Rasul Douglas thought Packers were joking when they called him about trade to Bills

The Green Bay Packers trading cornerback Rasul Douglas was off the radar, especially to the player involved.

Douglas was traded before Tuesday's deadline to the Buffalo Bills and he clearly wasn't expecting it. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst called Douglas first Tuesday afternoon, he told media in Buffalo on Friday. Douglas was so surprised by the news, he thought it was a joke. And he hung up thinking it was a joke.

“At first, because [Gutekunst] called me at first, I thought it was like a joke, because he didn’t say too much," Douglas said, via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He just was like, ‘We’re trading you.’ And then it was over, the conversation was over. I just hung up."

Not long after, Packers president Mark Murphy called to also inform him of the news.

"And then I'm sitting there and Mark Murphy called me. And he's got a voice that’s like, you know that it’s him," Douglas said. "So I’m like, ‘Oh, now, this ain’t no joke.’"

Douglas said Murphy told him he appreciated him and thanked him.

Douglas was a great story with the Packers. He was third-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017 and didn't work out there, spent a season with the Carolina Panthers and then was bouncing around practice squads in 2021. The Packers signed him off the Arizona Cardinals' practice squad and he surprisingly made an immediate impact, picking off five passes in 12 games. The Packers signed him to a three-year, $21 million deal. It was a fantastic story of a player reviving his career.

Then he was gone to Buffalo, which shocked his teammates.

“I was pretty surprised, to say the least," Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander said this week, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic. “I didn’t expect Rasul to be gone. He’s a vet. He’s made a bunch of plays during his time here, but that’s just the NFL.”

Reality had to set in quickly for Douglas, who joins a team with Super Bowl hopes. Life can change fast in the NFL, as Douglas knows too well.