Teddy Bridgewater opens up about his dislocated knee
It wasn’t just a normal knee injury for Bridgewater, his knee was dislocated and among the injuries to it was a torn ACL. It’s been a mystery what happened to Bridgewater with a lot of different theories having been discussed since the injury occurred.
Bridgewater opened up about the injury during an interview on The Pivot podcast and revealed that he believes he tore his ACL days prior in the preseason game against the San Diego Chargers.
“This was back when we had four preseason games, and we were going into the fourth preseason game, and the starters are gonna rest, practice about two days, and then you shut it down for the rest of training camp. Prior to that week, we played the Chargers in the new stadium. That was my first game played in the new stadium, and I had a big third down run. I juked the defender, I think that’s when I tore my ACL. But the week went on and I was like, man, it’s just camp legs, you know, I’ll be alright. Let me get through today. And before practice, I was like, man, something don’t feel right behind the back of my knee. It just feels crazy or something. But I was like, You know what? This last day my practice. Just shut it down, get ready for the regular season. And we went out to practice, and it was like a past 37 Buster, solid protection, like burst out fake to Adrian [Peterson], the running back, the fullback Rhett Ellison comes across blocks to the end, and as I faked to Adrian, Rhett passed by, and once I put my foot in the ground, everything just snapped. And the entire bottom half of my leg was one way, and my foot was another way, and it was just dangling. And in that moment, it was just like, I just just screaming, man, you know, and guys are throwing helmets and everything. Man, it was bad.”
Bridgewater saying that he might have torn his ACL days prior is a detail that hadn’t been shared before. It also makes sense why his knee suffered such a devastating injury instead of just a torn ACL. Without the ACL, your knee loses a lot of stability and the odds of a dislocation goes up significantly.
Bridgewater also talked about his ride to the hospital in the ambulance and the quick reaction of then head trainer Eric Sugarman, who is credited with saving Bridgewater’s leg.
“Man, got in the back the ambulance, and I was talking to trainer [Sugarman]. I’m like, ‘Man, how’s it look?’ He’s like, ‘Man, how does it feel?’ ‘I’m like, hurt. Man, I’m not gonna play again.’ He like, ‘Man, can you feel the foot?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, but the feeling started to go away.’ And the way he yelled at the paramedics drivers that told me, like, man, it’s something serious. And we got to the hospital and found out I had dislocated my knee. They put it back in place, but I knew I stayed, I served. I had a long journey to go.”
Bridgewater didn’t just get fully healed, he returned to the Vikings the next season and played against the Cincinnati Bengals, where he received a standing ovation upon stepping onto the field.
You can check out the entire interview with Bridgewater below.