Just like it’s been on the field for the past three years, an off-field effort by the NFL to ban the Eagles’ “tush push” play came up short.
The modified QB sneak that helped the Eagles clinch a second Super Bowl title last season will be legal for at least another season.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that 22 of the league’s 32 team owners voted for the Green Bay Packers’ rule change proposal, which would have banned offensive players from assisting a ballcarrier by pushing, pulling or lifting him, leaving it two votes short of the 75% threshold it needed to be enacted.
Even better, 22-10 was the final score of last season’s Wild Card round game between the Eagles and the Packers, which is a pretty karmic coincidence.
The verdict was a shocker, in many respects. Earlier Wednesday, the league’s competition committee and health and safety committee both recommended banning the play, according to the Athletic. There had been a lot of behind-the-scenes communicating that the vote was a done deal.
But … nope.
The Eagles had responses, both short and long.
The short one was just two words: “Push On.”
The long one? How ‘bout a 26-minute video of nothing but the tush push on the team’s YouTube channel.
Online reactions to the vote went from angry that the league was about to take the tush push out of the Eagles’ playbook to jubilant that the team can get their revenge against those who tried to take it away.
Kelce’s discussion with the teams probably played some role in swaying votes. He was photographed looking pretty thrilled after the vote, and his podcast had some fun taking credit for the result.
Former Eagle Chris Long offered some consolation for people who were upset by the outcome.
Of course a billboard has already gone up celebrating.
Before the vote, someone suggested erecting a statue outside the Linc in memory of the play. Maybe there’s still a case for that.
The city’s social media team hopped on the trend of trolling Packers fans’ “Cheesehead” tradition (though we have to remind them that Philadelphia Cream Cheese actually comes from upstate New York).
Local artist Dhwani Saraiya had a tribute to Nick Sirianni’s viral advice for other teams unhappy about the play.
we live to see another day pic.twitter.com/NpYaxAr4bC
— dhwani (@dhwanisaraiya_) May 21, 2025
The folks at the “Talkin’ 215” podcast probably had this song queued up as a send-off to the play, but it makes for a catchy victory tune.
Those already planning how to get back at the Packers had some suggestions. “Good Morning Football” host Kyle Brandt wants the tush push to feature heavily in the teams’ Week 10 matchup at Lambeau Field.
FantasyPros editor Mike Maher cranked the pettiness to 10 with a revenge plan, which targets something dear to the Packers: The Lambeau Leap.
The teams that voted with the Eagles against the ban, according to Schefter, were the Baltimore Ravens, the Cleveland Browns, the Detroit Lions, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins, the New England Patriots, The New Orleans Saints, the New York Jets and the Tennessee Titans.
The Packers initially submitted a rule proposal during April’s owners meeting, but that vote was tabled — reports were it didn’t have the votes — with the plan to revisit it during this week’s Spring League Meeting in Minnesota.
On Monday, the Packers submitted a revised rule proposal that no offensive player would be allowed to “push or pull a runner in any direction at any time or lift him to his feet.” The amendment also removed “”immediately at the snap” from the rule, broadening the proposal’s scope.
The reasons given for the rule proposal were to improve player safety and pace of play, though evidence is lacking to support that the play is dangerous, as Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie pointed out last month.
“We have very little data from it, but it’s beyond data, there’s also the mechanism of injury that we study, that type of thing that leads us to show the risk involved with a particular play or a particular tackle. So those are things that we did discuss,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters then.
People have pointed out that the wording of the rule would also have banned combo blocking and pushing the pile.
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce, who arguably bore the heaviest brunt of the play during his time on the Eagles’ offensive line, was in Minnesota this morning to lobby for keeping the play legal.
Kelce clarified in his New Heights podcast that he’s going to dispel any arguments that the physical toll of the play is part of why he retired.
“Whoever votes to ban this play is taking liability for putting risk on our quarterbacks,” Lurie reportedly told the owners ahead of the vote.
On Tuesday, Jordan Mailata and A.J. Brown both seemed nonplussed about the play being banned.
“In terms of them banning the tush push, I hate that name, so I hope they do ban it — it’s a stupid name,” Mailata joked.
The Eagles’ perceived reliance on the play was content fodder for many of the Birds’ upcoming opponents in their schedule reveals last week. Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu’s failed attempts to thwart the play in last season’s NFC Championship Game was featured in the team’s “Rollercoaster Tycoon” inspired video, and he was on “Good Morning Football” this week calling it a “cheapo play.”
The play was used in about one-quarter of 1% of all plays last season, according to ESPN Research, with the Eagles and Buffalo Bills using and benefiting the most from it. The Birds converted on the play 81.3% of the time last season, compared to 88.1% in 2023 and 92.3% in 2022, according to the team.
