An NFLPA exec resigned during a scandal. Now, he'll lead the organization.
An NFLPA exec resigned during a scandal. Now, he'll lead the organization.
Jack McKessy, USA TODAYWed, March 18, 2026 at 12:22 AM UTC
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An NFLPA exec resigned during a scandal. Now, he'll lead the organization.
The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) has found its new leader.
On March 17, the NFLPA announced that its board of player representatives elected JC Tretter to be its next executive director.
Tretter is a former NFL offensive lineman, playing eight seasons across stints with the Green Bay Packers and Cleveland Browns. He also previously served as the NFLPA's player president from 2020 to 2024 and its Chief Strategy Officer starting in 2024, following his retirement from the NFL.
"I'm grateful for the trust my fellow players have placed in me," Tretter said in a statement, "and I'm going to reward that trust with my fullest commitment to these players and chart a new course for our union."
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Tretter is the permanent replacement for former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell.
Howell resigned last July after multiple scandals, including an ESPN report revealing his involvement as a paid, part-time consultant for The Carlyle Group – a private equity group seeking minority ownership in NFL franchises – which represented a conflict of interest for his job as the players union's top executive.
Days after Howell's resignation, Tretter – then serving as the NFLPA's Chief Strategy Officer – also resigned amid the scandals, which included a confidentiality agreement the NFLPA made with the NFL to conceal grievance findings, and removed himself from consideration to replace Howell.
Tretter told CBS Sports after he resigned from his previous executive position: "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."
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David White, formerly the national executive director of SAG-AFTRA, replaced Howell as interim executive director of the NFLPA in August after Howell's and Tretter's resignations.
Tretter beat out White and another finalist – American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti – for the permanent executive director job in the NFLPA's most recent election.
"We are proud to welcome JC Tretter as our new executive director and confident in the leadership that he will bring to our union," the board of player representatives wrote in a statement March 17. "We conducted a thorough, deliberate search to identify the right long-term leader to deliver sustained, meaningful progress for our members.
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"JC earned the trust of our Board and demonstrated a clear commitment to serving this membership."
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In September 2023, the NFL filed a grievance against the NFLPA stemming from comments Tretter made months prior, when he alluded that faking injuries was a way for a player to avoid fines in contract negotiation holdouts.
Said Tretter at the time: "I think we've seen issues — now, I don't think anybody would say they were fake injuries, but we've seen players who didn't want to be where they currently are, have injuries that made them unable to practice and play, but you're not able to get fined, and you're not able to be punished for not reporting. So there are issues like that. I don't think I'm allowed to ever recommend that, at least publicly, but I think each player needs to find a way to build up leverage to try to get a fair deal. And that's really what all these guys are looking for, is to be compensated fairly."
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The NFL won the case, which was decided by a non-injury grievance arbitrator, according to reporting from Pablo Torre of "Pablo Torre Finds Out" and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio.
In a statement to Pro Football Talk, the league wrote, "The Arbitrator upheld the Management Council’s grievance in its entirety and found that Mr. Tretter’s statements violated the CBA by improperly encouraging players to fake injury."
The statement went on to clarify that the NFL did not allege any specific player faked an injury – that the league's issue was with Tretter and the union potentially encouraging the behavior.
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Tretter was also in an executive position with the NFLPA when the union, according to ESPN reporting, made a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to keep private the findings of a grievance filed by the players union.
The NFLPA's grievance, filed in 2022, alleged that team owners were colluding to keep player salaries down. Last year, arbitrator Christopher Droney concluded that there was no evidence of collusion, though he did find evidence the league encouraged its owners to engage in collusion.
The details of Droney's ruling did not emerge until six months later, when "Pablo Torre Finds Out" published the 61-page document from the arbitrator.
After his resignation last July, Tretter denied knowing about the findings of the NFLPA's grievance case in an appearance on "The Dan Patrick Show." He also stated that he had no discussions about the case in the time between its filing in 2022 and the arbitrator's report from 2025.
"Just not part of my job," Tretter said at the time.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JC Tretter elected NFLPA executive director months after resigning
Source: “AOL Sports”
