Give credit to Teddy Bridgewater. He never gave up on his football dreams, even though they likely looked much different than what he thought they would be.
Bridgewater, 32, is still young enough to be playing in the NFL, but he retired last season after a nearly 10-year NFL career, stating a desire to be a head football coach at the college level.
So far, so good on that goal for Bridgewater. He became the head coach at Miami Northwestern — his high school alma mater — and he's quickly turned the Bulls around. He's turned them so far around, in fact, that they'll be playing in the Florida 3A state championship against Jacksonville Raines High School.
To put this feat into perspective, Miami Northwestern reportedly had gone through two head coaches in two seasons. With turnovers comes instability, but Bridgewater quickly righted the ship, and now he has the Bulls playing for "the ship."
Bridgewater played college ball at Louisville before being drafted in the first round (No. 32 overall) by the Minnesota Vikings in 2014. He was an All-Rookie team member for the Vikings after passing for 2,919 yards and 14 touchdowns (12 interceptions). He played in 13 games as a rookie, starting 12 of them.
He had one Pro Bowl season in 2015 when he threw for 3,231 yards and 14 touchdowns with nine interceptions while rushing for three touchdowns.
Bridgewater suffered a non-contact ACL injury in the summer of 2016, which effectively derailed his career. He never got that "juice" back from his Pro Bowl season and was largely a backup quarterback in the league until he retired in 2023.
Things have worked out for both him and Miami Northwestern, though.
