CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Browns center J.C. Tretter tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday and was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list.
Tretter, who also serves as the president of the NFLPA, made the announcement on his verified twitter account.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski learned of Tretter’s positive test just before practice.
“Ultimately, any of our guys who are unavailable, I am very disappointed for them,” Stefanski said. “JC is a big part of what we do. He obviously, playing that center position, you are in the thick of it, you are making calls and you are doing so much from a mental aspect of working with the quarterback. He is somebody you do not just replace, but Nick Harris is definitely up to the task, and we have a bunch of smart guys up front that will help him.”
Tretter had been advocating for daily COVID testing for all players in the wake of the recent breakout across the NFL, including the Browns, to no avail.
“I would not want to be in his shoes because he has so much responsibility,” defensive end Myles Garrett said. “I do not know anyone else who could handle it so well and as gracefully as he has without complaining and just putting in the work and being excellent at both sides, football and the PA side.”
The best Tretter got out of the league in the latest round of protocol adjustments is that players were still able to seek daily tests if they wanted them to go along with mandatory testing for symptomatic players as well as continued random screenings of vaccinated players.
“I think that is the proof that weekly testing was never a successful model, especially now with this new variant,” Tretter said Wednesday. “Weekly testing – like we have been talking about for months now – allows the virus to spread all throughout the week, and then you get to Monday, and it lets you know, ‘Hey, you have a huge problem on your hands. You have to bail yourself out of it.’
“It was never a model that was going to succeed, especially now that we have a more contagious variant out there.”
Tretter, who added that he is vaccinated, received a booster shot and continues to mask daily within the facility, revealed that the NFL was against daily testing last year before the union successfully fought for it.
“The NFL has never been a supporter of daily testing,” Tretter said. “They were not a supporter of daily testing last year. We had to force their hand to get daily testing last year. Fast forward now of multiple months into the season, we have the issue we were facing last week.”
Cleveland activated two other players from the reserve/COVID-19 list – safety Grand Delpit and right tackle James Hudson – Thursday afternoon.
Hudson tested out after being placed on the list December 18 and Delpit landed on it on the 17th.
Since December 6, Browns have had at least 34 players, practice squad members and coaches test positive for COVID-19.
Tretter has not missed a snap and played 78 straight games despite ankle and knee injuries since joining the Browns in 2017 as a free agent.
“It hurts to not see him on the field, but we are going to do our best to try and fill his absence,” Garrett said. “It will be different.”