JC Tretter is no longer working with the players’ union
Over the weekend, the NFL Players Association’s Chief Strategy Officer, JC Tretter, stepped down from his position with the union. For added context, NFLPA Executive Director Lloyd Howell, the non-player leader of the union, resigned from the union on Thursday amid several scandals.
Among those scandals is that Tretter, who helped run the secret search that eventually led to Howell’s election as union lead, was given a job by Howell once Tretter had graduated from his NFLPA presidency. Reporting on the Lloyd scandals sheds an interesting light on Tretter, too, as both the NFLPA and the NFL agreed to keep information away from players about an attempt at collusion between owners regarding guaranteed money and a grievance that the union lost over Tretter’s comments on a podcast.
In a letter that CBS Sports received, Tretter claims that he has “no interest” in being the executive director of the league, despite The Athletic’s Dianna Russini reporting that Tretter was the favorite to become Howell’s interim replacement before Tretter stepped down from the union.
Per Tretter, via CBS Sports, former SAG-AFTRA director David White, the other finalist for the job, along with Lloyd, back in 2021, was actually favored 10-1 in a straw poll of the search committee. The committee “did not share their preference with the board,” which ultimately votes on the matter. Tretter apparently voted for White, not Lloyd, who came into union leadership by way of working for private equity.
Tretter also claimed that Lloyd’s sexual discrimination lawsuit was known by the voters at the time, which has been disputed among media reports claiming to have union leaks.
Currently, the union is attempting to appeal the collusion ruling and has fired the arbitrator in the case, something both the NFLPA and NFL have the option to down. Now, they’ll be in the market for a new executive director and chief strategy officer who can lead them through the future.