Cleveland Browns former center J.C. Tretter announced retirement from the NFL after eight seasons on Thursday.
Tretter has played for both the Browns and the Green Bay Packers. Since 2020, the 31-year-old has also served as president of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).
“I have decided … to stop playing when I wanted to — on my own terms,” Tretter said. “I am proud of what I’ve accomplished and how far I’ve come. … 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.”
The Browns released Tretter in a salary-cap move, several days after he was elected to a second term as president. There have been some rumors about the possibility of Cleveland bringing him back after the team’s starter Nick Harris suffered from a knee injury in the exhibition opener, prompting him to end his season run. However, the Browns have been reported to promote Ethan Pocic to the starting lineup instead while Tretter remained unsigned before he decided to retire.
Regardless, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, Tretter said he believed his work with the NFL required him not to be re-signed after the Browns released him in March.
“There are teams right now that I would say are desperate for a center based off how camp’s going,” Tretter said. “Still no calls.”
Tretter’s career
The Packers drafted Tretter in the fourth round out back in 2013, though he didn’t play in his first year due to the knee injury he sustained during the offseason. He had started 10 out of the 31 games while playing for the Packers.
Tretter, 31, has spent three seasons with the Packers before the Browns signed him as a free agent in 2017 and went on to start 80 games for the Browns over the next five years. He had missed only one game during his stint with the Browns and had been reported to continue playing despite having bad knees.
While he was known to rarely join practice when sustaining injuries, he was always ready for the games, something the team’s coach Kevin Stefanski was impressed with.
“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 don’t even know if he missed any time.
“Never wanted to come out of the game. An impressive example for the young guys about how to make it to Sunday.”
He didn’t miss a single beat until last season due to being tested positive for COVID-19 before a Christmas game in Green Bay.
In 2022, he was elected to his second term as president of NFLPA. On Thursday, he wrote that he was eager to “doubling down” on the work now that he is no longer actively playing on the field.
Tretter had a vital role in setting up team COVID-19 protocols and has helped the NFL navigate through the challenges related to the pandemic throughout the 2020 season. He also supports player safety and believes some of that work is the result of him being shunned as a free agent.