NFLPA President and Browns C JC Tretter said that the NFL in recent CBA talks "tried to undo certain aspects of the deal that had been negotiated on July 24," which covered safety protocols and economic realities of the pandemic, according to Mike Florio of NBCSPORTS.com. Tretter said, "The NFL wanted to kind of walk back a lot of the really good things we had gotten in the deal. And once they realized there were things they didn’t like, they wanted to change that. And we weren’t willing to move off the deal that we signed because we thought we had a really good deal. There were issues on the economics, there were issues on the safety protections that they wanted to make last-minute adjustments to that we just weren’t going to allow to be changed." Tretter said that the union had "fought to spread the financial losses from 2020 over four years; the league wanted to change that after the deal was done." He also said that the union "pushed to ensure that all players would be guaranteed the $350,000 non-refundable payment for higher-risk opt outs, even undrafted players who otherwise would be in danger of not making the team" (NBCSPORTS.com, 8/4).
HARD WORK PAYS OFF: NBCSN's Chris Simms said, "I really applaud JC Tretter for being a guy that has been very transparent through this whole process and really informing the public." He added, "It's one of the first times ever I feel like we've got a player that's representing, who is really trying to inform the public through the media, and inform players through the media too." PFT's Florio: "I've got to give the NFL credit here too for recognizing that they needed the players to buy in. Where they are right now is where they need to be, with the players committed to doing what they need to do to make everything work instead of the players being salty and upset and feeling like they’re being treated like property, not like human beings" (“PFT,” NBCSN, 8/5).
