From NFL Spotlight to High School Sidelines: Teddy Bridgewater’s Unexpected Coaching Twist

From NFL Spotlight to High School Sidelines: Teddy Bridgewater‘s Unexpected Coaching Twist

Teddy Bridgewater was able to secure a new job quite quickly. It’s also a sentimental one for the former starting quarterback of the Broncos.

The 2014 first-round pick accepted the head coaching job at Northwestern High School in Miami.

He finished his ten-year career last Sunday, backing up the Detroit Lions in their NFC Championship Game defeat to San Francisco.

He has been a consistent supporter of the program and will lead his school at Teddy Bridgewater Field, which carries his name.

After this season, Teddy Bridgewater planned to retire

Shortly before the Lions met the Broncos in what turned out to be a 42-17 Detroit rout at Ford Field in December, the University of Louisville product disclosed his plans to the Detroit Free Press.

When he became a starter in the first month of his first season with the Minnesota Vikings, Bridgewater looked back on a whistle-stop career that wasn’t what many had anticipated.

In his second season, he led the Vikings to a division title; the team and quarterback seemed headed for greatness, even if their postseason journey came to an end when Blair Walsh missed a game-winning field goal attempt that resulted in a Seattle wild-card loss.

That was to be Bridgewater’s only postseason start, as it turned out. After what seemed to be a clutch drive that would win the game, he walked to the sidelines – until Walsh’s misfortune.

However, things took a terrible turn for Teddy Bridgewater eight months later when he sustained a terrible leg injury during a preseason session. After missing the entire 2016 season, he had trouble returning in 2017.

When he was eventually cleared to return, the Vikings had already moved on, signing Kirk Cousins in free agency after Case Keenum. They decided not to bring him back at all, or to extend his fifth-year option, due to the injury.

After then, Bridgewater’s career was never quite the same. However, it gave him time to think.

“I was young and I was trapped in this lifestyle thinking that I was a football player 24-7, and when I got hurt I realized that I’m only a football player for three hours on a Sunday afternoon,” he told the Free Press.

“Outside of that, I’m Theodore Bridgewater, so it just put everything into perspective and it really helped me not even have to think about not being a starter (anymore). It’s like, ‘Man, I still got purpose.’ And my purpose is bigger than the game of football. Football is just a platform that I have.”

With that perspective in mind, Bridgewater skillfully navigated the ensuing highs and lows of his career. In his final two seasons, he traveled around from the Jets to New Orleans, Carolina, Denver, and finally Miami and Detroit. He had a fantastic impression at every stop.

He had the highest passer rating of any starting quarterback in Denver for the 2021 season before his season was cut short by a concussion sustained in a terrifying collision against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 15. He was the first offensive player in history to get the Good Guy Award from Darrent Williams.

Now that his playing days are over, he will give back.

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