Photo By Ben Hershey
During his rookie season with the Minnesota Vikings, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater had not only earned the starting quarterback position for the Vikings, but he lead the team to the NFL playoffs in 2015.
In August of 2016 during a routine Vikings’ practice Bridgewater was in motion, attempting to execute a play that he had done a thousand times, stepped back and hit the ground in pain. There was no physical contact from any of his fellow teammates. Bridgewater fell on his own.
As on-scene medical staff tended to Bridgewater seconds after he fell on the turf, they diagnosed him with a dislocated knee. Practice was stopped and Bridgewater was rushed to the nearest Minnesota hospital.
A later MRI showed that Bridgewater’s knee was not just dislocated, but instead a complete tear to his ACL as well as various structural damage. Luckily there was no nerve or arterial damage.
Bridgewater did undergo surgery to repair his knee a few days later.
Many people, myself included, thought that Bridgewater’s football career would be over after this gruesome injury. Although Bridgewater fans across America did not want to count him out, how could one not after he suffered such an extreme injury?
Bridgewater was out indefinitely during the 2016 season.
My heart was broken for him. Literally. Why do bad things happen to such good people?
Teddy Bridgewater quickly stole my heart when he was recruited to play at the University of Louisville, my favorite college team, in 2011.
He instantly became the leader of the UofL Cardinals and he shined in the quarterback position at only age 19. Although he had great success during the three years he played at UofL, he remained humble and never once used the word “I” when talking about the team or himself.
That spoke volumes to me personally.
Fast forward to this past week—Teddy Bridgewater was taken off the “injured list” and was moved back on to the “active roster” for the Minnesota Vikings and has been cleared by his doctor to practice with the team.
Although it is still uncertain when Bridgewater will step back onto the field during a game, the fact that he has recovered from such a harsh injury in a 14 month time frame is unreal. Especially, we were all unsure if this young man would ever play football again.
Godspeed, Teddy B.
We are all looking forward and waiting for the moment that you run off the slide lines and back onto the field during game time for the first time in over a year.