JC Tretter Resigning From NFLPA

“Over the last couple days, it has gotten very, very hard for my family. And that’s something I can’t deal with,” Tretter told Jones. “So, the short bullet points are: I have no interest in being [executive director]. I have no interest in being considered; I’ve let the executive committee know that. I’m also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because I don’t have anything left to give the organization. I want to get my story out there, and I don’t want it to look like this was sour grapes or I didn’t get the job and I wanted the job. All I want to do is tell my story and then go be with my family.”

Tretter has come under fire recently regarding the hiring of Lloyd Howell, who resigned as NFLPA executive director on Thursday following allegations of misuse of funds, collusion, and conflict of interest.

“I love the guys, and that’s why I’ve done what I’ve done for the last six years is because I love what they do and who they are and the mission of the organization,” Tretter added. “And I think what I realized this morning when I woke up — after finally getting more than like two hours of sleep — is that I fell in love with the idea of what this place could be. And over the last six weeks, I’ve realized what this place is, and the delta between those two things. And I can’t walk into the building anymore, seeing and understanding what I see and understand now.”

As for the hiring process of Howell, Tretter continues to defend it while admitting that Howell was not the first choice for the position.

“We said, ‘OK, what do we want to do with this information?’ And we said, ‘Listen, if this is the best candidate, the board will see that. They’ll agree,” Tretter recalled. “‘But we’re not going to put our thumb on the scale. We’re not going to push them. We’re not going to go in there after doing all this work and make it look like we jammed in the person that we would’ve picked after this moment. So we’re going to let both people interview and we’re going to let the board make the decision. So the idea that I was jamming anybody through was false.”

Tretter was a candidate for the interim position, but this is no longer the case. He is hopeful that there will be changes to the interview process for the position to be permanently filled.

“We did hundreds of hours of work, and we did multiple rounds of interviews. We had people flying into D.C. regularly to meet candidates in person. I don’t think it’s feasible to do that for everybody,” Tretter explained. “… The executive committee is in the day-to-day of it. The board has the approval rights. It’s a fair question. I think that’s something that the board and the [executive committee] and the players need to wrestle with as they launch the next search is like, ‘How is it set up?’ I’m not saying we did everything right. I think we made decisions based off what we had done historically and wanted to do something different and thought what we were doing was the best option. We’ve learned more since then. There are probably going to be changes. There should be changes. They should do something that they feel confident in and they should learn from every experience they have.”

When it comes to the accusations, Tretter continues to deny any guilt and told Jones that he is resigning not because of the accusations, but because the situation has simply gone too far. After being advised not to speak on the matter, Tretter decided he could no longer hold back.

“So, the day the news broke, I sent an angry text to De calling him a ‘f—ing loser.’ I did that,” Tretter stated. “That was before the idea of collusion had even come up; months later is when we launched the collusion grievance where we got word — or De got word — there could be some collusion going on. And that’s why I said in my deposition: If he was colluded against, I would not have said that. I would’ve apologized because I didn’t know he was working against other factors. Sorry. My expectation was I didn’t just naturally think the NFL was breaking the CBA.”

“I’m not resigning because what I’ve been accused of is true. … I’m not resigning in disgrace. I’m resigning because this has gone too far for me and my family, and I’ve sucked it up for six weeks. And I felt like I’ve been kind of left in the wind taking shots for the best of the organization,” Tretter concluded. “I got to the point this morning where I woke up and I realized, like, I am going to keep dying on this f—ing sword forever of, I’ll never, ever be able to do what’s best for me. And I will always pick what’s best for the organization. And in the end, what’s the organization done for me? Like, nothing. I’ve been a bullet shield for six weeks for them where everything that’s been controversial, it just all dumps down on me, and I’ve had nothing to f—ing do with it. And that’s when I was like, I’m done taking bullets for the [organization] on stuff I wasn’t a part of and did not do.”

Tretter, 34, is a former fourth-round pick of the Packers out of Cornell back in 2013. He played out the final year of his rookie contract before agreeing to a three-year, $16.75 million contract that included $6.5 million guaranteed with the Browns in 2017. 

Tretter then signed a three-year, $32.5 million extension that included more than $23 million guaranteed. He was set to make a base salary of $7.9 million in the final year of the deal when the Browns released him. He then retired in August of 2022.

For his career, Tretter appeared in 111 games and made 90 starts for the Packers and the Browns.

We will have more news on Tretter and the NFLPA as it becomes available.