Former Packers center JC Tretter voted NFLPA president

As a team representative on the board of the NFL Players Association, JC Tretter has been the voice of the Cleveland Browns for the past few years. Now, he will be the most prominent voice for all of the players across the National Football League.

On Tuesday at the NFLPA’s annual meeting, the union’s 32 player representatives elected Tretter as the organization’s next president. Tretter, who was a fourth-round draft pick of the Packers in 2013, played four seasons in Green Bay before signing with Cleveland as a free agent prior to the 2017 campaign.

Tretter, a Cornell graduate, is an ideal pick for this position, as he holds a bachelor’s degree in labor relations. He notably distributed a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of the current proposed collective bargaining agreement, helping to break down the agreement into layman’s terms for the broader player base. That discussion went viral when his former teammate and fellow Packers 2013 draftee David Bakhtiari posted it on Twitter.

The entire membership of the NFLPA is currently voting on the CBA proposal this week, with the ballot set to close on Thursday, March 12.

Tretter succeeds Eric Winston, who served three two-year terms as president after being first elected in 2014. Winston last played in 2017, which made him eligible for re-election in 2018; however, because he did not play in 2019, the NFLPA’s rules required that the group pick a new president.

The union had a handful of notable candidates for the position, including Giants defensive back Michael Thomas and Buccaneers linebacker Sam Acho. Aaron Rodgers, the Packers’ player representative, did not appear to be a viable candidate, either due to his own choice not to run or a lack of significant support from other team reps.

Tretter’s term will last two years. He will be eligible for re-election in 2022 if he is on an NFL roster in 2021.