Tension builds ahead of NFLPA leadership vote

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.”

Many people close to the union declined to speak to ESPN about Tretter’s candidacy or the election process, some after consulting members of the 11-player executive committee, which is in charge of interviewing candidates and choosing the finalists. Most of those who did answer questions did so only on condition of anonymity.

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.”

In the months before the June 2023 vote, according to multiple sources, then-executive director DeMaurice Smith emailed the executive committee and a handful of top union executives to complain about the secretive nature of the search process.

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.

Tretter told ESPN last year that he asked Howell about the lawsuit during one of Howell’s interview sessions with player reps. Two executive committee members backed up Tretter’s account at the time, but two player reps told ESPN the subject never came up.

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.

Howell then hired Tretter as the union’s chief strategy officer, for which he was paid about $300,000 for the approximately five months ending February 2025, according to the union’s LM-2. Multiple sources familiar with NFLPA business say that Tretter was one of the few union staffers in whom Howell confided.

“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.

But Howell’s tenure as executive director would end after just over two years. He resigned in July 2025 following a series of ESPN reports about a pair of strip-club visits that he charged to the union. ESPN also reported that Howell worked part-time for the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that is seeking minority ownership in NFL franchises. Another ESPN report revealed the union’s confidentiality agreement with the NFL, which hid from players a finding that league executives had urged team owners to reduce guaranteed player compensation.

THE NIGHT AFTER Howell abruptly resigned, dozens of union representatives and alternates gathered on a conference call. During the meeting, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback and second alternate player rep Patrick Mahomes made a plea.

“We need to get our choice for leader right,” Mahomes said, according to four people briefed on his comments.

Mahomes’ sentiment was echoed by player representatives across the league as they processed the union’s leadership crisis during training camp last summer.

“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 committee hired a different search firm than last time, but multiple player representatives told ESPN in the past week that they have not received any information about the finalists. One representative said that the executive committee sent an email last week updating reps on the process and informing them that they won’t be releasing the finalist information until the meetings begin.

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.”

An alternate player representative told ESPN that he can’t think of a “stronger candidate” for the job than Tretter. “Talking to him from a 30,000-foot view about the relationship between players and owners and the union, I think he has a good feel on when there is leverage and how to create leverage.”

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.”

SUPPORTERS SAY TRETTER adopted a player-first mentality in his role as player president and chief strategy officer. He took credit for the NFLPA’s annual report cards, which survey players about working conditions at their clubs. He organized a players-only offseason golf tournament in Mexico and led a campaign to prohibit reporters from interviewing players in the locker room.

But Tretter also made some costly errors as the NFLPA president.

Last year, an arbitrator found that his 2023 comments about running back injuries violated the collective bargaining agreement because they encouraged players to fake injuries. The arbitrator’s decision cited Tretter telling a podcast that players “need to try to create as much leverage as you possibly can.”

And last month, an arbitrator found that union distribution of the team report cards violated the CBA because they “[disparaged] NFL clubs and individuals.”

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.

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.

Two veteran NFLPA employees — longtime NFLPA lawyer Heather McPhee and director of security Craig Jones — were fired after speaking out about the failures of union leadership and HR complaints were filed against them.

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.”

ESPN researcher John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.