Bridgewater bill would allow high school coaches to spend own money on teams

A bill has been introduced in the Florida Senate that would allow high school coaches to spend personal funds on their team.

“We treat them just like our kids, our sons,” said Antonio Seay, an assistant football coach at Miami-Northwestern Senior High School for the last four years. He worked alongside former head coach Teddy Bridgewater, who was suspended last year for impermissible benefits.

The bill is aimed at reversing the rule that led to Bridgewater’s suspension.

Senate Bill 178 would allow high school head coaches from any sport to spend up to $15,000 in personal funds per team, per year, to pay for items like food, transportation and recovery services in “good faith.” This would change the current Florida High School Athletic Association bylaws that call those actions “impermissible benefits.”

“Teddy owned up to this outright, saying he provided food, Ubers, and recovery services to his players throughout the season,” said Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, as he presented the bill to the Florida Senate.

Jones sponsored the bill after there was an outpouring of support following Bridgewater’s suspension. He said he is casually calling it the Teddy Bridgewater Act. Bridgewater returned to the NFL as a quarterback after the suspension.

“They are sometimes the parents for some of these young people, and sometimes these are the one individual or individuals that a lot of these student athletes trust,” Jones told CBS News Miami. “They should be able to help those student athletes with things like getting home safely after practice they should be able to help them with food if they have not eaten. Those are good faith tactics that I believe should be allowed.”

Jones said that, according to the bill, each coach must report the funds spent to the FHSAA to determine if the spending was in “good faith.” The funds cannot be used for recruiting.

“What I can’t deal with is a child walking home from school after practice at 8 p.m., and something happens to them,” Jones said.

If passed and signed off by the governor, the legislation would take effect on July 1.

This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner CBS News Miami.