KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter was elected NFL Players Association president by the board of player representatives during union meetings on Tuesday.
With the proposed CBA vote still up in the air until voting closes Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET, Tretter is making it his top goal to educate all players of the details so they can make an informed decision.
"You have to be able to look at it from both sides, and be able to interpret everything and not look at it just through one set of eyes. There are positives and there are negatives," Tretter said. "It's the negotiations, and that's how it's gonna always be. You're not gonna get everything you want, so there's gonna be things in there you don't want. And I've just wanted to try to explain both sides -- the stuff we're getting, the stuff we're losing -- and that way, guys can make the determination for themselves of what they want, and what they want us to fight for."
Tretter, 29, beat out New York Giants defensive back Michael Thomas and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Sam Acho for the position. He won by a majority of the board members in the room on the first vote, a source told ESPN.
Many players supported Tretter because of his diplomatic approach to the ongoing negotiations between team owners and players on a collective bargaining agreement. During a period when people were drawing a line in the sand on key issues of the proposed CBA, Tretter appeared to be more of a moderate.
"We're prepared either way," Tretter said. "So if our membership decides as a group that we're gonna pass it, then we move forward with that; if they decide that we need to do more, then we've been preparing for that and we're gonna move forward with that idea. We know what we need to do, we know that we need to stick together; and I think that we'll all be on board with whatever our membership decides."
Cameron Wolfe breaks down Browns center JC Tretter's election as the president of NFL Players Association.
"There's been a lot of misinformation out there, and it's caused some kinds of division and some kinda of questioning. But I think when everybody's able to communicate and talk about the same issues, the facts, I think people get on the same page pretty quickly. So I think that's gonna be the process, is getting everybody on the same page with the facts."
Tretter compiled a detailed list of potential drawbacks to the proposed CBA last week to balance the list of highlights that the NFLPA sent out. His goal of keeping players informed and educated took priority over his own opinion of the proposed CBA.
Players: We are preparing to vote on a CBA that most of us will play under for the rest of our careers. Before you decide whether you're for or against it, please get informed. Read up on it, talk to your player director/rep, send me questions, etc. Get as much info as you can. https://t.co/ivO7phEFdf
— JC Tretter (@JCTretter) March 4, 2020
Tretter has a degree in industrial labor relations from Cornell. He's entering his eighth NFL season and he has been the Browns' starting center for the past three seasons. He was voted an alternate player rep for the Browns in 2018.
"Going into it, our goal was to help core players, and help minimum-salary players," Tretter said. "And those jumps in minimum salary are big for us, 'cause I think that's something we needed to correct from the previous deal, helping those guys. And that's something we've set out for a while now to fix. So I think that's the main win, is helping those guys. And it's a big group of them -- 60, 65 percent of our league is minimum-salary players. To make a big jump in salary like that, is a huge benefit."
Thomas -- who voted "no" on the proposed CBA -- might have earned the vote after Russell Okung dropped out to endorse him. Richard Sherman endorsed Thomas as well. But the vote went to Tretter, who has been balanced in his approach to CBA negotiations.
"We're in good hands with JC. Important thing now is to move forward no matter what the vote is, we got to move forward," Thomas said.
Falcons center Alex Mack was voted as the NFLPA's treasurer, replacing Mark Herzlich.
The members elected to the NFLPA executive committee were: Thomas Morstead, Sherman, Thomas, Ben Watson, Calais Campbell, Acho, Lorenzo Alexander, Malcolm Jenkins and Wesley Woodyard. The executive committee also includes Tretter and Mack.
Okung, who filed an unfair labor practice charge against the NFLPA with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, is no longer a part of the executive committee.
All seats were up for voting with Woodyard, Jenkins and Campbell ultimately replacing Okung, Adam Vinatieri and Zac DeOssie on the executive committee.
Tretter replaces Eric Winston, who has been the NFLPA president since March 2014. Winston wasn't eligible for another term because he didn't play in the NFL in 2019.
Players have until Saturday at 11:59 p.m. ET to put in their "yes" or "no" vote on the proposed CBA, which includes a 17-game schedule starting in 2021 at the earliest. The proposed CBA passes if it receives a simple majority (50% plus one vote) of the people who submit a ballot via DocuSign.