The Green Bay Packers are doing everything they can to ban the “Tush Push” play.
According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, Green Bay submitted a revised rule proposal that would revert the league’s stance on aiding the ball carrier to its 2005 standard -- when both pulling and pushing the runner were banned.
This new approach targets the core of the issue. After the NFL quietly allowed pushing back in 2006 because officials rarely flagged it, the Eagles capitalized on the change, transforming it into a cornerstone of their short-yardage strategy.
By framing the proposal as a broad restriction on all forms of pushing the runner, the Packers have softened the appearance of a direct attack on Philly's infamous play.
To be adopted, the revised proposal needs 24 votes. The previous version, which sought to outlaw only the immediate push of the quarterback, failed to gain any traction and reportedly ended in a 16-16 split.
The Packers' overall reasoning behind their Tush Push ban proposal is for "Player safety and pace of play."
However, what makes this proposal seem so misguided is the lack of any evidence linking the Tush Push to injuries. The play isn’t widely used across the league, not because it’s dangerous, but because most teams simply can’t execute it effectively.
The Eagles tell a different story, considering they ran the Tush Push 43 times last season, converting it into a first down or touchdown on 39 of those attempts. That’s a remarkable success rate of 81.3%. No injuries occurred on the play.
While Green Bay fans and analysts have attempted to say the play takes no skill, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni argued at the NFL combine that his team has worked very hard at perfecting the Tush Push.
"I can't tell you how many times we've practiced the snap, we've practiced the play -- it's not a play that's easy to practice, so there's different ways we've figured out how to practice it -- the complements that come off of it that can create explosive plays," Sirianni said at the NFL Combine. "The fact that it's [portrayed] as an automatic thing, we work 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. We work really hard at it."
We’ll find out where the league owners stand when they cast their votes on the Packers' new Tush Push proposal Wednesday.
-1744336577-q80.webp "Peter Laviolette Continues Trend Of Benching Young Players With Brennan Othmann Scratch")