The Philadelphia Eagles’ “Tush Push” play is as controversial as it is successful. While the play was not banned by the NFL last offseason, the league’s executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said Monday that one team has issued a proposal to ban it for the 2025 season.
The Green Bay Packers, who lost to the Eagles in the NFC wild-card round this past January, were the team that issued the proposal to the league’s competition committee, according to The Athletic.
The Packers haven’t been shy about their dislike of the play. Team president and CEO Mark Murphy publicly criticized it prior to the Super Bowl.
Murphy noted, “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”
Last offseason, Vincent stated that there wasn’t enough sound reasoning to ban the play. However, the league did create a rule requiring “pushers” to start at least 1 yard behind the quarterback.
The play has continued to be an integral part of the Eagles’ success during the team’s Super Bowl run this past season. Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher remarked, “It’s not a football play. It’s rugby. They call it a scrum; I mean, that’s what it is… If it’s just a quarterback sneak, I get it, but it becomes like a push in the back, and it’s a scrum. It’s not a strategical play, in my opinion.”
The effectiveness of the play, with a success rate around 90% when running it, could lead to significant change.
Councilman urged to review proposal: “It’ll be interesting to see if the Packers’ proposal gets enough support to lead to another change, or even an end to what has become the NFL’s most polarizing play.”