Teddy Bridgewater Learning the Panthers Roster Through Madden During Quarantine
Over the last month or so, life in the United States has changed dramatically. We went about our lives per usual, went to places when we wanted and visited family and friends at our convenience. Suddenly, everything changed.
Thanks to the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, millions of U.S. citizens are being forced to quarantine in their homes, practice social distancing and only leave the house for life essential reasons. It almost feels like a flashback to your childhood days of being grounded and not able to watch sports, play sports, hangout with friends or essentially do anything that is "fun" related.
Not only has COVID-19 changed the ways we as citizens live our daily lives, but it also changes how people get their work done. Millions of Americans are out of work entirely, while some are forced to work from home and have their daily meetings held through the Zoom app to ensure that tasks can still be completed outside of the office.
That is no different for new Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who is doing his best trying to stay in shape while in quarantine.
"For me, I've just been able to train around the house with the squat rack, treadmill, bands, so I'm just staying active in the house in the garage. I have three flights of stairs that I can run up and down, so I've just been staying active that way," Bridgewater said during his welcoming press conference on Zoom.
One thing that quarantine has forced Americans to do is get creative and find things out of the norm to stay entertained, whether it's by putting together puzzles, playing board games, video games or binge watching Tiger King on Netflix. Just like the rest of the country, Bridgewater finds himself looking for things to do, one of which is playing video games - Madden in particular. But not only is he playing Madden for the pure entertainment that stems from it, but it's also helping him get acclimated to his new team in Carolina.
"You get a feel for the roster and some of the guys on the roster, so that's a huge help. Just being able to play video games with these guys D.J. Moore, Curtis Samuel, Christian McCaffrey and those guys and realize how awesome they are in the video game, it excites you," Bridgewater said.
Who would have ever thought that one day, NFL quarterbacks would be using the Madden video game to get an understanding of their teammates and the capabilities and tendencies, but here we are. That's exactly what Bridgewater is doing as it is really the only viable option at this point until things can somewhat get back to normalcy.
With the uncertainty of how long this outbreak will last, this could be how Bridgewater continues to get familiar with the Panthers roster for the foreseeable future.
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