{"id":41228,"date":"2026-04-16T03:58:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/uar-bernard-nigerian-hoping-for-nfl-draft-success-after-ipp-stint\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:58:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:58:28","slug":"uar-bernard-nigerian-hoping-for-nfl-draft-success-after-ipp-stint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/uar-bernard-nigerian-hoping-for-nfl-draft-success-after-ipp-stint\/","title":{"rendered":"Uar Bernard: Nigerian hoping for NFL Draft success after IPP stint"},"content":{"rendered":"


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What is impressive about Bernard’s progress to date is that he did not play organised sports as young child, and only started in his mid-teens playing football and then, increasingly, basketball at school.<\/p>\n

His sporting heroes growing up were Barcelona and Brazil forward Ronaldino and NBA stars Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan – and all three remain big inspirations for the NFL hopeful.<\/p>\n

Bernard was first introduced to American football in 2023 when a coach of a team in Lagos State noticed his athleticism and encouraged him to attend a three-day training camp in Abuja.<\/p>\n

“He saw my resilience, physical dominance, size and strength, and believed those qualities would translate really well to American football,” Bernard told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

“After that initial introduction, in 2024 I was invited to several camps in Nigeria, and then more in Egypt.”<\/p>\n

That is where Umenyiora, a two-time Super Bowl winner born in the United Kingdom to Nigerian parents, steps in.<\/p>\n

In his role as lead ambassador for NFL Africa, which held its first events in Ghana in 2022,<\/a> he works to identify talent from across the continent and develop it to join the IPP.<\/p>\n

Umenyiora observed Bernard at some of those camps, and the young Nigerian was instructed to embark on a year of physical and technical preparation to move to the next level.<\/p>\n

At a key NFL talent camp in Cairo last year, Bernard was selected for the IPP programme.<\/p>\n

With American football still growing in Africa, exposure to the sport can be limited.<\/p>\n

“The biggest challenge is access to proper training and infrastructure,” Umenyiora, a former defensive end for the New York Giants, said.<\/p>\n

“Many young athletes with exceptional natural ability simply don’t have the facilities, resources, or structured pathways that are available elsewhere.”<\/p>\n

But, as NFL Africa expands its reach, Umenyiora confirms the organisation is seeing increased participation and clearer development routes, and is beginning to close the opportunity gap for young athletes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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What is impressive about Bernard’s progress to date is that he did not play organised sports as young child, and only started in his mid-teens playing football and then, increasingly, basketball at school. His sporting heroes growing up were Barcelona and Brazil forward Ronaldino and NBA stars Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan – and all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41230,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41228\/revisions\/41230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}