Teddy Bridgewater Was Suspended From Coaching High School Football After Literally Being Too Good To His Players
Ryan Kang. Getty Images.Teddy Bridgewater is just a kid out of Miami Northwestern High School. It led him to a great 3-year career at the University of Louisville. That led him to a successful 11-year career in the NFL. Some of those years as a starter, some of those years as a backup. But the percentage of kids who are playing high school football right now who will get to say they played 11 years in the NFL is probably less than 0.05%. Teddy Bridgewater is part of that 0.049%.
So being the great guy that Teddy Bridgewater is, he decided that he wanted to give back to the town that raised him. He wanted to make sure he could help give kids the same opportunities he had coming out of high school. So Teddy Bridgewater went back and started coaching at Miami Northwestern High, and he led them to a state championship last season.
He's showing these kids what is possible if they are willing to work hard enough for it. He's giving his community something to rally around. He's doing everything that you could ever hope that someone with his level of success would go back and do. But for some reason, success always comes with a heightened level of scrutiny. And now Teddy Bridgewater has been suspended from his role as head coach at Miami Northwestern.
ESPN -- Former NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has been suspended from his position as a high school football coach in Miami for allegedly providing impermissible benefits to his players.
…Bridgewater posted earlier this month on Facebook that he paid for Uber rides, meals and recovery services for his players last season. He asked fans to donate to help cover such expenses this year. He said in the post confirming his suspension that he self-reported the payments to Miami Northwestern.
Let's just think about this for a minute. Teddy Bridgewater is getting suspended because he paid for Uber rides for his players--which I'm assuming were to and from practice to make sure guys could get where they needed to be on time. Paying for his kids to eat, and making sure his players' bodies were being taken care off after hard practices or games.
Imagine if we were talking about IMG Academy down in Florida right now. It could cost anywhere from $70,000 to $95,000 to go to IMG. They're a top-5 ranked team in the nation. You don't think that they are providing transportation for their players? You don't think those kids have pre and post-game meals waiting for them for every game. You don't think they have the best sports recovery services available to their players all the time? Those kids have all of those things plus more provided to them, and nobody bats an eye.
But Teddy Bridgewater goes back to his alma mater to help kids who live in an "economically disadvantaged" area. Most of the students live below the poverty level. Teddy Bridgewater isn't buying them cars and jewelry. He's just providing transportation, making sure they eat, and making sure they recover properly. All while turning the program around and helping them become champions on the field. And somehow that gets Teddy Bridgewater in trouble.
What's crazy is that it sounds like Miami Northwestern is the one suspending Teddy Bridgewater, and not the athletic association. But the best part about it is that Teddy Bridgewater loves his community too much to give a shit about any of this. Whether he's the head coach on the sideline, or just volunteering from the bleachers. He's going to help out Miami Northwestern any way he can because that's how much it means to him. You might as well just make him the principal of the school right now, and the whole place would be better for it.
