NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION representatives are set to vote this weekend on a successor to disgraced former leader Lloyd Howell, and a divisive former executive in Howell’s regime appears high among three finalists to get the job, multiple union sources told ESPN.
JC Tretter was the union’s player president from 2020 to 2024 and its chief strategy officer from October 2024 until July 2025, when Howell’s tenure ended following revelations, uncovered by ESPN, of secret deals with the NFL, conflicts of interest and strip-club visits charged to the union.
Tretter also resigned following ESPN’s reports. He told ESPN he was unaware of an agreement Howell had made with the league to conceal from players an arbitrator’s findings related to NFL owners’ collusion on pay.
He was a candidate to serve as interim executive director after Howell resigned but pulled his name from consideration when he stepped down. He told CBS Sports at the time that he was “not interested” in being — or being considered for — executive director.
Now, the retired Cleveland Browns offensive lineman has emerged among the finalists as player reps gather in San Diego to pick a leader. The other candidates to emerge from an initial field of over 300 are American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti and former Hollywood actors’ union chief David White, who has served as interim NFLPA executive director since August.
As a former player with years of union leadership experience, Tretter’s résumé appeals to some player reps, and many others around the union have spoken on his behalf. But his record with the union also has detractors; the NFL twice filed successful grievances against the NFLPA as a result of Tretter’s actions, and he was Howell’s lieutenant and confidant.
In the wake of Howell’s resignation, union president Jalen Reeves-Maybin sent a letter to players saying that the search process for a new executive director “won’t be public, but it will be transparent with you — our members.”
“We’ll be adamant in maintaining our candidates’ confidentiality to protect the integrity of the search, but we’ll make sure you’re informed as the process unfolds.”
As the vote neared this week, multiple sources told ESPN that tensions at the union office were high. An unknown number of NFLPA staffers sent an anonymous letter to union general counsel, Tom DePaso, saying that Tretter is close to another union executive they named who they say has been the subject of multiple human resources complaints but faced no disciplinary action.
According to the letter obtained by ESPN, the anonymous staffers said they fear Tretter’s “anticipated appointment as executive director” would “[exacerbate a] hostile work environment.”
A union spokesperson told ESPN on Wednesday night: “We have received an anonymous email containing several allegations. We are evaluating them and will take appropriate steps as warranted. We have no further comment.”
According to an email obtained by ESPN, DePaso responded to the anonymous staffers’ email with an invitation to “provide the facts and evidence in your possession that you believe support your allegations, including the names of individuals who can provide relevant information. We are happy to communicate directly with your legal counsel if that is preferable.”
One player representative said he was surprised to learn that Tretter is a finalist, but then quickly pointed out that Tretter is admired by several members of the EC, and other sources with firsthand knowledge said Reeves-Maybin is a Tretter fan.
“It feels like it’s a boys’ club,” the player representative told ESPN. “I don’t know if that is a reason that he is a finalist, because he has a handful of guys in his corner that want to give him a shot at it, [but] that’s honestly what it feels like.”
A player who served as a representative in the past year said Tretter “checks a lot of boxes” as a former player with union leadership experience.
“But I don’t think you can unsee the last year of what has happened,” the former player rep said. “How do you go through what we just went through as a union and still end up with that?”
IN JUNE 2023, the board of player representatives thought it had found its next leader when it voted to elect Howell as executive director.
Tretter, then the union’s player president, oversaw the 16-month search that resulted in Howell’s hiring after a secretive election. Among the steps taken: Reps voted, with Tretter presiding, to amend the NFLPA constitution and eliminate a requirement that executive director finalists be named to the board of player representatives 30 days before a vote.
Tretter told ESPN in an interview last year that he prioritized confidentiality because candidates’ names had been leaked to the media in past elections.
“The previous two versions of the search process were gross,” Tretter said last year. “They were far below the level that our union should be operating at.”
Smith declined to comment on the details of the past search process or the current one. However, Smith said, “It is the role of the Executive Committee to ensure that the process is fair and to demonstrate to the membership that the process has the highest integrity. And it is the duty of the board of player reps to hold the executive committee accountable to the constitution.”
Players learned the identities of the two 2023 finalists — Howell and White — when they gathered for the vote.
Howell had recently resigned from a 34-year executive career at consulting firm Booz Allen, which at the time faced whistleblower allegations of overbilling the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars.
The complaint was among the red flags found by search firm Russell Reynolds in Howell’s background check, multiple union sources told ESPN last year. Another was that Howell had been sued for sexual discrimination and retaliation by a Booz Allen subordinate in 2011, a complaint settled for an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Howell ultimately impressed player reps with his financial acumen and presentation as a union outsider and someone who knew how to relate to NFL club owners. Tretter said players elected Howell by a wide margin.
“Lloyd had his inner circle that consisted of JC, [NFL Players Inc. president] Matt Curtin and [chief of staff] Anamika [Gupta], and that is really it,” a source familiar with union business told ESPN.
“We definitely thought that we had the right guy, and the fact of the matter is we didn’t,” said Chargers player representative Josh Harris, who has played 14 NFL seasons and has held a union role for 12 years. “The same way we attack our jobs with film review, learn what we did, maybe what went wrong, how can we make this better, and how can we make it right? That’s the approach that we’re taking, because that’s what we have to do. We have to get this right.”
While some player reps have called for more transparency in the election process following the Howell debacle, the executive committee appears to be following the same process it did in 2023.
The lack of information didn’t bother another player representative, who told ESPN this week that he doesn’t like to watch previews before movies or TV shows or operate with “prejudice.”
When told of the three finalists’ names, the rep said he loves JC Tretter because he was “a great leader for us when he was running the union, but executive director is a different position. So, I’ll have to see how he presents himself and take it from there.”
One member of the executive committee told ESPN at training camp last summer they felt Tretter had been unfairly blamed for what happened at the union during Howell’s tenure.
“JC got crucified, and I regret not standing up for him sooner,” the executive committee member said. “I wish I took the opportunity earlier to say that enough is enough.”
Another executive committee member and then-Vikings center Ryan Kelly echoed that sentiment, saying coverage of Tretter had been “unfair.”
“He’s a fantastic president,” Kelly said. “If guys knew the amount of work that he’s put into helping players, being active for players, I think he’s got caught up in this mix, and a lot of it’s not true.”
And last month, an arbitrator found that union distribution of the team report cards violated the CBA because they “[disparaged] NFL clubs and individuals.”
One player representative told ESPN that union dues are the biggest concern among teammates he talks with. They want to know how their money is being spent and want to feel the union isn’t wasting their money.
The staffers who complained in the letter to union leaders said they communicated anonymously to protect themselves from retaliation.
In December, McPhee sued the NFLPA for retaliation after she was placed on administrative leave in August, following reports that she wrote and circulated several memos that urged the union to investigate alleged self-dealing by union officials.
The NFLPA fired McPhee 12 days after she filed her retaliation suit. Jones was fired in February and, in a message to his former colleagues that was obtained by ESPN, said of the upcoming election: “PLEASE demand of leadership and each other that the 3 finalists named are UNACCEPTABLE… Stand up and say no to this obvious sham.”
The arbitration cases would have contributed to union legal costs that grew nearly fourfold from 2015 to 2023. Legal costs averaged $5.1 million per year from the years ending February 2016 through February 2022, then jumped to $10.8 million in the year ending February 2023, $10.9 million in the year ending February 2024 and $18.1 million in the year ending February 2025, according to data compiled from the union’s LM-2s. In addition to arbitration fights, the NFLPA also has been engaged in a dispute with the trading-card company Panini over licensing rights.
But Tretter also made some costly errors as the NFLPA president.
ESPN researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.
CloseDon Van Natta Jr.ESPN Senior WriterHost and co-executive producer of the new ESPN series, “Backstory” Member of three Pulitzer Prize-winning teams for national, explanatory and public service journalism Author of three books, including New York Times best-selling “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush” 24-year newspaper career at The New York Times and Miami Herald Follow on X