NFL Skullduggery On Tush Push Could Ultimately Lead To Its Demise

PALM BEACH – The official word at the end of the NFL's annual meeting is that the 40-minute Tush Push debate was productive but more study and thought are needed, so banning the play, brought to the meeting in the form of a Green Bay Packers proposal, is tabled until May.

That's the narrative.

Except the narrative is incomplete.

PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 03: Philadelphia Eagles  attempt a tush push during the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars on November 3, 2024 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Eagles Found Support For Keeping Tush Push

In fact, NFL leadership wanted to ban the Tush Push in a vote on Tuesday but simply couldn't convince enough teams to join the effort.

The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, who turned the Tush Push into a staple of their short-yardage offense since 2022, seemingly rallied teams to their cause.

Some teams joined because they appreciated a team innovating and didn't wish to sanction that innovation.

Some teams joined because banning the play seemed to be a spiteful move to diminish the competitive advantage one team had carved for itself.

And some teams joined because the NFL, its experts, and the Packers failed to make a case that the play poses a health and safety concern for players. This failed when no one could present data showing the play had caused any more injuries than any other play from scrimmage.

"We've been very open to whatever data exists on the Tush Push and there's just been no data that shows that it isn't a very, very safe play," Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told local reporters. "If it weren't, we wouldn't be pushing the Tush Push."

ORLANDO, FL - MARCH 26: Atlanta Falcons CEO & President and also Chairman of the NFL Competition Committee, Rich McKay speaks during a press conference regarding rule changes at the 2018 NFL Annual Meetings at the Ritz Carlton Orlando, Great Lakes on March 26, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by B51/Mark Brown/Getty Images)

Tuesday Effort To Ban Tush Push Failed

The effort to ban the play was such a disaster that The Washington Post reported that only 16 teams were prepared to vote in favor of a ban. That means half the league was against the ban, which is well short of the two-thirds majority necessary to remove the play from the game.

So, obviously, the league accepted the will of its teams and the Tush Push is safe for 2025, right?

Nope.

"I think the idea was, listen, as opposed to voting on this proposal today, Green Bay asked could you go back and talk about reintroducing the 2004 language, study it, understand it and talk about it again when we get back to May," Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay said.

And let's understand what that means: Rather than take a vote that ban proponents knew would fail, the Packers asked the league to reinstate rules language that was taken out of the rules book in 2004. 

That language prohibited the pushing or pulling of ball carriers.

It was removed in 2004 because officials sometimes struggled to determine whether a player downfield was actually being pushed or pulled forward.

Roger Goodell isn't opposed to playing a Super Bowl overseas on the international stage. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Goodell Concerned By Future Risk

So the Packers dusted off failed rules language from two decades ago in order to keep their proposed Tush Push ban on life support until May.

Except it's not really on life support. The ban has the apparent endorsement of commissioner Roger Goodell.

Goodell is big on the health and safety of players – perhaps because he has a fiduciary duty to help the league avoid lawsuits from players claiming the league didn't have their health and safety in mind when they got sent onto the field.

So, despite the fact there is little data that the Tush Push is a health and safety problem, Goodell embraced the idea it is. He even embraces the idea that the lack of data is moot because injuries might happen on the play at some future date.

Goodell referred to the "risk" of the play in the future rather than to what had actually happened.

 "Health and safety is still there because of potential…," McKay said. 

And that's when, in the face of an overwhelming defeat on the ban proposal, the NFL did something this league should never do: It moved the goal posts.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - DECEMBER 18: A fan holds a "Hurts U Can Push My Tush" sign at Lumen Field on December 18, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

New Language To Hide Intentions

It was no longer about protecting players based on what had happened – such as what the league did in banning the horse collar tackle after data showed it caused a huge injury risk. 

It's now about what injury may occur in the future.

That, amazingly, is not the only way the league moved the goal posts on Tuesday. 

The Packers, perhaps recognizing they are in a minority of teams willing to focus on just one team in trying to ban one of their plays, were masterful in now including the entire league by asking that the pre-2004 language on blocking return to the rules book.

In theory, the change back would affect every team. But in truth, the Packers merely hid their true intentions of targeting the Tush Push, which includes a player or two pushing quarterback Jalen Hurts from behind.

And Goodell loved Green Bay's approach.

"The reality of it is, I think that makes a lot of sense because it affects everyone beyond that single club," he said. "There are a lot of plays where you see players pulling and pushing somebody that are not in Tush Push formation. I think the committee will look at that and come back in May." 

McVay Dislikes Look Of Tush Push

Want more skullduggery?

Some teams want to ban the Tush Push but not because it is a health and safety concern at all. 

Some teams simply don't like the look of the play. They think it looks too much like rugby rather than American football. The Rams, in the person of Sean McVay, are one of these.

Other teams want to ban the play, in part, because they have trouble defending against it. 

"I don't like the play for what I have to do to stop it," Falcons coach Raheem Morris said on Tuesday.

"I think the discussion became No. 1 safety; No. 2 should you have to defend it; No. 3 is this part of the history of football," McKay admitted. "All those kinds of discussions happened."

So what happens now?

Officially, there will be studies and discussions done on the pushing and pulling rule and those will be presented to ownership.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen gets the 1-yard for a first down on the tush push play during first half action at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Sept. 23, 2024.

Vote To Ban Could Come In May

Unofficially, you have Goodell already convinced the rule is a health and safety problem – even if there's no evidence. You have teams willing to audible mid-meeting this week to some other fanciful reason for banning the play, and they will continue to press for their side.

And at that May meeting, with coaches and general managers not present, owners will be lobbied by unknown influencers to do what they weren't prepared to do at the Breakers Hotel on Tuesday:

Vote to ban the Tush Push – even though the NFL won't call it a Tush Push ban by then. It'll be painted as a ban on players pushing or pulling during blocks.

Ridiculous? Look up how the league instituted a flex schedule for late-season Thursday night football games. 

The idea was headed toward failure amid strong opposition from the New York Giants at the annual meeting in March of 2023. So it was tabled. By May, the proposal passed with the necessary 24 votes.

The NFL's playbook has not changed, folks.