COFFEETOWN HS SPORTS

Teddy Bridgewater wrapped up his first spring as the head coach of Miami Northwestern Senior High School as the sun’s final tendrils tickled Biscayne Bay.

A crowd of family, friends and fans surrounded the Bulls’ football field.

In their final huddle before summer, Coach Bridgewater told his players to take one more lap around it.

“I want all of us to walk around the gates and tell everybody, ‘Thank you all for coming out,’” Bridgewater beamed with a smile that outshone the sun and a coach’s folder in his upraised hand.

The bunch of Bulls surrounding him just finished a scrimmage in black uniforms and golden uniforms, depending on how their coaches split them up.

No doubt they had other places that high school football players usually want to be. Post-scrimmage meals to inhale. Girls to call.

Coach Teddy Bridgewater was the only one standing between all of them and whatever their agendas for the weekend happened to hold.

And he wanted to leave them with the most important instruction that any of them will hear while they wear ‘BULLS’ across their chests.

“Take notice of what the f- is happening today around that fence. It’s gonna be triple that, quadruple that come Friday nights. So just walk around and tell everybody thank you.”

Teddy Bridgewater comes home

It’s been 10 years since the Minnesota Vikings picked Miami Northwestern’s lightning bolt quarterback alum 32nd overall in the NFL Draft.

Don’t let the shadow of a collegiate Lamar Jackson cloud your memory – Bridgewater earned every bit of his acclaim at Louisville from 2011-2013.

If Bridgewater’s horrific knee injury as a Viking made you forget about him in the years he bounced around the league as a sometimes starter, mostly one-year-contract guy, then you probably aren’t one of the Miami Northwestern spectators standing around that fence.

The school named its high school football field after Teddy Bridgewater.

They watched his legend grow as he slung touchdowns as a Bull and ran for a whole bunch of them, too.

He left that field as an All-County quarterback and a state champion runner-up.

Now he’s coaching on it.

The running of the Bulls

Watch Coach Bridgewater and his players run around the field.

In our era of perpetual lenses, posts and celebrity coaches at any given level of the sport, it’s easy to let the viral videos numb you out to how significant the authentic moments really are.

Teddy Bridgewater, Miami Northwestern’s golden boy, is back among his people. Back running for his Bulls.

He didn’t experience the career that a first-round NFL Draft pick probably expects to have.

But if he had, he wouldn’t be here on the field that bears his name.

And that may just be the place where all of the Bulls on either side of that chain link fence need him to be.