A few days before the Browns’ first seven games last season, JC Tretter visited team doctors to have his right knee repaired.
The 30-year-old scientist would storm into the gym and yell, “It’s time to milk my knee! Let’s go!” Actually, it wasn’t so much breastfeeding as joint aspiration: a procedure in which, in the case of Tretter’s knee, excess fluid could be pumped to fill up two 60-pound syringes. -milliliter—or about the size of a double espresso. milk. Regardless, it did the trick to relieve the swelling repeatedly so he could get a little more exercise and play faster. is complete in the game.
Now a nine-year NFL veteran, Tretter knew how to overcome bumps, bruises and worse on that special part of his 6’4″, 307-pound frame. right meniscus who was sidelined for much of last season, accelerated his rehab to rejoin the Browns for their home opener a month later by rehabilitating his knee so badly that he showed the first symptoms of a cold.
After spraining the same knee in the following training camp, Tretter woke up one morning to find it swollen and unable to bend. (Hence, hebdomadal milking.) Yet he remained one of the league’s most durable blockers, earning a “questionable” designation on the Browns’ injury report through those first seven weeks. however he continued his streak of not missing a start due to injury. since arriving in Cleveland in 2017 (his lone DNP came due to COVID-19). Tretter, who also took more snaps in five seasons than all but two centers (Jason Kelce and Ryan Jensen). So, when concerned friends started hitting him up to ask him about his future two years and more ago, he would respond by sharing what he sees as a real threat to his time in the game.
“The guys would say, ‘So, how are your knees?'” Tretter, now 31, recalls. “And I always said, ‘My NFLPA career is going to end my career right before my knees end my career.
He feels that the critical time has come. Released by the Browns in mid-March, four days after being elected to a second two-year term as president of the NFL Players Association, Tretter hit free agency intending to return for a 10-year campaign. he retired. His “short list” of dream destinations included the Panthers, as he has a long relationship with offensive line coach James Campen; the Cowboys, “because I feel like if you went to play last year, that environment would be great”; and the Vikings, because he cheered for them as a child and “wanted to put a bow in my youth.” But, Tretter says, none of the seven teams his camp contacted returned his interest. “Minnesota didn’t answer us,” he says.
In Tretter’s estimation, finding the reason for this radio silence is not difficult. He describes his salary requests as modest, “not at the doctor’s minimum” but “well below the value I bring.” He says his right knee is “absolutely ready” for game action, having recovered from the swelling in Week 8 of last year and staying hydrated for the rest of the season. Also, Tretter adds, no team has ever asked for an MRI or a physical to diagnose it. This despite Pro Football Focus ranking him as the fifth best center in the league entering this season.
There’s also how Tretter’s agent explained the lack of movement: “I got a call in the middle of June,” Tretter says, “and it was like, ‘I didn’t realize you How many people have you pissed off.'”
(In an emailed statement, NFL vice president of communications Brian McCarthy described Tretter as a “relentless and passionate advocate for all NFL players”; he asked for specific comment on Tretter’s beliefs that his role in the organization caused his lack of a contract, McCarthy responded, “JC is a free agent eligible to sign with any team. We will refer you to teams for any comments.” Vikings declined to comment; the Panthers and Cowboys did not respond.)
Friends, family and other members of the union leadership are “confused” and “disturbed” by Tretter’s lack of agreement, he says. As his former Cleveland teammate Joel Bitonio recently told reporters at Browns training camp: “When you have a top-five, top-10 guy in the league and he’s on the list, he’s also the president of the NFLPA…no doubt in my mind.
Sitting down to breakfast in a Washington, D.C. hotel earlier this month, Tretter admitted to feeling a momentary sense of “revenge” on all the gangs that killed him. “There are teams right now that I would say are desperate for a base based on how camp is going,” he says. “Still no calls.” But he continues, his desire to return is gone, he says. : “I have reached the point where I will retire.” I know what I have achieved in my career and I am at peace with him. that.” If another desperate group calls tomorrow, he adds, he will pass.
Part of this peace is due to the fact that he is leaving after 111 games and 90 starts with his body intact. He says: “Yes, I’m worried because I’ve probably been involved in 5,000 car accidents for my job. But in the grand scheme of things, I can play with my kids, I can play basketball, I can lift and run and jump.
But Tretter, who has a degree in industrial relations from Cornell, is also at peace because of his important role in the larger struggle. Not since Jeff Van Note in the mid-1980s has an NFLPA president played longer than his tenure as the organization’s top player, and all 10 presidents have those who followed either resigned before entering office or did so shortly thereafter (although some continued. presidencies well beyond their playing years). “I took this job knowing the risks,” says Tretter. “I think that’s the price of leadership.”
So, while he is serving the last year and a half of his time – as allowed by the rules of the organizations – instead of fighting a personal battle against the team owners who sent him to early retirement , he can choose to talk about projects. for mobilizing about 2,500 fellow union members against them. How? By continuing to build bridges within the NFLPA’s notoriously vicious ranks, with an eye toward tapping into what he sees as an untapped pool of collective power.
“I have a lot of free time on my hands now,” he says. .
“I’m very excited about what’s to come.”
Tretter has started 16 games in each of the past five seasons for the Browns.
Jordan Naholowa’a Murph/Sports Illustrated
This season was not the first time Tretter faced career challenges. Toward the end of his sophomore year at Cornell, a combination of a torn left meniscus and ongoing conflicts with his position coach led to Tretter, and the high school student eventually turned around. , seriously considering quitting football and trying out for the big basketball team. . But after much self-examination, he instead doubled down on his commitment, writing a letter to himself one night without sleep and printing it to hang over the door of home, as a reminder of the work yet to be done. Started:
Today, May 7, 2011, at 2:35 am, you have decided that you will become a professional athlete. You will be drafted, and you will play in the NFL until you want to stop.
Tretter lived — and ate — his commitment: He gained 57 pounds in two years at Cornell when he moved from tight end to left tackle. The Packers drafted him in the fourth round of the 2013 draft, only to suffer a broken and torn ligament in his ankle 10 minutes into his first NFL practice. But Tretter’s decision did not waver: When he returned from the injury, he switched to center and three years later he became Cleveland’s starter, signing for $ 16.75 million, with $ 10 million guaranteed. He says: “My personality is like when I want to do something, I put all my chips on the table.
That was the case when he threw his helmet into the race to become president of the organization in early 2020, even though he was in his second season as one of the Browns’ player representatives. He says: “I realized that if I want to use my time, I really want to use my time.” Also, with my background, I felt that someone could do it, maybe it was me.
The vote was held at the union’s annual meeting in Key Biscayne, Fla., just four days before a vote to close a new bargaining agreement with owners. Running against linebacker Sam Acho and defensive end Michael Thomas, Tretter collected the most first-place votes among the NFLPA’s 32 teams, even winning over one of his opponents. ask, the ideas he would bring to push our meeting further, I already had it in my mind, he is a strong brother right there,” Thomas said. “Then [I learned] what college he went to and that he actually studied labor union law. I was like, ‘Shoot, that’s ridiculous.’ The night before the election, I told him: ‘Hey, bro, nothing but respect. You are a man of duty.’
“From that point on, he hit the ground running.”
A few days later, it was announced that the players approved a 10-year CBA, by a narrow margin of 60 votes, despite the vocal opposition of stars such as Tom Brady, who opposed extending the term 17 games. Tretter was taking over, as he said, “a very controversial time.” Then suddenly COVID-19 hit and the union was suddenly back at the negotiating table, in conflict with the league over playing conditions. Tretter said: His busy presidency, he says, has been “pushed with both hands into the deep end of the pool.”
As the NFLPA and NFL began working on an economic and safety plan for the 2020 season, Tretter connected his peers in a way familiar to many during the quarantine: He sent them a Zoom link. . Tretter says: “We started doing game calls for not only players, but also women, where we could have our doctor and they could ask any question. “I think that started building people who feel good about the organization, where we were giving them access to information.”
The possibility of a unified NFLPA emerged in July, shortly after the league announced its intention to open its training camps on time later that month. In response to the news, Tretter says, he received a call from a “star player” asking him to attend a meeting the player had organized along with “maybe 25 other big names.” ” to discuss their struggles with the health of the NFL. safety policy. (Tretter refuses to name any of these players without their permission because, as he puts it, “you’re called an editor, that doesn’t help your job.”) Of particular importance to the players was such as the number of preseason games, the length of time to acclimatize in training camp and the lack of daily testing for COVID-19.
The result of that meeting was what Tretter described as “one of the biggest things our organization has done,” which exploded on social media Sunday afternoon. People like Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson, Aaron Donald, Myles Garrett, JJ Watt. and others tweeted messages of solidarity in droves, along with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay. Some, like Drew Brees, even went so far as to issue an outright threat: “We need Ball! We need games! We need hope! The NFL’s unwillingness to follow the recommendations of their medical experts will prevent that. If the NFL doesn’t do its part to keep players healthy, there will be no football in 2020.”
At Tretter’s memorial, commissioner Roger Goodell informed the organization at the end of the day that the league’s owners were willing to agree to a longer schedule than their proposed 18 days (they sat on 20) and cancel the games in advance. (The NFL did not dispute this interview report.) “We’ve been fighting about [these issues] for months, and all of a sudden the team comes behind us and says, ‘No, this is a problem.’ serious,'” Tretter says. “And [the NFL is] like, ‘Okay, just take it. Please leave us alone.’”
But what makes this coordinated action stand out for Tretter isn’t the short-term deals it helped players get; it is the hope that it fosters even greater benefits in the future. “That’s what I want guys to see: It wasn’t a strike,” he says. “It’s not that you’re losing money, it’s that you were firing a 20-second tweet, and it gave us instant success. We don’t always ask you to give a million dollars and hit half a season. Sometimes, if we just organize the boys, we can benefit from, in the grand scheme of things, less effort.
“Having a lot of star players contributing to the organizational struggle that we haven’t seen before. And if we somehow manage to re-create that kind of thing, everything changes.”
The $230 million fully guaranteed contract that Watson signed with the Browns is loaded in many ways, but Tretter hopes it will start a trend of players earning more guaranteed money.
There is no labor union like the NFLPA, at least not in terms of the lobbying barriers inherent in its existence. It has more than twice the number of paying members as the MLBPA and five times the size of its NBA counterpart. The salary cap ranges from a league minimum of $705,000 to the $150.8 million that Aaron Rodgers is guaranteed from the Packers over the next three seasons. Also the short life span of football and the constant physical costs encourage players, through no fault of their own, to work on it while they can.
“That’s the hard thing about organizing: getting a group of people to have a different goal,” says Tretter. “Some say, I am happy to be here, so if they tell me to work 19 hours a day, I will do that, because I want to be here. Then you have guys who are a little bit older and they’ve been around and they’re like, wait, some of these things should be better for us. ”
Tretter believes that all of these factors make it difficult to “motivate the masses” around what he calls “topics” that affect a minority of members. One such example in his mind is the franchise tag, a fixture of CBAs since the first NFL-NFLPA agreement nearly three decades ago. “Would we like it if the franchise tag wasn’t there? Yes, says Tretter. The thing is, 99.9% of guys aren’t going to be tagged.
Later, Tretter uses the same percentage when asked if he continues to change the league’s disciplinary policy in the same basket: “With discipline as well, 99.9% of our guys will not have bad behavior multitude.” The proper procedure, he continues, would include “an impartial prosecutor who could bring the case to an impartial judge, whose decision was binding.”
As it was, the hearing was the first of the CBA’s new procedures — which reduced Commissioner Roger Goodell’s punitive powers by creating a unified, neutral disciplinary officer to levy suspensions in charged cases. it is a league, however it has retained the league’s ability to choose who it is. will hear any appeals from that disciplinary official’s earlier ruling—which resulted in an 11-game suspension and a $5.69 million fine for Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson on multiple allegations of misconduct sexual abuse. (Watson has denied wrongdoing.) Asked if he had personal concerns about Watson’s organization’s representation against the league, Tretter said, “My personal feelings are irrelevant. It is our job as a union to represent our members, ensure they have fair dealings and protect our CBA. ”
There is one important issue that Tretter sees as a clear way forward: guaranteed contracts, which unlike the NBA and MLB are rare for NFL players. “We have Kirk Cousins, we missed the boat,” Tretter said of the Vikings quarterback, who in March 2018 signed the league’s first fully guaranteed contract ($84 million). “He had a lot of power, he got it, and nobody came after him.” Of course, it wasn’t until the Browns promised Watson $230 million in March that the second came. Although this guarantee is fraught with many reasons, Tretter hopes it will start a trend.
“If your answer is, we should go to the CBA for guaranteed contracts, that’s not what basketball did,” Tretter said. “They did it without having to go to the table. They did it because individuals stood up. That’s what I like to see. If you’re [Broncos quarterback] Russell Wilson, and the team just gave you the farm, and you’re coming in with a new contract with one of the richest new owners in the league with a lot of money… good for the union if you were holding on to the idea, I should have a guarantee contract.
“Do I think it’s going to go from quarterbacks with guaranteed contracts to centers? No. But when the next Aaron Donald comes up for a contract extension, and he says, ‘I’m as important as a player defense as you can get, do you have a good chance? Yes. And suddenly the prime positions are getting guaranteed contracts: quarterbacks, D-ends, corners, receivers. Can I see that world is in the cards? Yes, I can. There is a way.”
For Tretter, the #WeWantToPlay movement proved that prominent players can also lead on union issues. Another example appeared in the spring of 2021, when almost two groups of clubs issued statements announcing their intention to refuse voluntary training. (Among these teams, Tretter says, were two future Super Bowl LVI participants, the Bengals and Rams.) But perhaps the most vocal player in this battle was Brady. , who issued appeals for unity in Union Zooms and held bad practices abroad. at the Buccaneers’ facility to continue negotiating laxer OTA rules with teams.
“Giving the players a voice, letting them dictate their performance levels, is confusing the league,” Tretter says. the players are engaging and the players are dictating their performance levels – I think you’re increasing the chances of more things like that coming in the future.”
Finding Smith’s place is one of the many pressing tasks Tretter faces.
John David Mercer/USA TODAY Sports
During the first half of 2022, the number of union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board – mostly through primary campaigns based outside the traditional union system, led by women – doubled compared to the same period last year. Whether it’s Amazon factory workers or Starbucks baristas, Trader Joe’s clerks or Apple store workers, people everywhere are coming together to try to find a place of control.
In February, while in Los Angeles for Super Bowl week, Tretter and several NFLPA officials toured a strip outside the nearby Rich Products dessert plant. billions of dollars. There, for the past three months and more, more than 100 workers, most of whom were Latina, have been striking day and night to demand better wages and working conditions. Taking pictures, giving a pep talk from the bed of a truck, asking workers about their struggle, Tretter was amazed by the scene.
“I wish more people could go to events like that,” says Tretter. “These people have nothing and are willing to risk everything, because that’s what honor looks like to them. There was no movement, no cave in. It was saying, ‘We’re going to stay. we’re here until we get what we’re asking for.’ I thought that was very powerful and motivating. To see a group of people who don’t get the minimum wage to live for months without pay, to put everything in perspective. Our guys have to have the ability to not have to go to work if we want to do that eventually, and save their money to do that.”
Historically, the NFLPA and other major men’s league unions have been seen to exist outside of this broader labor ecosystem, content to count their millions and indifferent to forming broader alliances. to all employees. The truth is that they are not completely wrong; In addition to site visits and other public announcements of support for labor struggles, NFLPA officials have also given back-to-back discussions on policy issues to leaders in unions representing workers at Starbucks, Amazon and others. other companies.
“I think the more we join and join the mainstream unions, use our resources and our money and our platform to help them, the better for us,” says Tretter. (In its 2020 tax returns, the NFLPA reported about $160 million in revenue and assets of more than $620 million.) enough, you should be happy about that. We’re workers. We’re fighting for the same things. We should all have hope that we’re all getting better.”
Before Tretter can hope to expand the NFLPA’s influence outward to help raise the tide for all ships, however, he must first go inward. Here he sees a shining example in the WNBA and NWSL, describing the players’ unions for those women’s leagues as “very inspiring for their determination and execution in battles.” In particular, he says, “WNBA players are very good at holding a message and being united in their locker rooms.”
While the NFL’s current CBA contains a clause that prevents players from officially voting to quit (and owners from locking them out) until after the 2030 season, they are free to make temporary actions. to qualify for the league level. “We’re eight years away from the next CBA fight,” says Tretter. “And a lot of people look at it like, “Okay, well, let’s leave it until you have to start thinking about the CBA. No. , we can really push the envelope more than now. We can’t hit. But we can smartly cause chaos.”
Broadcasting a unified message on Twitter has proven to work. Another idea that Tretter and other NFLPA officials have been considering comes from the WNBPA’s sportsbook, which has organized post-game media blackouts where players talk about one topic only. , whether it’s Black Lives Matter or bringing Brittney Griner home. “If the 32 [NFL] teams, every player, to the player, said, ‘I think the biggest thing we can talk about is the empty thing,’ and that’s it.” just the quotes that anybody in the media can get for the whole game. … those are the things that, if we go away, I think are big, problematic gaps for the league. It scares them. it’s mostly the players who stand up and be united without even knowing it.”
“It’s about finding the best ways to buy,” he continues. “To skip a year is a big gain in power. Maybe it’s not possible. Maybe we have to get a 10% gain to reach that level. But it’s a kind of leadership: to understand your members and to understand what your members they’re going to do it, and then you think, ‘How do we get where we need to go to that peak?'”
To that end, Tretter wants to do “more research, do more polls and give [players] more say in what’s going on in their facility, in their teams,” he says, and everyone is willing to get that. what he calls “overcoming the way of life. which are sometimes lost in confusion during CBA sessions. ” He also plans to devote some of his newly acquired free time to visiting clubs and interacting with players during the season. He says: “One person is better.” Another idea in the works: a golf course, called the NFLPA Classic, slated to leave the Bahamas in March. “That brings together men who otherwise wouldn’t be involved in the trade union,” he says. “You start to build that trust, and that togetherness. I think these people are starting to see the meeting in a different way, not one of asking and giving. ”
There is also some serious news, namely, the desire to hire a new director to replace DeMaurice Smith, who has been in office since March 2009, but agreed to serve his final term ( of an undisclosed height) after the NFLPA’s Board of Delegates voted to retain him last fall. Asked about the current state of operations, Tretter declined to comment except to say that the union has hired a search firm, Russell Reynolds, to help him and the executive committee find candidates; and the second is that it is his intention that the seat be filled by the time he leaves the presidency.
During what he describes as “the busiest week of my presidency,” when the omicron wave hit last December, Tretter recounts the NFLPA’s extraordinary business while participating in Browns training sessions. I was like, ‘Baker, I’m not going to download, catch the ball, I have to be this line,'” Tretter says of the former player in Cleveland. But now he can devote himself fully to this organization: He and his wife His wife, Anna, recently moved their family from Cleveland to the northern city of Virginia so she could be closer to the NFLPA headquarters in downtown D.C., where the staff is setting up an office for her. : “I might be assigned to work with a coffee maker.
In between, Tretter also plans to set aside time to write another letter, just as he did in college more than a decade ago. In it, too, he will list everything he hopes to do next—as a father and husband, yes, but also as a union president. Tretter says: “Maybe the things that I have achieved in the next 18 months, I don’t see the result of them. But part of the job is to be right. with that. The president’s job is to push the ball down the road and make these things easier for the next guy, and the next guy, and the next guy.”
That’s why, when he finishes writing, he will print the letter, frame it and put it on his desk in the NFLPA office, as a reminder of all the work being done.
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Who is the NFLPA leader?
JC Tretter | President Tretter was elected president of the NFLPA in March 2020 at the annual meeting of the Players’ Representative Board, and was unanimously elected to a second term in March 2022. In this role, he is able to post a letter of home in industrial relations well. usage.
Is DeMaurice Smith a lawyer? Smith was recognized as one of the best lawyers in the country. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. This may interest you : David Ortiz dazzles fans in Baseball Hall of Fame. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia for nearly ten years and served as Assistant Counsel to former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.
Who is head of the NFLPA?
— The NFLPA Board of Player Representatives has unanimously re-elected JC Tretter as president of the NFL Players Association. The Cleveland Browns center ran unopposed to secure his second two-year term in office during the NFLPA’s annual meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Is the NFL Players Association a union?
NFLPA. We are the organization that represents players in the National Football League. To see also : The 10 best story-filled video games worth replaying in August 2022. We are dedicated to the success and well-being of all players on and off the field.
Does the NFLPA president get paid?
NFLPA Exec Dir DeMaurice Smith’s compensation increased 39.5% to $4.462M in the fiscal year that ended Feb. To see also : A ‘spy video game’ for inclusion in the national curriculum. 28, 2021, according to the organization’s annual financial report.
Is the NFLPA exam hard?
It’s really hard. That’s why 55 percent of all test takers fail.
Do NFL coaches have a union?
The National Football League Coaches Association (NFLCA) is the coaching group in the National Football League (NFL). As of December 2021, the only coach not in the organization was Bill Belichick. During the 2011 NFL Lockout, the NFLCA issued a brief on behalf of the players.
Why is Bill Belichick not in the coaching staff? Although Belichick has never truly explained his reasons for not joining the coaches’ union, journalist Dan Wetzel suggested in 2012 that it was for the sake of the coach’s “rebellious streak.”
How do NFL coaches contracts work?
Unlike most player contracts, coaching contracts are properly guaranteed. The shooting team must pay the remaining years of the coach’s contract. However, that obligation comes with caveats. Clubs must state how they terminate a coach’s contract.
Does the NFL have a union?
NFLPA. We are the organization that represents players in the National Football League. We are dedicated to the success and well-being of all players on and off the field.
How do NFL players get paid weekly?
Long story short, every NFL player under contract gets paid every week from the start of the season to its end. Game checks are usually deposited into players’ accounts on Monday morning, although the exact day of the week they are paid can vary from week to week.
Do NFL players get paid on vacation? NFL players can negotiate to receive payment for off-season workouts. This means every time a player enters the club to work with that team he is paid. According to Sports Illustrated, the total amount players earn in the off-season is about $7,500.
How much do NFL players get paid weekly?
| Annual Award | Weekly salary | |
|---|---|---|
| The Super Rich | $62,000 | $1,192 |
| 75th Percentile | $46,000 | $884 |
| Average | $41,162 | $791 |
| 25th Percentile | $26,000 | $500 |
How do NFL players get paid Where does the money come from?
The NFL makes a lot of money, mostly from good television and advertising deals.
Do NFL players get paid every week?
NFL players are paid weekly during the regular season, and there have been 18 weeks this season, meaning Mathieu’s salary was at least $808,333.33. Even if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, Mathieu’s total salary will be less than 40% of what he sees on his weekly pay stub.
