Buccaneers backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater wishes he weren’t in the NFL right now.
Bridgewater signed with the Buccaneers only after he was suspended from Miami Northwestern High School for what Florida high school officials call improper benefits to players and he calls simply trying to help out kids who needed help.
“It’s very upsetting,” Bridgewater said, via the Associated Press. “Just knowing that you have good intentions and those good intentions will be turned against you and used against you.”
Bridgewater still wants to coach the team again in the future, even if that’s not going to happen this season.
“I’m hoping to get it resolved because those kids have a special place in my heart,” Bridgewater said. “And I’d love to finish what I started with them.”
Bridgewater was a volunteer coach and will make more than $1 million this season with the Bucs, but he’d rather be coaching anyway.
“I can make a ton of money playing football,” Bridgewater said. “Coaching high school ball, I get nothing. But it’s not even about the money. It’s about giving those kids a building block to go out into the real world and be productive.”
Coaching high school may be in Bridgewater’s future, but for this year, he’s back in the NFL.