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The NFL is still reeling after the recent collusion allegations against the league and NFLPA. It appears that the NFL attempted to influence owners to not give out fully-guaranteed contracts following the Deshaun Watson trade. The collusion grievance also shed light on a few other players, including JC Tretter.
Former NFLPA president JC Tretter explained the “loser” text message he sent to Russell Wilson in a recent interview.
“Those are all those are all facts. So what had happened was when I retired, I actually did an interview uh and I talked about how they asked about guaranteed contracts and I said the next best person to get a guaranteed contract is Russell Wilson,” Tretter said on Tuesday on The Dan Patrick Show. “I thought he was traded for assets. Similar to Deshaun Watson, he's a former Super Bowl winner. The team can't just let him leave. They have a lot of pressure on him. They also have a cash rich owner. There was a lot of things in his favor to get a guaranteed contract. When he did not get a guaranteed contract, I texted D and I called him a loser, and I called him a wuss. And I was upset in that moment because I felt like we were missing an opportunity to get guaranteed contracts.”
Tretter came under fire after this text message came to light with the collusion grievance. He was also implicated in a second grievance filed by the NFL. The league argued that Tretter, during a podcast interview in 2023, suggested that running backs should fake injuries to gain contract leverage.
Tretter has since resigned as president of the NFLPA.
JC Tretter seeking fully-guaranteed contracts for NFL players
Tretter made it clear that he thought NFL players should try to get fully-guaranteed contracts. He was frustrated that the idea did not gain momentum after Kirk Cousins' first fully-guaranteed contract with the Vikings.
“We had Kirk Cousins get one years ago and no one came behind him,” Tretter continued. “And then I was worried we were gonna have the same thing and we were going to miss an opportunity for players to get guaranteed contracts. That was before the collusion grievance was launched.”
Tretter added that if he knew about the collusion grievance, he would've apologized to Wilson instead of insulting him.
“That's why in my deposition they asked me about it and I said if I knew the league was colluding against Russell, I would apologize because I would know there was factors outside his control that were illegal and not allowed to happen. But I didn't know that the time I sent the text message.”
It will be interesting to see if anything else comes from this collusion grievance.
