Back in March, the Cleveland Browns released the NFLPA President JC Tretter. Tretter is a solid offensive lineman, so many are wondering how he hasn’t been signed by a team yet. But, Tretter’s former Browns teammate Joel Bitonio thinks he knows the answer.
“When you have a guy that’s top-five, top-10 at center in the league and he’s not on a roster, you know, and he’s the NFLPA president and maybe some of the owners don’t appreciate what he brings to the table on certain topics when he’s trying to protect player safety and things of that nature, it seems a little suspicious to me. But, again, I don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors. I don’t know what his conversations have been with teams and stuff, but just from an outside perspective usually players that are close to the top of their game get picked up. Teams want to win in this league. So it’s an interesting topic, for sure.”
Tretter has talked a lot about player safety in the NFL. He even had a tweet where he put the NFL on blast for not doing anything about the safety of the fields players are playing on.
https://twitter.com/JCTretter/status/1558534552125054978?s=20&t=gsNj6BaZ03z7iF2UmtDx6g
This is not the first time he has done something like this, though. He also talked about the NFL not prioritizing player safety during the coronavirus pandemic on the NFLPA’s website.
“We don’t want to merely return to work and have the season shut down before we even get started. The NFLPA will do its part to advocate for player safety. We will continue to hold the NFL accountable and demand that the league use data, science and the recommendations of its own medical experts to make decisions. It has been clear for months that we need to find a way to fit football inside the world of coronavirus. Making decisions outside that lens is both dangerous and irresponsible.”
His stance on player safety might be a reason why he isn’t signed as of now.
But, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Browns to bring JC Tretter back. Their offensive line has taken some hits at the center position with injuries, so they could contemplate signing him to make the Browns’ offensive line even stronger.
