The best way to get over your ex is with someone new. It’s a story many can relate to. After a long-term relationship you go through a bad breakup and during the healing process you meet someone. They offer everything you were missing in your previous relationship. They’re attentive, kind, and most of all new. Everything goes well. You’re going on dates – maybe a trip or two. You bring them around your friends. Everything is great for the first few months. Then things change. The newness wears off and you begin looking at the person differently. What was once new and exciting has become a burden. You’re just not as into things as you were before. Then it hits you. That person was a rebound. Someone you used to help you get over your ex.
That’s what happened with the Carolina Panthers and Teddy Bridgewater. After the release of Cam Newton, the Panthers needed a new man. Someone to help make the breakup more palatable. Insert Bridgewater. The nice guy, who won’t do anything to embarrass you. He’s humble and the consummate professional. The perfect rebound. And for a brief “tough ass football team” period, you even thought he might be the one. But it was a fluke; he wasn’t.
The decline of the relationship would be gradual – well-placed press conference digs, noticeable absence in social media posts, Instagram unfollowing and openly courting other suiters. The writing was on the wall. It’s textbook. The breakup is imminent.
Sometimes you move on by having a conversation with the person to let them know you’re no longer interested. Other times you just post your new boo on social media and hope they’ll get the picture. The Panthers took the latter route and I respect it. No need for the cordial conversation; a nice punch to the gut is sometimes the best way for both parties.
For the time being, Carolina has moved on to Sam Darnold and posted this new boo all over socials. Teddy Bridgewater is on the trading block. The result was inevitable from the beginning. Rebounds rarely work out – and that’s ok. In this case the rebound may have come out better. I mean, Teddy does have 33 million reasons why he’s cool with how everything is working out.