Bernard played with torn rotator cuff

Rocky Bernard knew what people were saying about him last season and he also knew they were right. He wasn’t playing up to his potential. He wasn’t proving to be worthy of the free-agent contract he had just signed. But he also knew something everyone else didn’t. He knew why. Bernard, now 31 and entering his second season with the Giants, played all of last season with a partially torn rotator cuff in his shoulder - - a painful injury he said he could feel on nearly every play. That’s the reason, he said, that he had only one sack, 22 tackles and was reduced to a bit player in the defense by the end of last season. And yes, he said, it was tough to fight through the pain and never say a word. “It is frustrating, really,” Bernard told the Daily News today. “You never want to use injuries as an excuse. But when you have such a tough injury like that, it’s one of those things where you can play through it, but you know you’re n...