Why Bridgewater starting means so much to Miami
MIAMI GARDENS — Teddy Bridgewater starting at quarterback for the Dolphins carries much more significance in Miami than just another story of a backup replacing an injured starter.
Bridgewater is a success story out of the rough inner-city lifestyle of the Liberty City and Opa-Locka areas of Miami-Dade County and Miami Northwestern High. And for the people of those communities, to see one of their own, someone who devotes much of his time and resources to giving back to the city that raised him, it’s everything.
“To see this happen, it’s almost like Barack Obama becoming president,” Luther Campbell, the longtime rap icon from Miami who has coached youth and high school football in the area for years, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel, to put it in perspective. “For the people of this community, it’s on that level. … We never would’ve dreamed in our wildest dreams that Teddy Bridgewater, a kid from Miami, would be starting at quarterback [for the Dolphins].”
Albeit under the unfortunate circumstances of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion recovery, Bridgewater gets the start for the Dolphins (3-1) against the AFC East rival Jets (2-2) on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. Miami looks to rebound from losing its first game of 2022 and its signal-caller in Tagovailoa last time the team played on Sept. 29 in Cincinnati.
Bridgewater is set to become the Dolphins’ 24th different starting quarterback since Dan Marino retired in 1999. Although Jacoby Brissett, who started five games for Tagovailoa last year, hails from West Palm Beach and Dwyer High, and Brian Griese, the son of Dolphins Hall of Famer Bob Griese who had five starts in 2003, was born in Miami and attended Columbus High, none represent a pillar in Miami’s inner city like Bridgewater.
“It’s a huge blessing to be able to just suit up in my hometown,” Bridgewater said this past week. “I played little league football five minutes down the road at Bunche Park. So, if I leave work and go to the park, all of the little kids will come running up to me excited. If I go to the Northwestern game on Friday night, everybody will be excited. It’s such a relief, honestly, knowing that the love is genuine no matter where I go.”
Bridgewater has been reciprocating that love since returning to his hometown professionally.
He makes two or three appearances a week at Northwestern, catching as many practices and games as his schedule allows. A video of him on his high school alma mater’s sideline in September went viral as Bridgewater drew up a play on a whiteboard for his Bulls to run in a game.
“Just allowing for people to see me in the flesh,” Bridgewater said. “There are so many kids in the Bunche Park area, the Liberty City area, who want to be Teddy Bridgewater and look up to Teddy Bridgewater, but they can only see me on the television. So, when they can see me in the flesh on the sideline, high school kids can touch me and interact and realize that I’m human just like them, that’s food for my soul.”
It has left an impression on the local youth that see someone who grew up just like them made it.
“He walked through the same halls that these kids walked. He played on the same field,” Northwestern coach Max Edwards told the Sun Sentinel. “That’s big for the kids to see a guy that walked through this program that made it in the pros and has time to come out here and show them things to do in the game of football.”
It’s also prep for Bridgewater in his aspirations once he’s done playing football. He wants to coach. Not at the pro or college level. He wants to coach high school football, and he’s set on doing it at Northwestern. Edwards calls Bridgewater his head coach in waiting for the Bulls once he retires.
And his play-calling?
“Best believe, his plays do work,” Edwards said.
That part of it was established for Bridgewater from his high school
playing days. When he starred at Northwestern, then-coach Billy Rolle gave him the freedom to audible at the line of scrimmage, a rarity for coaches to grant high school quarterbacks.
A class of 2011 recruit, Bridgewater had the idea of staying home, which has now come to fruition a decade later, when he was committed to the University of Miami. That 2010 fall, Randy Shannon was fired as coach of the Hurricanes, and in the transition from Shannon to Al Golden, Bridgewater flipped to Louisville and coach Charlie Strong.
“That’s what he once wanted. Come full circle, he ends up being a quarterback for the home-team Dolphins,” Rolle said. “You can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Bridgewater has seen ups and downs in his professional career. He was a first-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings and made a Pro Bowl and playoff appearance in 2015. Then, a torn ACL in his left knee cost him the 2016 season and most of 2017.
Bridgewater reemerged as a backup for the New Orleans Saints. When he replaced an injured Drew Brees in 2019, he went 5-0. The past two years, Bridgewater was the full-time starter for the Carolina Panthers in 2020 and Denver Broncos in 2021.
“It gives you a ton of confidence,” he said leading up to the start against New York. “Just having been through this before, as far as coming in, or entering the game late or all the types of scenarios I’ve been through in my career.”
Bridgewater came to Miami to back up Tagovailoa for moments just like the one the Dolphins are presented with a month into the season. But that doesn’t stop some
locally from hoping their hometown hero can hold onto the job.
“We all hope that we’re looking at some storybook movie,” Campbell said. “The hometown kid comes back to Miami. The starting quarterback gets hurt, and he takes them to the Super Bowl.”
Beyond any games Bridgewater may win or stats he may post while he’s the Dolphins’ primary passer, Bridgewater produces with the impact he makes on his community.
He pays the registration fees every year for both youth football players and cheerleaders with the Miami Gardens Cowboys at Bunche Park. While volunteering as a coach at Northwestern, he has also helped pay for buses to away games, equipment and camps for his Bulls. Bridgewater has written two books, the “Little Bear Teddy” series, and he visits local schools to read to kids and donate his books.
These are just a few of the examples of what Bridgewater is known to do in South Florida. Much of his community work is behind the scenes. He doesn’t give back for publicity. Among things he did while at his previous professional stops, Bridgewater held “Christmas in July” bike giveaways and toy drives with the Vikings. With the Saints, he rented a U-Haul truck and filled it with bicycles, backpacks, school supplies and toys for kids.
The influence he has on the local youth is important to him. Bridgewater made a viral social media post over the summer urging professional athletes from rough neighborhoods to steer away from presenting a “street image” to kids. To the youngsters watching, he wanted them to know that you can still be accepted in your local community without being “gangsta.”