{"id":772698,"date":"2026-07-19T21:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/772698\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T21:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:20:10","slug":"steelers-rookie-germie-bernard-reveals-meaning-behind-no-17-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/772698\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers Rookie Germie Bernard Reveals Meaning Behind No. 17 Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germie Bernard\u2019s first NFL jersey number comes with a fitting connection.<\/p>\n

The Steelers rookie chose No. 17 in honor of his favorite receiver, Davante Adams. As fate would have it, Adams also happens to be one of Aaron Rodgers\u2019 favorite targets \u2014 and teammates \u2014 of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ain\u2019t gonna lie, they had some weak numbers available,\u201d Bernard said via Bigtime Talks with Johnathan Hankins<\/a>. \u201cObviously I was five in college, but Jalen Ramsey, he\u2019s got five, so yeah we not touching that. But they had 17 open, and one of my favorite receivers is Davante Adams\u2026I\u2019ve been watching his film for a long time. I don\u2019t go on YouTube and watch his highlights, I go in the film room and watch his highlights. I watch games, like really dive deep into his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams is widely considered one of the best and most technically sound route runners in NFL history. Some of that is his God-given ability, but he was also formed into that player by playing in Mike McCarthy\u2019s offense with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.<\/p>\n

The fact that Bernard grew up watching all-22 coaches\u2019 film on Adams is great news for the Steelers. Not only does that mean he is a student of the game, but he seeks to model his play after one of the best to ever do it. So much so that he took Adams\u2019 number out of respect.<\/p>\n

The last notable receiver to wear No. 17 in Pittsburgh was Mike Wallace from 2009 to 2012. Bernard doesn\u2019t have that kind of speed, but his well-rounded game is reminiscent of what makes Adams so special. Coincidentally, both were second-round picks in loaded WR classes.<\/p>\n

Wearing the same number as Davante Adams is easy. Developing into the kind of receiver who earns Rodgers\u2019 trust<\/a> is the much bigger challenge.<\/p>\n

When Aaron Rodgers looks downfield to throw the ball, hopefully Bernard reminds him of Adams for more than just the No. 17 on his chest.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germie Bernard\u2019s first NFL jersey number comes with a fitting connection. The Steelers rookie chose No. 17 in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[329742,31130,109101,329743,349,99],"class_list":["post-772698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-bigtime-talks","tag-davante-adams","tag-germie-bernard","tag-johnathan-hankins","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}