After Dan Campbell revealed Sunday that Lions quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was stepping away from the team, the veteran quarterback officially confirmed his retirement on Monday.
"This time it's official," Bridgewater wrote in his Instagram post.
Bridgewater, 33, said his body told him that his time in the NFL was up.
"It’s so crazy 10 years ago around this time, I suffered one of the most gruesome knee injuries the game itself, its players and some doctors had ever seen. Everything football related since 2016 had been fueled by the 'experts' predicting that I would never play football again. We really showed them by playing 10 more seasons!
"However, this wheel of mine can no longer deal with something so simple as standing around on the turf
field. This thing just doesn’t recover the same way it did years ago so I'd rather officially hang it up. It’s finally run its course and when the body speaks to me, I have to listen so that I can be in one piece and available for my children as they grow up. The game of football was beyond great to me and owes me nothing at all. I really did things my way," Bridgewater wrote in his post.
Bridgewater played in 83 NFL regular-season games and started 65 across his 12-year career, passing for 15,182 yards and 75 touchdowns. The 6-foot-2, 217-pound signal-caller spent the 2023 and 2024 NFL seasons with the Lions, appearing in one game while serving as the backup to Jared Goff.
The Lions quickly signed Joshua Dobbs as a veteran replacement for Bridgewater.
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This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: 'This time it's official': Lions QB Teddy Bridgewater confirms retirement
