Scandal, secrecy and JC Tretter: This is what the NFLPA came up with? | Opinion
On paper, JC Tretter's election this week as executive director of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has some promise. A former lineman, Tretter spent nine years in NFL trenches. Add his union experience and Ivy League credentials, and seemingly he is well-equipped with the book smarts, street smarts and political chops to help in the new gig.
Just don't call it something new and fresh.
Tretter comes with much baggage from his previous NFLPA duty, which included having fingerprints all over the secret process that resulted in the election of Lloyd Howell in 2023.
And remember, before Tretter resigned as the NFLPA's chief strategy officer in July 2025 - following Howell, who resigned that month amid scandal - he maintained that he had no interest" in the union's top job.
I'm also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because I don't have anything left to give to the organization," Tretter told CBS Sports in July of 2025.
Talk about a clip-and-save quote.
More: JC Tretter resigned from the NFLPA during a scandal. Now, he'll lead the organization.
Look at him now. Tretter, 35, has come back and indeed assumed the top job.
After another extensive search and another secret process (no, that didn't quite work out the last time, begging the question of whether essential lessons were learned), this is what the NFLPA came up with?
Tretter was the subject of intense speculation when he left the NFLPA last year, given that Howell had entered into an agreement with the NFL that, as ESPN reported, concealed details about an arbitrator's findings relating to collusion by NFL teams. Tretter, who testified in the hearing, has denied knowledge of Howell's agreement.
With his election, Tretter apparently separated himself from the issues that doomed Howell - who in 2024 created the chief strategy post for Tretter.
In balloting by the Board of Player Representatives, which consists of reps from all 32 teams, Tretter was picked over fellow finalists David White (the interim executive director) and Tim Pernetti (commissioner of the American Conference). Unlike the labor pact, rank-and-file players don't get a vote on the executive director. And even the player reps were reportedly kept in the dark about the vetting of the 300 candidates the NFLPA considered, using an executive search firm.
Interestingly, Tretter, during his time as NFLPA president (2020-2024), presided over a player rep vote to amend the the organization's constitution, eliminating a provision that executive director finalists were to be known to the board at least 30 days before the vote. So, there's that, which apparently weighed into the equation for missing red flags on Howell the last time.
This time, how Tretter's campaign platform differed from the other finalists is unknown, given the secretive nature of the election. During NFLPA meetings in San Diego, free agent linebacker Jalen Reeves-Mabin was also re-elected as union president.
Yet pitted against NFL owners, there's the promise, too, of Tretter potentially being taken to school over matters that might be summed up with a Mike Tomlin slogan: Two dogs. One bone.
Sure, after having a key role alongside then-union chief DeMaurice Smith in negotiating the last extension of the labor deal in 2020, he's deeply steeped in the issues. The NFL, with annual revenues nearing $25 billion, undoubtedly wants to reopen the labor pact that runs through the 2030 season, to institute an 18-game season. Of course, the dangling carrot attached to that would be the record salary caps flowing from new media deals. Other elements of a new or revised labor deal would likely address an expanded international slate, larger roster sizes and playing surfaces, among other issues.
And, with players currently receiving a 48.5% share of revenues in formulating the salary cap, what if the NFL wants to reduce that share?
No, Tretter won't get a honeymoon. Tough talks are coming. And like any strong union leader, he'll need solidarity with the rank-and-file. In this case, that's hardly a given with a fluid player population that has an average career span of 3.5 seasons.
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In his previous NFLPA positions, Tretter influenced the protocols instituted during the pandemic. He was a driving force behind the NFL Report Cards comparing teams for workplace environment and amenities, which derived from player surveys and until this year were publicly released by the NFLPA.
Tretter also had a couple ideas that flowed from the Covid-19 measures that didn't quite fly, post-pandemic: He wanted to bar media from locker rooms and he apparently explored eliminating the NFL's offseason calendar for players (conditioning programs, minicamps), to be replaced by a lengthy ramp-period before training camp.
Why should you, or even the average NFL fan, care about how the NFLPA handles its business?
Well, because consumers of the nation's most popular sports league - be it the hundreds of millions of viewers drawn in as rabid fans, the gamblers, the fantasy football players - are used to getting their product.
And the longer a drought fueled by a labor battle, the worse.
To that end, it's evident that the only leverage the NFL players possess is wrapped in withholding their services. That's not in the mix now, far from it, with the labor deal pegged to expire in March 2031. It's worth noting that you'd have to go back to the 1980s - 1982 and 1987 - to find the last times the union voluntarily engaged in a work stoppage.
The 2011 lockout, remember, was an owners move.
Yet if the next labor battle gets thick enough, the only recourse for NFL players might be a work stoppage, which would take solidarity. If an 18-game season is truly a deal-breaker, Tretter might someday find himself trying to galvanize a typically apathetic rank and file.
Certainly, NFL owners know that. All while the clock ticks toward the inevitable showdown over an 18-game season.
Now that Tretter has the job that at one point he didn't want, a bigger campaign looms.
Contact Bell atjbell@usatoday.comor follow on X: @JarrettBell
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFLPA chooses JC Tretter as leader after controversy, 18-game battle looms