This is schedule release week with Wednesday being the big day. Of course the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will figure prominently. Makes total sense. But when next season arrives will the Eagles have their vaunted ‘tush push?’
The answer is likely no which means one of the best plays in recent league history (yes, I said best) could be absent from all of the various screens the Eagles will be on this coming season.
The fate of the play will likely be determined at the league meetings starting May 20 in Minneapolis. The NFL delayed a potential ban on the controversial play in the spring during the meetings then. The NFL needs 24 of 32 team owners to support or deny a rule change.
The belief was that the owners were just delaying the inevitable. No one knows for certain but the play seems destined to be eradicated.
The play is one of my favorites to see. It’s not just rugby as some have described it. The elegance of it is its simplicity. It’s also not easy to do and requires extensive practice. There’s a reason why a number of teams have tried and failed. Laughingly so. One weekend two years ago, three teams tried to do it, and couldn’t.
What the Eagles have done is find a secret weapon, refined it, worked on it constantly, and shaped it into something almost unstoppable. The league’s response has been not working on a way to stop it, but to try and ban it, like cowards.
One reason for wanting to ban it has been health and safety but the NFL admits there’s no definitive data proving that it causes injuries. There were no injuries reported from the ‘tush push’ last season. ESPN reported just 101 of the 35,414 offensive plays in 2024 were tush-push plays, or 0.285%.
I hate, absolutely hate, that the Eagles will be a huge part of the broadcast year next season, and we may not be able to see what’s become not just one of the team’s signature plays, but the NFL’s.
We already know part of Philadelphia’s schedule and the Eagles will be highly visible next season. The team will play in the Thursday night season opener against Dallas, a Week 10 Monday night game against Green Bay, the Black Friday game against Chicago, and a Dec. 20 Saturday doubleheader against Washington. Quick note: the Packers were the team that ratted out, err, proposed the ‘tush push’ ban. The Packers also lost to the Eagles twice last season.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie told reporters recently that unless the play is proven to be a health and safety issue, his team should be allowed to continue using it. His quote here is long but I think it’s useful to see in its entirety.
‘I want to know what data there is,’ Lurie said. ‘I don’t think there is any. If you want to say that it could be (dangerous), it’s hard to make rules on could-bes and should-bes.
‘One of the reasons we like using the tush push is we think it’s a safer play than the quarterback sneak. The quarterback sneak, if you talk to quarterbacks about it, there’s more spearing going on. They’re less protected by players around them. And one of the reasons we got motivated to develop an expertise in this play is it was more protective to the quarterback.
‘So, it’s ironic that people would bring up health and safety. We’re at the top of the game in terms of wanting health and safety on every play. We voted for hip-drop tackle and a defenseless receiver.
“We will always, always support what is safer for the players. It’s a no-brainer. If this is proven to be less safe for the players, we will be against the tush push.
“But until that’s the case, to me, there would be no reason to ban this play.’
‘I would definitely say there are some people that have health and safety concerns, but there’s just as many people that have football concerns,’ Rich McKay, CEO of the Atlanta Falcons, and co-chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, has said previously. ‘It was much more about the play, the aesthetics of the play. Is it what football has been traditionally or is it more of a rugby play?’
It’s not a rugby play.
It’s gorgeous.
And when the Eagles star across numerous broadcasts this coming season, we may not see it.