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Florida Senate introduces a bill named after former NFL QB Teddy Bridgewater to allow coaches to give benefits to players

By
Bri Buckley
Bri Buckley
Bri Buckley is an Emmy-nominated reporter for CBS News Miami.
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Bri Buckley

/ CBS Miami

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

"We treat them just like our kids, our sons," said Antonio Seay.

Seay has been 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.

"It brought camaraderie, the brotherhood with everyone," Seay said. "Kids came together, worked together, built a bond, and became champions at that point."

Now there's a bill aimed at reversing the rule that led to Bridgewater's suspension.

 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.

"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 can not 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.

Saey said he only has one concern.

"People taking advantage of the bill, to try to bring success with recruiting, not the good of it, to make sure that you can provide for the kids to perform on the field and in life," Seay said.

The bill will be on the floor again on Thursday.

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

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