MIAMI — When Teddy Bridgewater was growing up, his mother was known as “Coach Rose.” She pitched batting practice for Teddy’s Little League teams and later would suggest plays to his high school football coach, often insisting the young quarterback needed to roll out more.

The coaching didn’t stop off the field. Rose Murphy even drew up routes she wanted to her son to take to school through the mean streets of Miami.

Bridgewater grew up primarily in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. Standing in front of one of the family’s several former homes on NW 69th Terrace, his mother pointed out — almost as a coach would — the way Bridgewater navigated his one-mile walk to Northwestern High School.

“See that alley right there,” Murphy said. “He would cut through the alleys. Sometimes he would have to walk through, past the local crackheads there. There were gunshots, drugs. It was a high-crime area. Once a bullet went by him.”

Bridgewater always made it to school and back, and he excelled in the classroom and in sports. Now, as a Vikings rookie quarterback, he will return to South Florida for Sunday’s game against Miami at Sun Life Stadium.

Murphy said Liberty City is safer now. Although her son could buy her a house in an upscale neighborhood, she’s content to live four blocks from NW 69th Terrace, where she has been the past three years.

Growing up, Bridgewater lived in more than a dozen places in various rough neighborhoods as his mother moved regularly to support her four children. A single parent, Murphy worked for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Department of Transportation, first as a school bus driver and later as a field dispatcher. Murphy, 52, still holds that job, refusing to retire even though her son has a four-year, $6.85 million contract.

Three of Bridgewater’s former homes are on NW 69th Terrace. There are still remnants from his time there.

“See that backboard,” said local resident Richard Demerit, pointing to a dilapidated piece of wood with no basketball rim attached. “He used to put a milk crate up there and play. He was about 9 or 10 when he moved here, and I thought he would be a basketball player. He should come back and sign that backboard.”

BUNCHE PARK

Bridgewater, 22, started playing football six miles north of Liberty City, when the family was living in Miami Gardens, home of Sun Life Stadium. Bridgewater began to get noticed at Bunche Park.

When Bridgewater was 6, he went to the park to watch his older brother, Harry Gathers, practice for his youth team. Bridgewater was playing around and went out for a pass.

“I ran a slant route, and the ball was thrown in the dirt, and I went down there and caught it with my bare hands, and one of the coaches saw it,” Bridgewater said. “His name was Coach Teddy (Lawson). … He was my first coach in sports, and after he saw me make that catch, he told my mom, ‘You need to sign him up right now to play football.’ From that day, I stood out.”

Bridgewater’s primary youth coach was Lee Jones, who had him in football and baseball. Bridgewater played quarterback, wide receiver and defensive back and was a pitcher and shortstop. He also was a point guard in basketball.

Bridgewater continued to play for Bunche Park, even after he moved to Liberty City. When he was 11, he hit a game-winning jump shot; he threw a no-hitter when he was 12.

“I first saw him play baseball,” said Jones, pointing toward the baseball diamond at Bunche Park. “He was like 5 or 6 years old, and most of the kids just hit the ball back to the pitcher. But Teddy stroked the ball all the way out there to the grass on the outfield. I knew then he was special.”

Bridgewater played some baseball and basketball in high school, but his true love was football. He became a local star while leading Bunche Park to several pee-wee championships.

Jones remembers how cool under pressure Bridgewater was and the humility he always displayed. Because he was so good and was tall for his age, Bridgewater said opposing coaches often questioned whether he was in the correct league.

“My mom always had to walk around with my birth certificate just to prove that I was 11 years old,” he recalled.

Murphy pulled the birth certificate out regularly for games at Bunche Park, often adding a quip.

“I said, ‘He’s big because he drinks a lot of milk. Milk does a body good,’ ” she said.

Bunche Park now looks weathered. There are a pair of rusty H-shaped goalposts and an old scoreboard that remain from when Bridgewater began playing there in the late 1990s. The lights have been taken over by nesting birds.

A 2011 shooting there wounded three adults and one child and resulted in a yearlong cancellation of events. Only recently have youth leagues returned to their normal schedules.

Bridgewater put on a clinic last summer at Bunche Park along with Denver Broncos cornerback Kayvon Webster. Bridgewater grew up with Webster and remains best friends with his brother, Paul Webster, a cornerback who played at Minnesota-Crookston and has been trying to hook on in the NFL.

Paul said the Websters were Bridgewater’s “second family.”

When Bridgewater’s mother was working long hours, often starting at 5 a.m., she sometimes would leave Teddy at the Websters’ or at his grandmother’s house. In addition to her job with the local school system, Murphy for a period took a second job cleaning classrooms at a local community college.

“She made all types of sacrifices, and I’m just thankful for the woman that she is,” Bridgewater said. “The stability wasn’t there because we had to move a lot, but my mom, she made sure we had the best clothes and the best shoes and always had food to eat, and she made sure we were taken care of.”

In addition to Harry Gathers, 30, Bridgewater’s siblings include sisters Nicole Gathers, 28, and Andrea Bridgewater, 23. In fall 2007, Teddy and Andrea were in high school together when they learned Rose Murphy had breast cancer.

CHANGES

Bridgewater was a freshman when he and Andrea arrived hometo find several cars in the driveway. When he got inside, they learned of his mother’s diagnosis.

“I actually stopped going to school for two weeks; I stopped playing sports for two weeks,” Bridgewater said. “I felt that I wanted to try to find a way to help her get through that battle, and I thought that me sticking around or trying to work would be the answer.”

Bridgewater helped by, among other jobs, washing cars and mowing lawns. But when he suggested giving up sports, Murphy intervened.

“I said, ‘No, you have to play and do what you’re supposed to do and let God take care of me. You’ve got a gift for the world to see, and you are going to be good, so don’t worry about me,’ ” Murphy said.

Murphy’s cancer has been in remission since 2008. That year also marked a key time in Bridgewater’s football career.

When Bridgewater joined the Northwestern High varsity team as sophomore it was as a receiver, but it didn’t take long for that to change.

“When the kids would catch the ball, they would throw the ball back,” said Billy Rolle, who was then Northwestern’s coach and now heads the program at Miami Coral Reef High School. “I didn’t like that, so we would tell them to hustle and just run the ball back in. But before we really put a halt to that, Teddy would throw the ball back.

“I remember turning to one of my coaches, and I said, ‘Did you just see that?’ He threw it back and it was like a tightrope.”

His wide receiver days were over.

Midway through his sophomore season, Bridgewater took over as the starting quarterback, leading the Bulls to the state finals. In the semifinals, they beat Miramar and current New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith, 42-23.

Bridgewater led Northwestern to the state semifinals in his junior and senior seasons, as well, passing for a combined 5,152 yards and 54 touchdowns, with just 14 interceptions.

His high school quarterback coach, Chris Perkins, worked with Bridgwater on taking direct snaps and drilled him regularly on offensive schemes and defensive coverages. Perkins called Bridgewater a “student of the game.”

He also was a top student in the classroom, earning a 4.0 grade-point average at Northwestern. And when he was a freshman, he met Erika Cardona, who remains his girlfriend and has relocated with him to the Twin Cities, where she teaches kindergarten.

Cardona’s father, Luis, was a Northwestern offensive coach..

“I would teach him the X’s and O’s in the living room using plates and cups, you name it,” said Luis Cardona.

When the highly recruited Bridgewater was ready for college, he committed orally to Miami (Fla.), which shares Sun Life Stadium with the Dolphins.

But when the Hurricanes fired coach Randy Shannon after the 2010 season and replaced him with Al Golden, Bridgewater committed to Louisville, where he starred for three years before being drafted in the first round, 32nd overall, by the Vikings in May.

“The people in Miami would have loved to see me stay home and play for the Miami Hurricanes, but at the end of the day, you have to make the decision that is going to be best for yourself, your family and your future,” Bridgewater said. “That was the decision I made, and I don’t regret it.”

Bridgewater didn’t make it back to South Florida for any college games, but now he’s back as an NFL starter. On Sunday, he will play five miles north of Bunche Park, where his football career started 16 years ago, the day he went to watch his brother and made that sliding catch on a slant pattern.

Follow Chris Tomasson at twitter.com/christomasson.