The Cleveland Browns and JC Tretter have a unique relationship. As their starting center and one of the team leaders, Tretter is vital to the team’s on-the-field success. As the NFLPA President, Tretter represents all of the NFL’s unionized players opposite the NFL and their teams.
With that in mind, Tretter spent time with the media Monday following the Browns loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. He was asked questions about the game, as appropriate, but was also asked about his stance on COVID-19 protocols, specifically testing.
Tretter has been a proponent of daily testing for every player. Currently, only unvaccinated players are tested on a daily basis. On the NFLPA’s website, Tretter wrote about their belief that daily testing “is the key to a full NFL season.”
Cleveland media followed up with the team’s center on that on Monday. Tretter reiterated this belief:
“We think that’s the safest way to go about it,” Tretter said. “We haven’t had any problems through the first week. We have the means to make sure we don’t have any problems and our two pillars [are] to make sure we keep everybody as healthy as possible and make sure we get all of the games played, and we think we should be doing everything possible to ensure that.”
Currently, vaccinated players are tested every seven days while unvaccinated are tested daily. With the spread of the delta variant, the NFLPA’s goal is to protect their players from illness with daily testing. So far, the NFL has not shown interest in making that adjustment to their COVID-19 protocols.