It looks like Miami Northwestern head coach Teddy Bridgewater returning to the NFL was a considered possibility even before the high school football season ever began.

According to a report by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lions’ backup quarterback Hendon Hooker said the signing of Bridgewater came as no surprise to him as it was something talked about back in the summer months.

“I figured Teddy was going to come back here this season,” Hooker said, per Birkett’s report. “I didn’t know when. I knew when his season was over he was going to come back. I mean, we’ve been talking about it since the summer.

“So, I understand what it looks like, but it’s just a different world that we’re getting ready to talk into, and we just felt like this is the right thing to do, especially with somebody that I have a tremendous amount of trust with and for,” Campbell said to the Pride of Detroit’s Jeremy Reisman. He understands our offense well, the guys know him well, the coaches know him well, and he brings a certain level of comfort to us.”

Bridgewater is just a few weeks removed from leading his alma mater Miami Northwestern to the Class 3A state championship in a 41-0 rout of Jacksonville Raines. 

Earlier last week, Bridgewater confirmed on the NFL Network show The Insiders with Rapoport and Tom Pelissero that depending on the next couple of weeks, he could be signing on with an NFL franchise. That team became in fact was the latest one he was on, the Lions.

“That’s the plan,” Bridgewater responded to Rapoport and Pelissero on the NFL Network’s last week’s edition of the The Insiders. “My team knows that’s the plan. We wanted to win a state championship and then coach goes back to the league, see what happens, and then come back February in the offseason, continue coaching high school football. We’ll see how it plays out.”

Bridgewater doesn’t plan on leaving the Bulls whatsoever, as the head coach of the FHSAA Class 3A champions says he would be back in February to coaching.

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— Andy Villamarzo | villamarzo@scorebooklive.com | @highschoolonsi