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Following an incident that led NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to be suspended from his highschool teaching duties, the Florida Senate handed a invoice that will make his infraction authorized. In keeping with Native 10 Information, The “Teddy Bridgewater invoice” permits highschool head coaches to make use of private funds to offer monetary help to their gamers, as long as they report what they spend.
The Florida Excessive College Athletic Affiliation suspended Bridgewater in September for the remainder of the 2025-26 college 12 months for offering impermissible advantages to athletes. Bridgewater coached Miami Northwestern Excessive College soccer in 2024 and was set to guide the crew in 2025 earlier than he left the varsity to signal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Northwestern suspended Bridgewater in July after he revealed in a social media put up that he spent $700 every week on Uber rides for his gamers in the course of the 2024 season. He additionally acknowledged protecting transportation, team-branded clothes, meals and recovery-related bills at mixed prices of about $27,000. Bridgewater in that put up requested for donations to the Northwestern soccer program.
If Senate Invoice 178 turns into legislation, coaches in Florida can be permitted to make such private expenditures. An analogous invoice can also be at present transferring by means of the Florida Home.
“I am protecting, and I am a father first earlier than something,” Bridgewater mentioned final season upon signing with the Buccaneers. “And once I determined to teach, these gamers turned my sons. And I wished to be sure that I simply protected them in one of the best ways that I can. I feel that is what happened.
“Miami Northwestern’s in a tricky neighborhood and generally issues can occur when the youngsters are strolling dwelling and issues like that. So I used to be simply making an attempt to guard them and provides them a journey dwelling as a substitute of getting to take these harmful walks.”
Bridgewater took the teaching job after asserting his retirement from the NFL in February 2024, and he led Northwestern to a Florida Class 3A state championship in his first and solely season on the helm. His crew went 12-2 and rolled by means of the playoffs with relative ease, resulting in his choice because the Florida Dairy Farmers Coach of the 12 months.
Bridgewater returned to the NFL after that championship season and signed with the Detroit Lions for the ultimate weeks of the 2024 marketing campaign. He performed in a divisional spherical sport within the 2024 playoffs throughout that transient stint. Bridgewater additionally logged 4 video games of motion in 2025 with the Buccaneers, good for his most since 2022. He tried simply 15 passes in a backup function behind Baker Mayfield.
Whereas his teaching suspension will expire this summer season, it’s unclear whether or not Bridgewater intends to return to the sidelines at Northwestern. If he as a substitute spends subsequent season again on one other NFL roster, the previous first-round choose would embark on 12 months 13 within the league.
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