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In recent seasons, the “tush push” had become the NFL’s most unstoppable play. On Wednesday, it even overpowered the group thought to be strong enough to finally stop it — NFL team owners.
The quarterback-sneak play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles remains legal after a vote to ban it did not garner enough votes from owners at the league’s spring meetings, held in Minnesota. Twenty-four of the league’s 32 teams would have needed to vote to enact the ban. It was two votes short, per ESPN and NFL Network.
The Eagles responded immediately after news of the vote with a two-word post on X: “Push On.”
Though widely adopted the play was most associated with, and utilized best by, its originator, the Eagles, who began trying different variations of the sneak in 2021 during coach Nick Sirianni’s first season. In 2022 they debuted a version in which two or more players stationed behind quarterback Jalen Hurts pushed him forward, aiding his momentum.
It played to the Eagles’ strengths — namely, one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and strongest quarterbacks — and helped them convert on reportedly 90 percent of short-yardage opportunities. It was a staple of their run to last season’s Super Bowl title and even drew an endorsement from President Donald Trump, who said during Philadelphia’s celebratory visit to the White House that he hoped the league would keep the play.
Not everyone was a fan, however. It drew the ire of the Green Bay Packers, in particular.
Packers president Mark Murphy called the play “bad for the game” during a question-and-answer story on the team’s website in February. He wrote bluntly that “there is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less.”
This offseason, the Packers — who were 0-2 against Philadelphia last season, including a playoff loss — initially proposed a ban on plays that would assist players directly at the snap, only for team owners to table a vote in April. When owners gathered once again during more league meetings this week, the Packers re-submitted a tweaked, broadened proposal stating that no player may “push or pull a runner in any direction at any time or lift him to his feet.” And no player would be allowed to “assist the runner except by individually blocking opponents for him.”
Philadelphia brought retired All-Pro center Jason Kelce to Wednesday’s meetings in an effort to lobby owners to keep the play legal, according to ESPN. Yet there was already momentum against the “tush push,” after the league’s competition committee and the players’ health and safety committee each voted to ban it, according to The Athletic. Owners, however, ultimately did not agree with the ban.
