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NFL 2026 NFL Free Agency JC Tretter "jumped at the opportunity" to return to the union when he was invited to interview for executive director. Courtesy of NFLPA Roughly eight months ago, JC Tretter declared himself done with the NFL Players Association. Retired from the NFL after eight seasons, Tretter served as president of the players union from 2020 to 2024 and then transitioned to chief strategy officer — a position former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. created for him upon Tretter’s tenure as president ending. Advertisement However, when Howell became embroiled in multiple controversies, including a confidentiality agreement reached with the NFL over a collusion grievance filed against owners by the NFLPA, and financial improprieties that sparked both a federal investigation and internal investigations, Tretter found himself under scrutiny. He faced questions about the process that led to the selection of Howell, whose tenuous two-year run as executive director also saw the union embroiled in several legal battles, and whether or not Tretter was complicit in the decision to withhold the ruling of the collusion grievance from players. Tretter badly wanted to defend himself against the negative allegations leveled against him, but said he received legal advice not to publicly address the accusations. Initially, Tretter understood that silence during the investigations was best for the organization for which he worked. Still, he recalls that as various reports came out — each further distorting the truth, Tretter says — his frustrations reached a boiling point as he found himself still muzzled by legal counsel. Tretter maintains that the NFLPA’s executive committee conducted the search and election of Howell fully in accordance with union rules. And he insists that he never would have agreed to the confidentiality agreement over the collusion ruling if it were his call. He says that of all of the allegations, the assertion that he was aware of the confidentiality agreement angered him the most. Tretter recalls telling the legal team, “Hiding something against the players is so against what I’ve always represented. I would like to just correct the record. ” However, Tretter says he again was advised to remain quiet. “They said that it would be better for the organization if I didn’t, ” Tretter continued, “and that’s when I needed to resign, and that’s when I felt like it had gone too far, and I was in a bad place, and I needed help, and I wasn’t getting it, and I wasn’t able to defend myself. I wasn’t asking for anybody to defend me. I just wanted to tell the truth, and I left. ” Advertisement Time and space have a way of offering healing for some, and late last season, while fully entrenched in family life and daddy duties, Tretter — his frustrations with the NFLPA and his exit having subsided — found himself drawn back to the union. Turnkey, the search firm hired by the union to find Howell’s replacement, invited him to interview for the position. Tretter “jumped at the opportunity” and eventually became a finalist for the job. Last week at the NFLPA’s annual board of player representatives meeting, Tretter beat out interim executive director David White and American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti for the long-term executive director position. Tretter has a massive undertaking ahead of him. He must restore stability to NFLPA headquarters, where uneasiness reigns. He must work to help the union regain the trust of the roughly 2, 500-member player body. And, he has to gear up for what figures to be a lengthy collective bargaining agreement negotiation with NFL owners. The 35-year-old Tretter officially begins his new job on April 1, but he’s already working to catch up on all union matters between now and then. This week, in a lengthy interview with The Athletic, Tretter explained what led to his change of heart and return to the NFLPA, lessons learned from his rocky final two years there, his mission going forward and expectations for CBA negotiations with the league. This conversation has been edited for length. So, why are you back? You left during a tumultuous time and with a lot of frustrations, but now you’re back in an even bigger role than before, which definitely came as a surprise to some people. So, why? You know, I think a question I got from the (board of representatives) in the interview was, “You said you gave all you had. You had nothing left to give. Like, why are you back here? ” … I still wouldn’t change a thing I did as president. I loved every minute of it, but I believe I sacrificed a lot for that, and then for those six weeks (last summer), I sacrificed my reputation like they asked me to. And then when I left, I said I didn’t want to sacrifice the truth anymore. And unfortunately, what I realized after I left is I lost the (fight for) truth a long time ago. … When it goes for that long, there’s no stopping the story after, even if you tell the truth now, it’s so, “It is what it is. ” And I learned that the harder I said, “This is what actually happened, ” no one cared about the correction of the record. Advertisement And then I went through my own process of dealing with my frustrations and angers and disappointments of all that went on, and what I realized was I gave up more than I was anticipating. And I thought I had given up everything, but I realized I chose to give up the mission and the guys, and I was unwilling to do that anymore, and I felt like that was a choice I still had. And I love this work, and I love this union, and I love those guys, and I think they deserve more. And I enjoyed every minute of working on their behalf. What was your first reaction when you received the inquiry about the executive director role? Was it a hard no, or were you intrigued? When Turnkey reached out to see if I was interested in coming back, I jumped at the opportunity because I wanted to state my case and my vision for what I think this place can be going forward. I wanted the opportunity to do that, and nothing was guaranteed to me. I had to go through the interview process. … That’s the great thing about being a human being is you have a chance to re-evaluate and consider and reconsider and also change your mind. When I stepped away, I didn’t think I’d be coming back. And I slowly started feeling that urge and that itch and that draw back to the work where I would find myself naturally doing the things I used to do when I was president or chief strategy officer, where I’d be up late at night with a pen and paper in hand, jotting down, like, “Ooh, that that would be an interesting idea if the PA did that. ” So, that process had started internally, before they ever reached out. … When they did reach out, the interest was there. Now, I had to talk to my wife. It was never one of the things I had planned or thought about being executive director at this point in my life, so it was a conversation with her of, “Can we do this? What would this look like? Do we want to do this and all that comes with it? ” But I’m back now, and I’m really happy and excited that the players saw my vision and believed in it, because that’s so important for the organization; for the players to rally around the union, and now my job is to show up and execute, move us forward, and that’s what I’m excited to do. During that time when you were under scrutiny and you said you couldn’t defend yourself, did it frustrate you that no one stuck up for you? (NFLPA president) Jalen Reeves-Maybin made a strong statement supporting you (Monday), but did part of you feel like, “Where was that before? ” I sorted through my frustration, and honestly, I’m a different human being. That was an extremely dark, traumatic time of my life. … I would have told you 10 months ago, “You can heap s— on me till the cows come home and it won’t bother me. ” I learned that that’s not true, and that I had a limit. I didn’t know I had a limit, and that is a period you have to go through to learn about yourself. … But I’m a different human being than I was eight months ago. I think I am more empathetic. I think through what other people are going through, and what else could be part of the story and not jump to conclusions. It definitely changed my worldview, which is good. That’s the part of growth. I’m not jumping back into this with past angst or anger or animosity. … I’m coming back ready to work and get back. There’s no “out for revenge. ” I’m here because I love the guys, and I believe that this place is going to be great in the future, and I want to be a part of that, and I want to lead it there. For the past 8 months, our player leadership has committed countless hours to our search for the next @NFLPA executive director. Along the way, I’ve heard the conspiracies, narrative and speculation. Now it’s time for the truth! https: //t. co/Tm C579E2Bg — Jalen Reeves-Maybin (@Reeves Maybin) March 23, 2026 What helped you work through that frustration and get out of that ‘dark’ place? I think hearing from people mattered. Talking to my family, extended family and friends from college and growing up. That matters, because I think the toughest part, I’ve always prided myself on my reputation, and I felt like I — for 15 years in this business — I’ve had a pretty spotless reputation, and to watch that kind of get ripped apart for stuff you didn’t do is really hard to watch, and to have people reach out and just be like, “We know who you are, man. You’re good, ” that helped. So that was a hard transition to go through, but then it also becomes — not callousing yourself to it, but like realizing who matters and what matters. I’ve got a wonderful wife and two beautiful kids, and like their opinion matters to me. The players’ opinions matter to me. … Standing in front of that group at the board meeting showed me that they still believe in me and understand what’s true and what’s false. I wouldn’t be sitting here if anything that was said about me was true. And I think that should be a lesson or a takeaway. The guys vetted this, they’ve dove into all of it. And if what I was accused of — if any bit of it was true, it would be disqualifying for me to hold this position. So it matters to me what they think, too. … So I think just hearing from people and talking through it and feeling that belief that they still understand who I am as a human being mattered a lot. Through all of the scrutiny, the turmoil and everything, the whole Lloyd search and hire, which didn’t play out as you all had hoped, what was the biggest lesson or two that you learned that will help you this time around and this return to the union? One of my takeaways from the last eight months is that the truth has to matter, and that you have to push back on misinformation or lies. You can’t let them sit out there unchecked, because it allows people to write the story however they want to, and if it’s not true, it’s tough to go back on the reputation and credibility that you lose when you allow that to happen. … I think that’s something I would do differently. Now, again, I didn’t have the ability to make that decision unilaterally, but I think I would have pushed harder and not accepted that going forward. Advertisement I think if we’re looking for what I’ve learned about our organization is that in the end, this is the players’ union, and we are at our best when players are engaged and aligned and unified in focus. … My hope is they realize how much power and strength they have, and that they’re capable of doing this and leading this organization. Because in the end, though I’ve been elected executive director, this isn’t my union. This isn’t The JC Tretter Show. My job is to allow them and engage with them in a way to allow them to lead the organization and set the vision and set the goals. Now, they hold me accountable to executing those goals, but they need to be involved and have a say and lead. And they’ve done a lot of leading over the last eight, nine months and gone through a lot of s— to lead this place out of where they were. And I think it’s always good to see firsthand just how much you’re capable of. … There will be more asked of them in the future when the next battles begin. What was your main selling point during interviews? Why should they have picked you? I talked about my vision of what this place should be and where it’s been and where I want to go, and part of that is the core union organizing of this place, and that if we’re ever going to succeed, it takes all of us together, and this can’t be piecemealed. And I said that the times we’ve been engaged and aligned, we’ve been at our best in history, (which) has proven that we’ve succeeded at those points, but those have happened few and far between. And that can’t be our calling card of when it works, it works and it works great, but it doesn’t work very often. That’s not a good organization. We’ve obviously had our first executive director, (who was) a former player in Gene Upshaw, who led this place for a very long time. And then we’ve gone away from former players leading it. And I think there was a piece of having a former player to connect with the players and bring the entire organization together again. We have a staff that does a ton of incredible work, but you need to connect the vision of the players to the work of the staff, and having somebody in the position of ED that can connect those two groups of, “Hey, I’m out with the players. This is what they’re thinking and what they’re saying, and how it relates back to you guys. You guys understand your role and how you can better execute and assist them, ” and making sure every department fits into what the players are looking for, I think, is something that I can bring to the table and do well. We did talk about, which is probably an elephant, about my age. … Me being 35 years old and being the youngest — Gene was 38 when he took over — and I talked about how I don’t see that as a weakness of mine. … I’m still fairly fresh out of the league, and that’s important. Players feel more comfortable talking to me than a guy in a suit that they don’t know. I think they can be more open and honest and say exactly what they’re thinking and not think twice about it, which is good for you to be able to talk to the head of the organization that way. Then, I told them, I am not a finished product. You know, this is not the end version of JC Tretter. I will develop more. I have room to grow. I will get better every day and every year going forward. De Maurice Smith and Lloyd were both very different from each other. What kind of an executive director are you going to be? What’s your style?   The job of executive director is extremely externally facing. I need to be out with our stakeholders. I need to be out with them in the locker rooms, knowing what they care about. We need to understand our players’ priorities, and we need to execute against those prior priorities, both on a day-to-day basis at the NFLPA, but also CBA priorities, and we need to know what they want to fight for. And we need to educate them on what other people are saying. So we have some consensus around the ecosystem that takes time and effort and travel to do that. To do that well, you need to bring in and have a strong team around you on the staff side, and you need to delegate, not be a micromanager. So what I want to do is make sure I empower the staff to do their jobs and do them well, and put them in a position to succeed and allow them to thrive, and make very clear that I trust them in what they’re doing. Because when I’m on the road for 90 straight days in the fall, I can’t have the organization stop moving because I’m not here to do anything. We have a 130-plus person staff. … If I think I’m in here and do 130 people’s jobs, I will die quickly. So my job is to make sure the team is set up to succeed, that they know what the players care about and then get out of their way and let them do the job they know how to do. When it comes to my attitude, whether with the league, Roger (Goodell), the media, I feel like that’s less of an unknown. I feel like I have a track record there. I feel like I’ve been a pretty fair broker where I’ll tell you what I think, and I’ll be honest about where I’m at, and that doesn’t mean we always have to agree. We’re probably not going to always agree, and that’s OK. I don’t take any of that personal. I think that’s the job of any people on two different sides: you find a way to work your way to the middle. And sometimes that’s more aggressive, sometimes that’s more collaborative, and each moment defines what that needs. And your job as a leader is deciding what that moment requires. Advertisement How do you return NFLPA headquarters to a place of stability? There’s a lot of uneasiness and you guys are fighting a lot of battles on a lot of different fronts. I’m still a little bit away from my official start date, so I still have a ton of drinking through the fire hose to do, to get caught up on everything that’s going on — lawsuit wise, litigation wise. I’m not there yet to talk on that. Now, to get to your point, we need to get focused on the mission at hand, and the mission is supporting our players, fighting on their behalf, preparing for the inevitable negotiations. We have a CBA that runs through the 2030 season. We need to get back to focusing on the work, because in the end, we’re going to be judged off our results and the office, the culture, all that matters to get us going, we’ll take the time to rebuild this place and make people feel excited. I told the guys in the interview, this should be an amazing place to work, because very few times in your life do you know you’re working for the good guy, and we’re working for the good guys. We’re working for the players that deserve more. … And they deserve protection, and we’re the ones fighting for that. That’s, I think, a reason why a lot of people here show up to work every day is because that’s the mission they’re fighting for, and we have to get back to that mission and understand why we’re here. And we’ve had a ton of drama and a ton of issues and a ton of things that I think distracted us from that mission. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle Mike Jones joined The Athletic as a national NFL writer in 2022 after five years at USA Today, where he covered the NFL, and eight years at The Washington Post, where he covered the Washington Commanders. He previously covered the Washington Wizards for The Washington Times. Mike is a native of Warrenton, Va.