{"id":281050,"date":"2026-05-22T16:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281050\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T16:59:20","slug":"florida-governor-ron-desantis-signs-teddy-bridgewater-act-bill-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281050\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signs \u201cTeddy Bridgewater Act\u201d bill into law"},"content":{"rendered":"

House Bill 538 wasn\u2019t the only bill signed into law by Florida governor\u00a0Ron DeSantis officially on Friday morning at Jacksonville (Fla.)\u00a0Jean Ribault<\/a>\u00a0High School.<\/p>\n

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Also signed by DeSantis was Senate Bill 178<\/a>, better known as the \u201cTeddy Bridgewater Act\u201d, would allow Florida public school head coaches K-12 to spend their own funds to support student-athlete welfare with written parental consent.<\/p>\n

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SB 178, a bill previously proposed by senator\u00a0Shervin Jones\u00a0(District 34), will allow middle and high school head coaches to use up to $15,000 of their own funds to support student-athletes with food, transportation and recovery services.<\/p>\n

Teddy Bridgewater, the former Miami\u00a0Northwestern<\/a>\u00a0head football coach and current Detroit Lions\u2019 quarterback, had aimed to help his Bulls with spending of his own monies towards student-athletes when it came to food, transportation and recovery services. Bridgewater was under a suspension by the school for the 2025-26 school year due to the allegations of providing impermissible benefits to his players.<\/p>\n

In a now deleted Facebook post, Bridgewater had asked Northwestern fans to help him cover team expenses that were not being paid for by the school, which included $700 per week for Uber rides, $1,300 per week for athletic recovery services and $2,200 per week for pre-game meals during the season.<\/p>\n

During his one-year tenure as head coach at his alma mater, Bridgewater made an immediate impact for the Bulls and led them to their first state crown since 2019, guiding the program to the FHSAA\u2019s 2024 Class 3A state championship.<\/p>\n

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For Florida high school football fans looking to keep up with scores around the Sunshine State, staying updated on the action is now easier than ever with the\u00a0Rivals High School Scoreboard<\/a>. This comprehensive resource provides real-time updates and final scores from across the state, ensuring you never miss a moment of the Friday night frenzy. From nail-biting finishes to dominant performances, the Rivals High School Scoreboard is your one-stop destination for tracking all the Florida high school football excitement across the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"House Bill 538 wasn\u2019t the only bill signed into law by Florida governor\u00a0Ron DeSantis officially on Friday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8731,28,3291,30,29,10639,34956,119753,412,77625],"class_list":["post-281050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-detroit-lions","tag-florida","tag-florida-governor","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-head-football-coach","tag-high-school-scoreboard","tag-recovery-services","tag-ron-desantis","tag-teddy-bridgewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}