One former member of the New Orleans Saints is celebrating on Saturday night: Carolina Panthers quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who won the Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award at this year’s NFL Honors event.
Established in 2014, this award is defined as recognition for the player who “best demonstrates the qualities of on-field sportsmanship, including fair play, respect for the game and opponents, and integrity in competition,” and was previously won by Bridgewater’s brief mentor Drew Brees following the 2018 season. Other winners include Adrian Peterson, Luke Kuechly, Frank Gore, Charles Woodson (now bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame), and Larry Fitzgerald.
Bridgwater’s first full season as a starter since 2015 didn’t go quite as well as hoped in Carolina, where it took some time for first-year head coach Matt Rhule to get a feel for what he had on offense while a defense nearly entirely made up of rookies struggled to find an identity.
Still, Bridgewater’s leadership traits were often on display, and he set personal-bests in passes completed (340), completion percentage (69.1%), passing yards (3,733), and touchdowns thrown (15). And now he can add this Art Rooney Award to his trophy case.
