Teddy Bridgewater didn’t take long to find a new gig. And for the former Broncos starting quarterback, it’s one that is close to his heart.

The 2014 first-round pick — who concluded his 10-year career last Sunday as a backup for the Detroit Lions in their NFC Championship Game loss to San Francisco — accepted the head-coaching position at his high school, Northwestern H.S. in Miami.

A long-time donor to the program, he will guide his school at a venue that bears his name: Teddy Bridgewater Field.

TEDDY BRIDGEWATER PLANNED TO RETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON
The University of Louisville product revealed his plans to the Detroit Free Press in December, not long before the Lions hosted the Broncos in what proved to be a “>42-17 Detroit romp at Ford Field.

At the time, Bridgewater reflected on a whistle-stop career that wasn’t like the one many expected for him when he became a starter in the first month of his rookie season with the Minnesota Vikings. He guided the Vikings to a division title in his second season; the team and quarterback both appeared en route to big things, even though their playoff run ended when Blair Walsh hooked a game-winning field goal attempt that saw the laces turned in to seal a wild-card loss to Seattle.

As it turned out, that was to be Bridgewater’s only postseason start. He walked to the sideline having completed what appeared to be a game-winning, clutch drive — until Walsh’s misfortune.

But for Teddy Bridgewater, matters turned for the worse eight months later when he suffered a horrific leg injury during a preseason practice. He missed all of the 2016 season and then struggled to make it back in 2017. When he was finally cleared for a return, the Vikings had moved on — first to Case Keenum, and then in free agency to Kirk Cousins. With the injury, they chose not to extend him the fifth-year option — or to bring him back at all.

Bridgewater’s career was never quite the same after that. But it allowed him to reflect.

“I was young and I was trapped in this lifestyle thinking that I was a football player 24-7, and when I got hurt I realized that I’m only a football player for three hours on a Sunday afternoon,” he told the Free Press. “Outside of that, I’m Theodore Bridgewater, so it just put everything into perspective and it really helped me not even have to think about not being a starter (anymore). It’s like, ‘Man, I still got purpose.’ And my purpose is bigger than the game of football. Football is just a platform that I have.”

Imbued with that view, Bridgewater handled the subsequent ebbs and flows of his career with grace. He bounced from the Jets to New Orleans to Carolina to Denver and then, finally, to Miami and Detroit in his final two seasons. At every stop, he left a wonderful impression.

In 2021, he posted the best passer rating for a full-time Denver starting quarterback in seven seasons before a concussion suffered on a frightening collision in Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals cut short his campaign. He became the first offensive player to ever win the Darrent Williams Good Guy Award.

And now, with his playing career done, he’ll give back.