ELIZABETH, NJ — Todd Bowles, a football standout at Elizabeth High School who went on to a career as an NFL safety and then as head coach of the New York Jets, is heading to the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 in Tampa, Fla., as the defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bowles, from the EHS Class of 1981, returned to Elizabeth in 2016 when the city’s waterfront football field was renamed in his honor.
“Todd Bowles, an Elizabeth native turned Super Bowl champion for the Redskins in 1988, has come to symbolize hope for Elizabeth’s future,” Assemblyman Jamel Holley said, noting that in 2016 Bowles presented the city schools with a $25,000 check, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd. “We could not be more proud of a native son of Elizabeth heading back to the big game. While we may not all be Buccaneer fans, we are all certainly Todd Bowles fans.”