The Philadelphia Eagles rode their famous tush push play all the way to a Super Bowl title this year, and there is at least one team that is not pleased about that.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told Judy Battista of NFL Media on Monday that one unnamed team has submitted a formal proposal calling for the league to ban the tush push play.
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. Battista notes that there still is not enough data to justify banning the play based on injury concerns alone.
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.
Philadelphia also used the tush push to score their first touchdown in their Super Bowl LIX win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Critics of the tush push have argued that there is no skill involved and it is more like a rugby play than a football play. Despite that, the Eagles are the only team that seem to have mastered it to the point where it is virtually unstoppable.
As for which team has proposed that the tush push be banned, we have good reason to believe it was one of the Eagles’ NFC rivals.
