NFL Wife Reveals How She Maintains Friendships with Fellow WAGs amid Players’ Ever-Changing Roster (Exclusive)

Brea Sutton has been with her husband, Courtland Sutton, for nearly his whole NFL career. Since he’s spent every season with the Denver Broncos, his wife has had plenty of time to put some roots down in Colorado.

Not all partners of players — or “WAGs,” as they’re commonly called, an acronym for “wives and girlfriends” — have the luxury of staying in one city for so long. Pro footballers can be traded at nearly any point, and some even have to switch teams (and home addresses) multiple times in a year.

Brea has witnessed the potential instability of a life on the sidelines of the NFL. Even though she and Courtland have not had to pick up and leave Denver, Brea tells PEOPLE she’s had to say goodbye to almost all the women she spent game days with when she first joined the team family.

“Everyone’s gone, because that’s just how football kind of works: everyone’s been traded, sent to other teams, released, all the things,” she shares. “[Courtland has] been lucky enough to sign three contracts with the same team, which doesn’t happen, so it’s a huge blessing.”

Despite the rotating roster of players and their partners, Brea still forms strong connections with the women around her. “I was one of those crazy people who had 13 bridesmaids and half of them were from the NFL,” she quips.

She’s often the one to plan out bonding activities for the WAGS, too. This year, the Broncos played a good number of early games, so Brea ended up having all the women over for brunch on several occasions.

“I’m always trying to get people together and comfortable, especially because you live away from your own friends and family to come live here,” she explains. “So I’m always just like, ‘Come meet people. Come hang out. Come watch the game.’ ”

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In addition to her love of football, Brea is an avid reader. In fact, avid may be an understatement: she’s read over 100 books over the past two years. She’s aiming at paging through a total of 75 by the end of 2026, most of which fall under genres like romantasy, dark romance, romance and mystery.

It’s no surprise that the Atlanta native has found a way to merge her friendships — fellow WAGs included — with her love of literature. She hosts a monthly book club meeting at her house, and last year she even rented out a bookstore to bring her group together for drinks and snacks, like cupcakes topped with book-shaped decorations.

Brea has also stayed tight with those who have gone off to other NFL franchises. And when those teams come to Denver to play the Broncos, Brea gets to host her friends.

“I had three or four different friends from different teams come and stay this year,” she says. “I’m huge on staying in touch and talking to people. When we won to go to the AFC Championship, I had over 100 texts and half of them were from people that used to be on the team here.”