Former Miami Northwestern High School football coach Teddy Bridgewater has been suspended for the rest of the 2025-26 school year for providing impermissible benefits to athletes, the Florida High School Athletic Association announced Friday. Bridgewater left the Northwestern staff on Aug. 4 to take a roster spot with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and is currently the backup to Baker Mayfield.
The FHSAA also issued a reprimand to Northwestern and levied a $2,500 penalty against the school. All but $250 of that fine will be returned to the school, which handed down the suspension approved by the FHSAA, if it does not commit further violations.
Northwestern suspended Bridgewater in July after he revealed in a social media post that he spent $700 a week on Uber rides for his players during the 2024 season. Bridgewater also said he spent $14,000 for a four-night preseason training camp, $9,500 on Northwestern-branded clothing, $1,300 per week for postgame recovery trucks and $2,200 per week for pregame meals. In the post, he asked for donations to the Northwestern football program.
“I’m protective, and I’m a father first before anything,” Bridgewater said in his debut media availability in Tampa Bay. “And when I decided to coach, those players became my sons. And I wanted to make sure that I just protected them in the best way that I can. I think that’s what came about. Miami Northwestern’s in a tough neighborhood and sometimes things can happen when the kids are walking home and things like that. So I was just trying to protect them and give them a ride home instead of having to take those dangerous walks.”
Bridgewater won the Florida Dairy Farmers Coach of the Year award in 2024 after he led Northwestern to a Florida Class 3A state championship. His squad went 12-2 and cruised through the playoffs with a number of lopsided results en route to the state title. The championship season was Bridgewater’s first and only campaign at Northwestern and his lone season as a coach in any capacity.
While he initially announced his retirement from the NFL in February 2024 and promptly took the coaching job, Bridgewater returned to the field at the end of the high school season when the Detroit Lions signed him for the final weeks of their 2024 campaign. He played in the divisional round game against the Washington Commanders when Jared Goff sat briefly to undergo evaluation for a possible concussion.
Bridgewater, a former first-round pick and a 2015 Pro Bowler, is in his 12th NFL season and also previously played for the Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins.
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