Getty Images
The Buccaneers’ second-half meltdown in Sunday’s loss to the Bengals began with a botched fake punt that saw running back Giovani Bernard supposed to get the snap and run for the first down, but instead didn’t seem to notice the snap was going off to him until the ball hit him. After the game, Bernard had testy exchanges with reporters but admitted he was to blame.
When reporters approached Bernard to ask him what happened after the game, Bernard complained that they only wanted to speak to him after something bad happened and that they hadn’t spoken to him all season. in one Video of the exchange, which was posted by ESPN’s Jenna Laine, reporters took issue with it, saying they hadn’t spoken to him because he was injured and had barely played this season. Bernard first said he didn’t want to talk.
“Can I go to my family that I have outside?” Bernard asked reporters.
After a moment, however, Bernard spoke up to take responsibility for the fake punt.
“Misunderstanding, that was all on my part,” said Bernard. “I take all the blame for that. It was entirely my fault – my fault, that’s it. It’s on me, it’s all on me, something I did wrong. It was all on me No. 25 out there, that’s me. I was the one who did it. it was just me I messed up. I messed up. Thank you guys.”
Bernard was done with that.