NFLPA Wants Long-Term Answers to Play an Entire Season

Union president J.C. Tretter said: "Every decision that we make that doesn’t look at the long term of getting us through a full season is going to set us up for failure”

Under normal circumstances, J.C. Tretter’s job as an NFL center is dangerous, with 300-plus-pound men lined up to his left, right and across from him on every snap.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made circumstances very abnormal.

“This time more than any, I have a very dangerous job, not just what normal football is like, but with what’s going on in the world my job especially has gotten more dangerous,” said Tretter, who is now only the center for the Cleveland Browns but also the president of the NFL’s Players Association.

“This is going to be a battle of risk mitigation, of providing guys opportunities to make safe decisions and try to stay as safe as possible.”

Tretter and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith spoke for about 90 minutes together on a video call Friday afternoon.

“You can pull up almost any picture from a December winter game and you can see how much breath is being blown back and forth being a yard away from each other and understanding how this virus is transmitted,” said Tretter. “What’s going to be going on if sick individuals are involved on the offensive and defensive lines, or any player?”

For that and many other reasons, Tretter said he wants to see the health and safety aspects addressed first before moving on to any other discussion. Time is ticking, though, with training camps still set to open July 28 for most teams.

The NFLPA has dug its heels in on insisting that there be no preseason games and that testing for the virus takes place every single day.

“Every decision that we make that doesn’t look at the long term of getting us through a full season is going to set us up for failure,” said Tretter.

Smith cited the 2011 lockout season in his argument that there must be an acclimation period for players to adjust after being off the field since last year. He cited the spike in injuries in 2011 when players came right off the street into camp, and they even had a chance to at least workout in their gyms and with trainers.

The pandemic made that virtually impossible for this year’s group since everything was shut down and social distancing was in place.

The NFLPA feels that the entire month of August would be better served to ramp up players slowly to play a real game rather than playing any preseason games, plus the union contends that preseason games would only open up the risk of players getting sick prior to when the real season begins.

“We’re in a different world now,” said Tretter. “The idea that this is just going to go away in a snap of a finger, and you don’t have to change because of that, it’s wrong.”

Tretter said players’ time at the facility needs to be looked at as does practice schedules and how each team practices, because one positive test for the virus and calamity could ensue if there are no plans in place.

The union president said the league has seen first thoughts from the NFL on testing protocols, how players return from a positive test, but more needs to be done.

“If I just came from a practice where I’ve been in a huddle with all my offensive teammates,” said Tretter, “then during individual drills with all my linemen then blocking the defensive linemen and linebackers all afternoon, well aren’t we talking about 35 guys being close contact with me, and if they’re all in quarantine for the next couple days what does Sunday’s game look like? Those are the questions the league needs to offer its opinion on how this will move forward.”

Right now, Tretter said, there isn’t enough detail about how things will be done to limit exposure and that could lead to an unforeseen circumstance nobody wants to see.

“One positive test on a wrong day late in the week, (potentially) derails an entire team because all the people who were in close contact now need to get through the protocols to make sure they’re not sick and transmitting this virus to everyone around them,” said Tretter, “(and) you don’t have enough bodies to put on the field and play.”

Get the latest Eagles news by joining the community. Click "Follow" at the top right of EagleMaven page. Mobile users click the notification bell. And please follow me on Twitter @kracze.