The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NFL Trade Deadline.

Every year, dozens of NFL players are traded, like chess pieces easily moved from square to square.

Only, these “pieces” are actual humans, whose athletic abilities are glorified on game days while their real lives away from the field are less visible.

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It’s normal for them to be uprooted on a moment’s notice, ending their tenure with one team hours before starting with another. It’s expected. And it will happen again in the hours leading up to Tuesday’s trade deadline (4 p.m. ET).

But for the thousands of players who have been involved in trade deals, rarely does any part of it feel normal or expected.

Jarvis Brownlee Jr., the New York Jets cornerback who was traded by the Titans in September, got the call from his agent during an off day. Brownlee had only been in Tennessee a year, but he was surprised by the move, so much so that he took a walk and found himself tearing up.

“I think I played great ball,” he said. “When I got the call, I was a little bit hurt. But things happen.”

San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey recently said he found out at 11:15 p.m., in a call from his agent, that he’d be leaving Carolina for the Bay Area before the 2022 deadline. In the days leading up to the move, he was told he wouldn’t be traded, despite the speculation.

Players have learned they’ve been traded on social media, in online news stories or, in the case of former NFL cornerback Aqib Talib, while in a hyperbaric chamber.

“I just try to put myself in their shoes a little bit, on both ends,” Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. “… It’s an unusual thing to be added to a team. Like, all of us, if we were dropped into a new organization tomorrow, (we’d be like) ‘Holy s—, who are you? What do you do here?’ But sometimes they feel a new energy and sometimes a fresh start is needed for people into those spaces.”

The Athletic spoke to more than a dozen current players who have been dealt at least once in their careers to learn what it’s like. Where were they when they got the news? How quickly did they have to be on a plane? What about their wives, their kids? And who packed their house?

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Here’s how some of those players recalled their experiences. Interviews were condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Von Miller, OLB, Washington Commanders

A day before the 2021 deadline, the Broncos sent their Super Bowl 50 MVP and 2011 first-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for second- and third-round selections in 2022. Miller spent more than nine seasons in Denver and left as the franchise’s all-time sack leader.

“Sometimes the player and a team, they’re working behind the scenes and the media don’t know about it. Me and my agent, we were totally in the dark. I didn’t know anything about it. I had totally bought into being a Denver Bronco for life. And then I come to work and it’s over.

“(Broncos GM) George Paton called me in. Nobody told me what it was for. I was in the training room. (Head athletic trainer) Vince Garcia said, ‘Hey, George wants to talk to you upstairs.’ And me being the vet that I was, I was like, ‘Tell George to come down here.’ And he was like, ‘No, I think you better go upstairs.’ I was like, ‘Oh s—.’ Immediately it felt like I was going to the principal’s office and my mind went to all these different places.

“I knew it. I knew it deep down in my gut, but I wasn’t sure. They don’t call you up to the office for no reason, especially the day before the trade deadline. …

“My heart started beating fast. It’s a long stairwell that takes you from the ground floor to the main floor. Walking up that stairwell, I lost my breath.