A formal proposal has been submitted calling for the tush push to be banned, and we now know which team is responsible for it.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said Monday that an unnamed team has formally proposed a rule that would ban the tush push, which has been made popular by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Fans immediately speculated that the Green Bay Packers submitted the proposal. That is because Packers president Mark Murphy openly complained about the so-called “Brotherly Shove” in a recent Q&A on the team’s official website. Murphy said there is “no skill involved” in the play. You can read his full comments.
The Packers are, indeed, the team that wants the tush push banned, according to Dianna Russini of The Athletic.
There has been talk of banning the tush push for over a year. The NFL and NFLPA had said they were planning to study the injury data related to the play to determine whether there are safety concerns. To this point, there has been no data that would support doing away with the tush push because of injury risk.
While there was talk of a tush-push ban ahead of the 2024 season, the NFL Competition Committee never presented a formal proposal to team owners.
The Eagles used the tush push multiple times during their Super Bowl run. There was one sequence of plays during the NFC Championship Game where the Washington Commanders kept jumping offsides when they knew Jalen Hurts was about to run the tush push. The Eagles eventually scored, but many fans learned about a stunning NFL rule in the process.
Murphy and other critics of the tush push argue that it requires no skill and results in an automatic gain of yardage. Yet, Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are the only ones who seem to have mastered it to the point where it is virtually unstoppable.
The Eagles will face the Packers on the road next season. If the tush push is not banned, you can expect Philly to run it as much as possible against their NFC rival.
