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The 2023 season finished at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl 58. With the offseason here, some players might hang up their cleats and call it a career. However, one player decided to retire before the start of last season.
Veteran quarterback Teddy Bridgewater announced last December that the 2023 season would be his last. He explained his plans of transitioning into coaching at the high school level to sportswriter Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press:
"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."
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"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."
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"Everything happens for a reason. Injuries, highs, lows, the success, the failures. It all, it builds character, and that's what it did for me. Like I never look like, 'Oh man, what if?' Nah. Whatever was meant for me, it played out the exact way it was meant.
"And I'm still with that mindset every day and I'm just really appreciative that I'm in Year 10, I tell everyone this is my last year, so I'm in my final year and I'm just enjoying it all, man."
Bridgewater served as a backup to Jared Goff with the Detroit Lions and played in just one game in the 2023 season.
How many teams did Teddy Bridgewater play for ahead of the 2023 season?
Bridgewater was the final pick in the first round of the 2014 season by the Minnesota Vikings. In his three seasons with the Vikings, he threw for 6,150 yards and amassed 28 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in 28 starts.
He led the franchise to the playoffs in the 2015 season but missed the following season due to a devastating knee injury in training camp.
The QB signed with the New York Jets in 2018 and was traded to the New Orleans Saints after the 2018 preseason. Bridgewater started six games in his two seasons (2018 - 2019) with the Saints. He stayed in the NFC South for the 2020 season and joined the Carolina Panthers as their starter. He then headed west to the Denver Broncos the following season.
Before joining Lions ahead of the 2023 season, he spent 2022 as the backup to Tua Tagovailoa with the Miami Dolphins. Bridgewater threw for 15,120 yards and had 75 touchdowns and 47 interceptions across 10 seasons in the NFL.
