2017 he helped the Terrapins win their first nationwide title in 42 years. In 2021, after main the nation in scoring and breaking faculty data, Bernhardt gained the Tewaaraton Award — lacrosse’s model of the Heisman Trophy.
Less than 15 months later, he’s on the verge of beginning an NFL season with one of many league’s 32 groups, at a place whose nuances he’s solely starting to grasp.
Bernhardt was not obtainable for remark Tuesday, however his brother stated the nascent vast receiver’s response to the roster news was in line with his even-keeled, businesslike demeanor.
“He’s not one to be too high; he’s never too low,” Jesse Bernhardt, an assistant males’s lacrosse coach at Maryland and a former standout participant in his personal proper, stated when reached by telephone. Noting with a chuckle that it may generally be “hard to tell” how his youthful brother is feeling, he asserted: “That’s kind of what makes him and also is what has made him successful in a lot of his endeavors so far. He just has that calmness, that poise to him, regardless of the situation.”
Of the expectations that Bernhardt may flip his alternative with the Falcons into an NFL job, Jesse stated: “Most people who know him well in our family thought he could do it, but it’s a jump. … To sit here and say that I thought it was a reality, I’d probably be lying.”
Family members knew Bernhardt would totally decide to the soccer dream and, given his previous achievements, weren’t inclined to underestimate his possibilities. Still, Jesse acknowledged, a spot on an NFL workforce’s follow squad gave the impression to be a much more believable aim when his brother adopted his season at Ferris State by returning to Maryland this spring to take part within the Terrapins’ professional day in entrance of scouts and NFL executives.
Former Maryland males’s lacrosse star Jared Bernhardt stated that he’s been working towards receiver, however he’s open to enjoying any place.
Said it might be a “great feeling” for a workforce to take an opportunity on him. pic.twitter.com/7nKFk7T6U2
— Dylan Spilko (@DylanSpilko) March 30, 2022
Not surprisingly, Bernhardt went undrafted, however he caught the eye of a number of groups and ultimately agreed to hitch the Falcons. Atlanta Coach Arthur Smith, who attended highschool at D.C.-area lacrosse energy Georgetown Prep, said in June that he had “a bunch of buddies telling me about [Bernhardt].”
Following Bernhardt’s heroics in opposition to Detroit, Smith said: “You can see his spatial awareness as he went to box a guy up to get to the top of the route. So I’m excited to keep working with him.”
“I’ll say it’s been pretty eye-opening,” the coach added, “to see how quickly he’s made the transition.”
While noting that his brother had performed loads of soccer from kindergarten by way of highschool in Florida, Jesse stated it additionally helped to have performed top-tier school lacrosse. He echoed Smith’s evaluation of his brother’s “spatial awareness” and stated he was additionally expert at “getting open and playing off some contact.”
“It’s a very fluid sport,” Jesse, whose different brother, Jake, can also be on the Terrapins’ coaching staff, stated of lacrosse, “so decision-making and things of that nature happen extremely fast. I’m sure he was able to fall back on some of those traits.”
Another help of types from his former sport got here by the use of Chris Hogan, a former Penn State lacrosse star who performed one season of school soccer at Monmouth. Hogan then went from being an undrafted free agent vast receiver to having fun with a nine-season profession within the NFL that included two Super Bowl championships with the New England Patriots.
Hogan “has been great” to Bernhardt, who was “able to utilize him as a resource to expedite that process [of transitioning to wide receiver],” Jesse stated.
“I’m so proud of Jared. What he has accomplished up to this point is incredible,” Hogan stated in an e mail from a consultant. “I have been working with Jared and trying to mentor him when he decided to take on this challenge. Gave him every piece of advice I could give him about making it in the NFL, from field work, taking care of your body, film study, everything I did over the course of my ten year career. … I told him the other day after final cut day, work is just getting started for him, keep grinding and get better every day.”
Bernhardt adopted his game-winning catch in Detroit with a efficiency in opposition to the New York Jets through which he led all gamers with 67 receiving yards on three catches. Jesse and a number of other different members of his household, which he stated has roots on Long Island, had been on the Jets’ MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., to cheer him on.
Tragically unable to hitch them was the brothers’ father, Jim, a former assistant coach with the Houston Texans who died in 2019. “He would have definitely been proud,” Jesse stated of his father, who performed soccer and lacrosse at Hofstra earlier than beginning his teaching profession there and transferring on to stints at Brown, Central Florida and Penn State.
After rising up round soccer, the Bernhardt brothers perceive higher than most that “it still is a business and things could change on a dime,” Jesse stated. That has performed into the comparatively tempered response to Tuesday’s news by his brother, who just isn’t assured to nonetheless be on the 53-man roster when the Falcons’ season kicks off Sept. 11 in opposition to rival New Orleans.
If Bernhardt’s NFL trajectory begins to falter, or if he simply has a change of coronary heart about his most well-liked skilled sport, Jesse stated he wouldn’t be shocked to see his brother within the Premier Lacrosse League.
“I’m sure if he wanted to,” Jesse stated, “Like everything else he’s probably proven that he could.”
“It’s probably not a whole lot on his brain right now, though,” the older sibling added with fun. “I think he’s just trying to figure out where the heck he’s going to live.”