Full circle: Bridgewater named coach of alma mater Northwestern
Teddy Bridgewater’s football journey took him from Miami to Louisville to Minnesota to New Orleans to Carolina to Denver, back home and eventually Detroit.
But the Miami Northwestern Bulls never left his heart.
After announcing a month ago that this would be his final NFL season, Bridgewater is doing what many long expected he would do.
Bridgewater is returning to his high school alma mater as its new head football coach.
Bridgewater, a former All-Dade first team quarterback who went on to play 10 years in the NFL, was formally introduced as Northwestern’s new coach at a ceremony at the school attended by the school’s football team.
Bridgewater, 31, who started at quarterback for the Bulls from 2008 to 2010 and led them to the state finals his sophomore year, inherits a Northwestern team that went 4-6 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2015 this past season under the guidance of former high school teammate Michaelee Harris.
Bridgewater, who often wore Northwestern T-shirts in the locker room while playing for the Miami Dolphins in recent years, told local reporters for some time he wanted to come back to coach his alma mater when he retired from playing.
Bridgewater has frequently attended his alma mater’s games on Friday nights and was even seen providing instructions to current players on the team’s bench during games in an unofficial capacity.
Bridgewater backed up Jared Goff this past season for the Detroit Lions during their run to the NFC Championship Game. With the Lions eliminated from the playoffs, Bridgewater can now officially retire from the NFL and pursue this new goal.
Bridgewater, who was the No. 32 overall pick of the Minnesota Vikings
in 2014 following a successful college career at Louisville, went 33-32 as an NFL starter with 15,120 yards passing, 75 touchdowns and 47 interceptions. He also ran for 844 yards and 11 touchdowns.
He made the Pro Bowl in 2015 after leading the Vikings to the playoffs before a devastating knee injury the following year in training camp cut short his run in Minnesota.
Bridgewater would return from the injury and play for the Saints, Panthers and Broncos before returning to the Dolphins where he backed up Tua Tagovailoa in 2022. He appeared in five games and made two starts, completing 62 percent of his passes for 683 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions.
Bridgewater has remained a respected member of the local community through his philanthropic events and even had a football field dedicated to him at Bunche Park in Miami Gardens.
“I played little league football five minutes down the road [from here] at Bunche Park,” Bridgewater told reporters after signing with Miami. “So if I leave work tomorrow 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.”