On Monday, Judy Battista of NFL Network reported that NFL's executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said an unnamed team sent in a proposal to ban the tush push play.
The Green Bay Packers have been identified as a team that wants the tush push banned by Dianna Russini. Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy stated at the beginning of this month that he is not a fan of the play, detailing his reasoning in his monthly column on the team's website.
“I am not a fan of this play," Murphy wrote. "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 Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC championship game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”
Murphy is not the only person who has expressed interest in seeing the play get banned, but there was no proposal to ban it last offseason. This has already changed heading into the 2025 offseason, with a proposal to ban the play already sent in.
Though the Eagles have been nearly automatic in executing the tush push play, the play in itself is not inherently automatic. The Kansas City Chiefs stopped the Bills on multiple tush push attempts in the AFC championship game, and the Eagles themselves have not even converted every tush push attempt. The Eagles are excellent at converting the play into a first down, but they also have arguably the best offensive line in the league, which will naturally help them excel in short-yardage situations.
If the proposal were to get voted on by league owners, it would need 24 of 32 votes for the ban to get passed.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Team That Wants Tush Push Banned Has Been Identified.
