THE TUSH PUSH IS FUNNY AND IT WORKS, BUT LET’S BAN IT: WHERE’S THE FOOTBALL?
The gut bomb is more conducive to Philadelphia bar life than any play that should exist in the NFL, which will use the competition committee for a Green Bay proposal that kills the goal-line tremble
The Tush Push is a Philadelphia toy. It works in a frat house when three dudes want Yuenglings and cheesesteaks at a crowded bar. It works in prison, where inmates see a crack in the concrete and propel forward. It works outside the Museum of Art, if loons want to tackle Rocky Balboa around the skull and lift someone into a vertical leap.
And when the Eagles run the play behind offensive linemen who average 6 feet 6 and 338 pounds, it becomes symbolic entertainment behind a Super Bowl championship. The last two seasons, Jalen Hurts has rushed for 22 touchdowns from the 1-yard line as the offense converted 28 of 34 total attempts last season. The Tush Push, aka the Brotherly Shove, is considered a work of strategic genius by the team’s coaches, players and fans. The scheme is unmatched by the NFL’s other 31 franchises.
What I must remind coach Nick Sirianni is that the Tush Push isn’t high-level football as much as weight-room balderdash. He can have a Yuengling and a cheesesteak while I explain.
It’s pro wrestling. It’s Elon Musk lining up Tesla Cybertrucks to take over the world. It succeeds for street robbers who don’t want to use firearms and knives. But to stand in a backfield by the enemy’s goal line and shove the quarterback into an oversized blocking corps — it’s conducive only to meathead magnitude. The Eagles have bigger humans than the opponents. Use them to pass the Eagles to a title, as Hurts did. Use them to run the Eagles to a title, as Saquon Barkley did. Use them to shut down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, as the defense did in a 40-22 victory.
So allow me to thank the Green Bay Packers for a new proposal banning the Tush Push. Arguments will be heard next month at the annual league meeting, where the competition committee will make a decision. If the ploy remains, imagine what’s next? It’s illegal to push in high school games. Shouldn’t the NFL avoid silly gang warfare?
“The play is bad for the game — and we should go back to prohibiting the push or aid of the runner,” protested Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy, who is retiring in July. “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the (Washington) Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC championship game to try and stop the play was ridiculous. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it’s no longer enforced because it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”
That brings back the coldest game in NFL history, on New Year’s Eve of 1967, when Starr managed to score with wind chills dropping under 35 below zero. Why does Hurts require massive force in good weather? “I’ve never been a fan,” Atlanta coach Raheem Morris said. “Never understood why it was allowed. I definitely will be one of the guys voting against it.”
Even Buffalo coach Sean McDermott, who is on the committee, says no to a play he tried to adopt in the postseason. “There's always been injury risk, and I've expressed that opinion over the last couple of years when it really started to come into play the way it's being used, especially a year ago,” he said. “The way that techniques are used with the play, to me, have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players. I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.”
Who is in love with a Tush Push when the very mention involves late-night laughter? Enter Sirianni, whose embrace of the gut bomb helped him gain respect of Eagles players who initially didn’t like him. With no reason to worry beyond a second consecutive title, after stopping the Chiefs at two straight, he spent the NFL’s scouting combine defending the controversy this week.
“I’ve seen some of the stuff (suggesting) it’s an ‘automatic’ play. I almost feel a little insulted, because we work so hard at that play,” Sirianni said. “The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals — there’s a thousand plays out there, it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players execute the fundamentals. I can’t tell you how many times we practice the snap, we practice the play — because it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, there’s different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it. We work really, really hard, and our guys are talented at this play. And so it’s a little insulting to say, ‘We’re good at it, so it’s automatic.’ ”
The league is listening to naysayers this year after commissioner Roger Goodell voiced no concerns in the past. Said executive vice president Troy Vincent: “A year ago, we felt the Tush Push — let’s just say, hey, the Philadelphia Eagles do it better than everybody else. But there are some concerns. Our health and safety committee has laid it out today with a brief conversation on the injury report. There’s some challenges, some concerns that they’ll share with the broader group tomorrow. But the Tush Push will become a topic of discussion moving into March. It's on our agenda. The club proposal is, ‘We need to make some adjustments to that. Is that a viable football play?’ ’’
The Eagles will be pushing back. “Obviously, I’m protective of it because we’ve had success with it, but I think that the competition committee will do a good job of looking at everything,” Sirianni said. “It wasn’t a hundred percent for us this year. We missed on some two-point conversions from the one (yard line). We missed on some third downs. We missed on some fourth downs. I think we were in the 80 percent range. Just because it’s a successful play for us doesn’t mean it should go away. People who want to take that away, I think, is a little unfair.”
Not everyone is anti-Push. “To me, it’s OK. You’ve got take all those rules holistically,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “So what does one rule change have on the next one? If you’re going to take out the Tush Push, then you’ve got to take out all pushes. So one guy can’t be downfield and an offensive lineman can run in and push the ball carrier five more yards. You can’t take one out and not the other. If you say if you can’t help push a back, then you can take out the Tush Push. If you’re going to say that’s still allowed, then in my opinion, I don’t think you can take out the Tush Push.”
The Packers are moving forward with the proposal, catching hell from Philly fans. It’s possible at least 23 of 31 owners will say no — beyond the Eagles’ yes vote — which would end the Tush Push and give the city a new reason for a Brotherly Shove.
How about Barkley’s reverse hurdle? What about Hurts’ 46-yard thriller to DeVonta Smith that made the score 34-0? Why would you want to focus on butts?
Only Philadelphia cries when it wins. The Eagles will win again when the Push is a new dance craze. Jalen Hurts as Bart Starr?
He’ll score, too.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.