Tush Push ban: NFL owners table decision on Eagles' controversial play, reports say

PALM BEACH, Fla - There will be no vote Tuesday on the latest attempt to ban the "Tush Push’ play made famous by the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles, according to reports.

What we know:

NFL owners, coaches, and general managers gathered at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, this week to discuss a number of rule changes. 

However, the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to eliminate the play that’s become a staple winner for the Eagles has become the most controversial. 

On Tuesday, several NFL insiders reported that NFL owners decided to table to tush-push discussion until a later date.

"No decision about its future at this league meeting," ESPN insider Adam Schefter said on X.

Ian Rapoport also confirmed the decision on X, stating, "discussions on the tush push have been tabled until a later date, sources said."

The Eagles appeared to respond to the news with just two emojis.

What they're saying:

In a press conference Tuesday, Competition Committee Co-Chairman Rich McKay explained why the tush-push vote was tabled this time around.

"We never like any discussion to be projected towards a team or two," McKay said. "In this case, the discussion became No. 1 safety, No. 2 should we have to defend it, and No. 3 is this part of the history of football?"

He said the committee may look at and study former "push and pull" policies before discussing the controversial play for a future vote.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie held a press conference and addressed a few topics, including he tush push.

"I think for everybody, including myself, I think the health and safety is the most important thing when evaluating any play," Lurie stated about the tush push. "We’ve been very open to whatever data exists on the tush push. There’s just been no data that shows that it isn’t a very, very safe play. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be pushing the tush push."

He continued, "There’s other ways of gaining that half yard, that yard. There’s quarterback sneaks, but we’ve been very good at it. It’s a play that’s available to every other team in the league and I think it hasn’t been used more than five times by almost every team in the league."

In an answer to a question regarding the aesthetics of the tush push, Lurie replied, "I remember reading about the forward pass and they said it really was an odd play that is no part of American football. So, it was controversial when the forward pass came out. It’s, you know, I think aestheticism is very subjective. I’ve never judged whether a play looks okay. Does a screen pass look better than an in route or out route? I don’t know. To me, it’s not a very relevant critique that it doesn’t look right. What looks right? Scoring. We like to win and score."

The backstory:

Packers officials submitted their proposal to ban offensive players from being able to push their teammates who are lined up behind the center forward. 

The Packers, who have not beaten the Eagles in a game since 2020 and lost to them this past season, cited player safety and pace of play as reasons for banning the tush push. 

NFL executive Troy Vincent said last month there have been zero injuries reported as a result of the play.

Any rule change must be approved by 24 out of 32 team owners.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was asked about the proposal over the weekend and quipped about wanting support from his former assistants who have since become head coaches. 

"We’ll see how it goes," Sirianni said Monday, "All I will say about it is (Johnathan) Gannon, (Shane) Steichen and (Kellen) Moore better vote for it. They are in the position right now because of that play. So all three, I better have those three votes right there, and the Eagles’ vote. I at least know we have four."

Tampa Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles made it clear last month he wouldn’t support a ban.

"It’s a rugby element, but at the same time, when a team gets something that they’re good at, you gotta learn how to stop," Bowles said. "I don’t think the first thing you can do is try to take it out of the ball game because that takes away the creativity of everybody trying to do everything else. So you gotta learn how to stop it. Until we learn how to stop it, they’re gonna continue. It it’s not broke, don’t fix it."

Dig deeper:

Other changes include making the dynamic kickoff rule permanent and overhauling the playoff format.

The NFL competition committee has recommended sticking with the kickoff rule that was redesigned last year and tweaking it to move touchbacks to the 35-yard line in hopes of generating even more returns.

The Detroit Lions proposed that playoff seeding should be based on record instead of automatically placing division winners in the top four spots.

The committee also proposed an expansion of instant replay to allow replay assist to consult on-field officials to overrule objective calls such as facemask penalties, whether there was forcible contact to the head or neck area, horse-collar tackles or tripping if there was "clear and obvious" evidence that a foul didn’t occur. Replay would also be able to overturn a roughing the kicker or running into the kicker penalty if video replay showed the defender made contact with the ball.

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