CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Former Browns center and NFLPA president JC Tretter has called it a career.
Tretter is retiring from the NFL after nine seasons.
The former Packer and Brown announced his retirement on Twitter Thursday morning after not receiving much interest from teams this offseason.
“Happy for JC,” Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said. “I’m sure he’ll do great in the next chapter of his life, whatever he wants that to be. But I think very highly of the person.”
The Browns released Tretter in the spring in a salary cap move that cut over $8.2 million off the cap and opened the door for 2020 fifth-round pick Nick Harris to take over in the middle of the offensive line, but Harris suffered a season-ending knee injury on the second snap of the preseason opener in Jacksonville.
In his retirement announcement, Tretter reflected on a letter he wrote to himself in May of 2011 while recovering from meniscus surgery that he would play in the NFL. He realized that dream moving from tight end to the interior of the offensive line.
“I have decided to fulfill the second part of my letter, to stop playing when I wanted to — on my own terms,” Tretter wrote. “I am proud of what I’ve accomplished and how far I’ve come from that night when I made the pledge to myself. I feel like if my 31-year-old self could talk to my 20-year-old self, I could earnestly tell him that we did it. We did everything we said we’d do and more.”
In retirement, Tretter plans to continue his work with the NFLPA.
“My time on the field may be over, but I’m not stepping away from football,” Tretter wrote in closing. ”I’m looking forward to doubling down on my work as NFLPA president and pushing for more progress on behalf of the great players of our game, past, present, and future.”
Over five seasons with the Browns, Tretter never missed a snap due to injury and was forced to miss one game in 2021 due to COVID protocols.
“Incredible how he was able to fight through injuries and all of those type of things,” Stefanski said. “Just think about some of the injuries he dealt with in Green Bay and then came here and did not miss much time – I do not even know if he missed any time. Never wanted to come out of the game. An impressive an example for the young guys about how to make it to Sunday.”
As the NFL Players Association president, Tretter has been at the forefront advocating for player safety, including stressing the voluntary nature of the offseason program.
In an interview with si.com, Tretter acknowledged leading the union likely ended his career.
“I always said, ‘My NFLPA job is gonna end my career well before my knees end my career,’” Tretter told Sports Illustrated. “I took this job knowing the risks. I think that’s the price of leadership.”
One of Tretter’s close friends on the Browns, left guard Joel Bitonio, raised that possibility two weeks ago when asked about why Tretter hadn’t been picked up despite there being multiple teams in need of help at center – including the Browns.
“I think when you have a guy that’s a top-five, top-10 center in the league and he’s not on a roster and he’s the NFLPA president, maybe some of the owners don’t appreciate what he brings to the table on certain topics where he’s trying to protect player safety and things of that nature,” Bitonio said. “It seems a little suspicious to me, but again, I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors. But just from an outside perspective, usually players that are close to the top of their game get picked up. Teams want to win in this league, so it’s an interesting topic for sure.”