Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater uses Madden to prepare for practices
By Jack Crosby
Minnesota Vikings rookie, and first round draft pick, Teddy Bridgewater has quite the eventful summer ahead of him. With the uncertainty surrounding the quarterbacks in Minnesota, Bridgewater has the chance to come right into camp and convince new head coach Mike Zimmer to start him immediately.
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Of course, to do that, he will have to prepare like no other this summer, which he is doing, just in quite the unorthodox way.
In an effort to better learn the Vikings’ playbook when he’s not on the field, Bridgewater recently admitted to ESPN that he uses the popular EA Sports video game, Madden, to keep his mind fresh for when he does hit the field for real.
“It helps because you get one more rep than you had in practice, actual practice,” he said. “Any chance you get to take an extra rep or go the extra step, extra mile, it’s going to be very beneficial transferring it to the field.”
He then went on to explain just how hard he is working toward beating out both Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder for that chance to start when the Vikings take the field this September.
“I try to take as many reps as I can, whether it’s on a video game, playing EA Madden Football or in the playbook, just drawing it or just visualizing it in my head,” Bridgewater said. “I try to just maximize every rep I can get and every opportunity that I can take.”
If Bridgewater does end up the starter, you can expect a lot more players around the NFL using Madden as a preparation tool, that’s for sure.