Joseph Carl "JC" Tretter Jr. (born February 12, 1991) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. He played college football at

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

, and was drafted by the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the th ...

in the fourth round of the

2013 NFL Draft The 2013 NFL Draft was the 78th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held at Radio City Music Hall i ...

. He currently serves as President of the

NFL Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director DeM ...

Early years

Tretter was born in

Batavia, New York Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population as of the 2020 census was 15,6 ...

, the son of Joseph and Cynthia Tretter. He attended Akron Central High School, where he was a standout athlete for the Akron Central Tigers football and basketball teams. He was a three-year starter on offense and defense for the Tigers in football, a team captain as a junior and senior, and was a second-team Class C all-state selection as a senior. In basketball, he was a four-year starter for the Tigers and a three-time first-team all-league selection, and graduated as the team's all-time leading scorer and rebounder.

College career

Tretter attended

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to ...

, where he played for the

Cornell Big Red football The Cornell Big Red football team represents Cornell University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) college football competition as a member of the Ivy League. It is one of the ol ...

team from 2009 to 2012. After playing tight end during his first two seasons, he switched to the offensive tackle position for his final two years. He was credited with the significantly improved pass protection given to Cornell's quarterback in 2011 and 2012. Following his senior season in 2012, he was a unanimous first-team All-

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

selection. He also received third-team All-American honors ( FCS) from Beyond Sports College Network and The Sports Network. At Cornell, Tretter studied in the School of Industrial Labor Relations. His sister, Katie, and three of his uncles all attended Cornell. His uncle, David Tretter, played football for Cornell during the mid-1970s.

Professional career

Green Bay Packers

The

selected Tretter in the fourth round (122nd overall) of the

. He was the ninth offensive tackle selected and was the second offensive tackle drafted by the Green Bay Packers, behind fourth round pick

David Bakhtiari David Afrasiab Assad Bakhtiari (born September 30, 1991) is an American football offensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Colorado, and was drafted by the Packers in the fou ...

(109th overall). On May 10, 2013, the Green Bay Packers signed Tretter to a four-year, $2.57 million

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to ...

that includes a

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

of $415,908. Tretter was placed on reserve/

physically unable to perform Physically unable to perform (PUP) is a roster designation used in the National Football League (NFL) for players who suffered injuries during football-related activities prior to the start of training camp. Players on the PUP list may participate ...

on August 27, 2013. On December 10, 2013, he was activated from the physically unable to perform list. On September 3, 2014, Tretter was placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

– designated for return. He was activated from injured reserve – designated for return on November 3, 2014. In 2016, Tretter started seven games for the Packers before going down with a knee injury in Week 7. He was inactive for the rest of the games in the regular season before having surgery on January 17, 2017. He was placed on injured reserve on January 21, 2017, a day before the NFC Championship matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.

Cleveland Browns

On March 9, 2017, the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

signed Tretter to a three-year, $16.75 million contract that includes $6.50 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $4.50 million. In his first season in Cleveland, he started all 16 games at center. On November 7, 2019, Tretter signed a three-year, $32.5 million contract extension with the Browns, keeping him under contract through the 2022 season. Tretter was released by the Browns on March 15, 2022. On August 25, 2022, Tretter announced his retirement from the NFL.

NFLPA President

Having studied labor relations at

, Tretter was elected President of the

on March 10, 2020, succeeding

Eric Winston Eric Joseph Winston (born November 17, 1983) is a former American football offensive tackle. He played in college at the University of Miami and was drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Winston has also play ...

. He played a role in negotiations surrounding the 2020–2030 collective bargaining agreement, which was ultimately agreed to five days after he became president of the NFLPA. Tretter was named co-chair of the NFLPA's COVID committee ahead of the

2020 NFL season The 2020 NFL season was the 101st season of the National Football League (NFL). The regular season started with the NFL Kickoff Game on September 10, in which defending Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City defeated Houston. The playoffs wer ...

. He represented players in negotiations that created new health and safety protocols, resulting in an average league positivity rate of 0.076% and enabling all 256 regular-season games being able to be played with no cancellations. In March 2022, Tretter was re-elected for a second term as NFLPA president.

Personal life

Tretter married Anna Tretter in February of 2020.

References

External links

Green Bay Packers bioCornell Big Red bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tretter, J. C. 1991 births Living people American football centers American football offensive guards American football offensive tackles Cleveland Browns players Cornell Big Red football players Green Bay Packers players Players of American football from New York (state) People from Akron, New York Sportspeople from Erie County, New York