It’s been an interesting few years for 33-year-old Teddy Bridgewater. After his 2023 season with the Detroit Lions, he tried out retirement. There, he found a career in high school coaching—immediately winning the Class 3A Florida HSAA State Championship. But after receiving a suspension in 2025 for providing impermissible benefits to his players, he went back to the NFL as a late addition to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Throughout that entire ordeal, Bridgewater learned a lot about himself. The main takeaway? He’s not ready to be done with football.
“It’s like I visited the fountain of youth or something this past year,” Bridgewater said on Monday. “That fire has been lit, and I don’t know what it is—I don’t know if it’s my children or being back home, but it’s just something in me that like, ‘You know what? I can do this again.’
“The past couple years I was one foot in, one foot out: contemplating retirement, contemplating playing, coaching, doing all of these different things, and now it’s like, okay, I’ve coached, I know what that’s like. I’ve been retired, I know what that’s like. I just want to keep playing ball.”
So Bridgewater committed to a life back in the NFL this offseason. He has spent the past few months training in southern Florida, surrounding himself with young players like Jonathan Taylor, Breece Hall, and former Lions teammate Maurice Alexander, feeding off their youth and energy.
“I (had) tricked myself thinking that I’m old. I’m not old, I’ve got so much left in the tank that I can continue to play in this league. I’ve got so much left to offer this game I just want to continue to contribute in every aspect that I can,” Bridgewater said.
As the team’s backup quarterback behind Jared Goff, Bridgewater knows one of the way he can contribute is having another set of veteran eyes in his position room. But he’s also itching to go out there to compete and play—the part of the game he has missed the most while away.
But, as he has done in the past here in Detroit, he’s also eager to give back to the game of football—inspiring and mentoring the next generation of players.
“I’ve always been that type of player who just wants to see others have success,” Bridgewater said. “I always felt like, the quarterback, we play a huge role in other’s success. If I could just go out there and help a sixth-round wide receiver have a four or five year career. Or an undrafted free agent get four or five years out of the league from just competing with them throughout the spring, preseason, training camp. That’s just something that I look forward to doing.”
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