NFLPA’s JC Tretter Talks 18-Game Season, Sorsby & More

One hundred days into his tenure as executive director of the NFL Players Association, JC Tretter has a clear message about who runs the union. "This is not the JC Tretter show," he told Tom Pelissero, in for Rich on the show. "We have an executive committee of leaders that have dedicated themselves that are active players." His first job, he said, is understanding what the membership wants, something he believes the union "haven't done a great job of" in a while.

That starts with listening. Tretter has visited eight teams already and plans to cycle through all 32 during the fall, having candid conversations to get a pulse on the guys. The work, as he put it, has been about "getting us out of the mud and moving forward."

On the grass-versus-turf debate stoked by the World Cup, Tretter came armed with a number. "92% of NFL players prefer grass over turf," he said, while pushing back on league injury data that he argued reflects "an increase in injury rate on grass" rather than safer turf. His frustration runs deeper. Owners, he noted, are willing to pay for pristine grass surfaces for World Cup players "in a sport that they don't own and they don't employ," yet balk at doing the same for the players they actually pay. "Now it's just clear it's a choice," Tretter said, "which is more of an economic choice than anything."

The league, Tretter laid out, has been clear about what it wants: 18 games, 16 international games, a lower revenue share, help carrying operating costs, and a cap on high earners. "That is a long list of bad things for players," he said. "That is more work, more travel, less pay, us carrying the cost for billionaire franchises, and then less upside for high earners."

Asked whether 18 games is inevitable, Tretter did not flinch. "No, I wouldn't say so." He leaned on his own experience as a recently retired player to make the case. Walk into a training room after Week 8, he said, "it's the walking dead. It's the walking wounded in there." Going to another game, in his framing, is a major hit to player safety that the union would "never just roll over" and accept.

With five years left on the current deal, Tretter sees no reason to rush. "We have 5 more years of football guaranteed," he said, calling a work stoppage scenario "so far away" that fans shouldn't be concerned.

He also addressed the economic spread inside the locker room. By his account, 60% of the membership plays on minimum salaries, and he pointed to the performance-based pay pool, originally a player idea, as a benefit that can more than double a low-salaried player's paycheck. On Brendan Sorsby, the quarterback caught in a supplemental-draft dispute, Tretter was measured: Sorsby "is not a member of the NFLPA right now," and the union is still gathering information before deciding what, if anything, it can do.

A hundred days in, Tretter's pitch is patience with purpose. Understand the members first, then go win the room when it matters.