Browns’ J.C. Tretter Says NFL Was Never in Favor of Daily COVID-19 Testing

Cleveland Browns and NFLPA President J.C. Tretter met with the media on Wednesday morning to elaborate on last week’s COVID-19 happenings.

Last week the Cleveland Browns were hit hard with COVID-19 and it resulted in the game being moved with the Las Vegas Raiders. The NFL opted to move the game from Saturday to Monday, it allowed Cleveland to slow down the spread, while getting a couple of players back.

J.C. Tretter is not only a member of the NFLPA, but he is the president of it too. Tretter, the Browns center, was in an awkward position last week due to it being his team dealing with thorn

“It was a busy week and it was tiring, this has been exhausting for everybody, we had to make a lot of decisions without a lot of time to make them,” Tretter told media on Wednesday morning.

Cleveland’s center didn’t shy away from the fact that the game was close to being canceled all together, but didn’t say if it would have counted as a forfeit or not. Tretter was fighting for the games to be played so that everyone received their game checks.

As of Wednesday morning the Browns still have 19 players, plus their head coach out with COVID-19. Many are expected back before Saturday’s matchup with the Green Bay Packers.

This is where it gets interesting. Tretter explained the NFL’s stance on daily testing.

“Union's position since July was daily testing is the best option. NFL was never in favor of daily testing. Majority of our membership has been vaccinated, so now doesn't want more testing or stricter protocols. Minority had concern about spread,” Tretter explained.

So, basically the NFL had planned to loosen up following player vaccinations. Obviously that can’t happen with COVID-19 spread still happening.

This is now the second year that everyone, not just the NFL has to deal with the major problems from COVID-19. Everyone is exhausted, mental health is more important than ever.

“There’s no perfect answer. In the end I think we’ve done all we can do to figure out last week and move forward,” Tretter said going away.

Brandon Little is a writer for Sports Illustrated’s Browns Digest website and you can follow him on Twitter here. You can follow Browns Digest on Twitter as well here.

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