The NFL player association announced a new Executive Director today. The NFLPA executive committee elected former Cleveland Browns starting center JC Tretter.
Tretter has trained his entire adult life for this position. Tretter graduated from Cornell with a degree in industrial labor relations. Tretter was the president of the NFLPA from 2020 to 2023. He then served as the Chief Strategy Officer after his retirement. The new executive director had a tumultuous time getting to the top. A year ago, Tretter resigned from the union, saying he had no interest in the job.
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The NFLPA has been under a barrage of attacks since last summer. Their former top lawyer turned into a witness for the Department of Justice against the union. The NFLPA then came under fire after muckraker Pablo Torre published the decision in the NFLPA’s grievance against the NFL, alleging collusion and the suppression of guaranteed money. The mediator ruled against the NFLPA while agreeing with their evidence. After all, in markets, rational actors don’t need to collude, as firms naturally try to achieve a competitive and low price. However, Torre framed Tretter and an innocuous private text he made as the reason the NFLPA lost.
The NFLPA continued to be dogged by scandal as then-executive director Lloyd Howell came under the spotlight. Howell had a litany of complaints about inappropriateness in the workplace, from Booz Hamilton and eventually to the NFLPA. Howell resigned after Kalyn Kahler and ESPN published a report showing Howell hosted trips to strip clubs with union money. The NFLPA hired former SAG-AFTRA executive director David White as the interim Executive Director. White was a finalist for the executive director position in 2021.
He was reportedly Tretter’s preferred candidate.
What the former Browns center brings (back) to the NFLPA
Tretter has steadily guided the NFLPA into an unprecedented era of growth. His biggest success has been the NFLPA Report Cards, which have generated over $300 million in investments by NFL teams ashamed by their dilapidated infrastructure and poor scores. Tretter’s focus was always on the business side, not on the courts or an arbitrator's office. The shift in the organization’s priorities has put a target on Tretter’s back. Kahler published a report with ESPN detailing the election. She reported legal fees have grown nearly fourfold over the past decade. In 2024, the NFLPA spent $18.1 million in legal fees. The union had nothing to show for these millions of dollars. The independent arbitrator has ruled against the union in nearly every case. Earlier this year, the arbitrator said the NFLPA must stop publishing its report cards.
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The NFLPA can still share the report cards with members, but not with the media. Arbitration has taken over the legal world, protecting corporations by having people sign away their right to go to court. According to reports, “Workers win in only about 1 in 5 forced arbitration hearings, which is about 40 percent less than they win in federal court, and over 60 percent less than they win in state court.” Their legal team was exploiting the NFLPA in a pseudo-legal system.
The NFLPA hired Tretter to help modernize the NFL. The union couldn’t rely on the playbook from the 20th century. They needed to build long-term plans. The long-term plan of the DeMaurice Smith-era NFLPA leaders to decertify the union and throw themselves at the feet of the United States federal courts, or worse, Congress, was foolhardy. The NFLPA has decided to grow up and take control of its future by hiring Tretter as executive director. While the move won’t be popular in the media, unions rarely are. It was the right decision.
This article originally appeared on Browns Wire: Browns long-time center JC Tretter elected executive director of NFLPA
