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Moriah Dorsett started dating her husband, NFL wide receiver Phillip Dorsett, in 2016, during his second year in the pro leaguesSince they met, Moriah has followed Phillip to 10 different teams over the course of 11 seasons, with some moves happening just a few months after the previousNow that they’re parents to two children — daughter Payton, 3, and son Micah, 6 months — Moriah has had to learn how to live and raise kids without putting too many roots down in one place
NFL wide receiver Phillip Dorsett has played for 10 different teams over the course of 11 seasons. He’s been traded to teams on opposite coasts at various points in the year, sometimes only spending a couple of months with one franchise before being pointed in another direction.
He’s made his name on fields across the country, and thanks to his family — wife Moriah Dorsett, their daughter Payton, 3, and 6-month-old son Micah — he’s also been able to make each new city a home.
Moriah, 34, met Phillip, 32, one year after the Indianapolis Colts selected him in the 2015 NFL draft. She was working as a health coach at the time while studying to get her master’s degree. At the time, she was a lifelong Indiana resident, having gone to undergrad about 45 minutes away from her hometown.
Moriah Dorsett.
Courtesy of Moriah Dorsett
She was just getting ready to start her second and final year of her master’s when Phillip got the call in September 2017: he had been traded to the New England Patriots. Fortunately, Moriah’s program was fully online, so she didn’t have to stop following her dreams in order to follow love.
They spent three seasons with the Patriots before Phillip was traded again in 2020, this time to the Seattle Seahawks. It was a place where Moriah tells PEOPLE she never expected to live; little did she know, at the time, it was the first of many moves she couldn’t have predicted for herself.
“Some of the places that we lived, I’m like, ‘I would’ve never even dreamed of even thinking about living there,’ so it’s nice to explore the cities,” she admits. Even looking back on their first move from Indianapolis to New England, Moriah remembers that initially jarring feeling of the unknown.
“I had heard about the Patriots, but I was like, ‘Where is that at?’ I was freaking out. I’m like, ‘Where’s New England at? Where is Boston? Oh my God,'” she recalls with a laugh. “I never would have imagined living there. I didn’t even know where the team was at, at first.”
In March 2021, after wrapping his one-year contract in Seattle, Phillip signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars, but he wasn’t tied to Florida for long. That September, he returned to the Seahawks for a second stint in Seattle, only to be moved to the Houston Texans three months later.
The football pro nabbed a contract with the Texans that extended into the 2022 season. He and Moriah welcomed their first child there, but the family wasn’t long for the state. In March 2023, Phillip signed with the Las Vegas Raiders, then he was redirected to the Denver Broncos before the season started.
He signed with the Atlanta Falcons for 2024, but earlier this year, he made his way back to Nevada and is currently on the Raiders’ practice squad.
“I like to consider myself a professional mover at this point now,” Moriah tells PEOPLE. “The first time when we moved from Indy to New England, the team had handled it for us. And then after that, all the other moves, that was all me trying to get everything together.”
Moriah and Phillip Dorsett with their daughter.
Courtesy of Moriah Dorsett
As exciting as it’s been to explore the country, she’s also learned to live without putting down roots. That lifestyle wasn’t so challenging when it was just the two of them and their Yorkshire Terrier, Moriah notes, but having kids added some challenges.
Luckily, she and Phillip aren’t alone in the process when a move happens. “His parents are very involved as well, and they’re always my backbone and helped me,” says Moriah. “They fly in wherever we’re at and help me get everything together.”
Over a decade in, the seasoned WAG has developed a strategy to cope with the possibility of quick shifts at any point, since they’ve seen how trades can occur with little notice and just months apart. Moriah explains that she doesn’t move “as quickly” these days. Instead, she waits for a better sense of how permanent each change will be.
“Once he gets on a team, I wait and see how the season is going to go, how he’s feeling, and then usually we’ll make the move and come down a little bit later,” she shares. “Because the last time we were here in Vegas, we moved, we got settled in, and then literally five days before the season started, he got traded to the Denver Broncos.”
Moriah Dorsett with her two kids.
Courtesy of Moriah Dorsett
At that point, she adds, they had already moved all their furniture into a Las Vegas home for which they signed a year-long lease.
“I was like, ‘What are we going to do? We just got this house,'” Moriah recalls, though she sorted out a solid game plan that didn’t leave her nor her daughter feeling totally displaced. They stayed in Las Vegas until Thanksgiving and opted to rent an Airbnb in Denver, since at that point the season was almost over.
“That’s the hard part, especially when you’re renting,” the mom of two adds. “We rent wherever he plays, but most of the time they want you to do year leases, which is tough.”
(The family does have a home base in Florida, where Phillip is from. They bought a house there in 2019, giving them a place to stay permanently in the off-season.)
Moriah and Phillip Dorsett with their daughter.
Courtesy of Moriah Dorsett
Moriah is currently a full-time, stay-at-home mom, which is certainly an ideal vocation for someone who can’t keep tight ties to any one city. It didn’t take long for her to realize that reality after entering into her relationship with Phillip.
“It was hard to keep a job,” she shares. “It’s not like I can tell the job, ‘I only can work here for six months and then I need the other four months off.'”
Since Payton is getting to be school age, Moriah and her husband have started strategizing how they’ll launch her education without settling into one neighborhood. The dedicated mom says she wanted her daughter to start school this year, so she decided to homeschool her with some family help.
Moriah Dorsett and her daughter.
Courtesy of Moriah Dorsett
“My little sister has a background in social work, and then she’s also getting her master’s right now,” says Moriah. “She’s worked in a lot of school settings, so we moved her in with us this year, and she’s like our live-in nanny, but she’s also homeschooling my daughter.
From what Moriah has seen, 10 moves in 11 years is on the higher side for NFL families, but it’s not uncommon. Fellow partners of players have shared their own experiences with even more turbulent trades.
“When we were with the Patriots at the time — that was only our second team — I remember one girl telling me that she had moved four times in one season,” Moriah tells PEOPLE.
Ultimately, Moriah says she’s focused on providing as much stability as possible for their family. Part of that has been building an NFL family wherever they are, even knowing that one place may not be home for too long. Plus, as Moriah has experienced, they could always end up coming back to that team down the line.
“It’s a community, because most of the time we’re away from our family and friends during football seasons,” she says of her fellow WAGs from each team, many of whom she’s remained close with even after trades and moves. “It’s really nice to have just that community of ladies who are living the same life.”