Eagles fans are in a mood to celebrate after the attempt to ban the tush push failed, and the team is capitalizing with a sale of new marchandise.
The top item at the Eagles’ Pro Shop today is a T-shirt with an image of quarterback Jalen Hurts prepared to take a snap in the tush push formation, with the words “Push On” at the top.
Instead of saying “click here” to buy the shirt, the website says “Push Here.”
The Eagles posted similar “Push On” messaging on their social media, with posts that have hundreds of thousands of likes.
The tush push has become one of the most effective short-yardage plays in NFL history, with Hurts routinely picking up a yard or two by plowing into the line and having teammates push him from behind. Teams have struggled to stop the play on the field, and after failing to stop the play with a rules change at the league meeting, the Eagles are taking a victory lap.
Colts coach Shane Steichen and Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon parlayed the Eagles’ tush-push-fueled Super Bowl run into their current gigs. Their teams nevertheless voted in favor of banning the play.
Indianapolis and Arizona were among the 22 teams that voted to prohibit all pushing of the runner.
Steichen previously was Philly’s offensive coordinator, and Gannon was the defensive coordinator. Both left after the 2022 season.
In March, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni addressed (with a grin) the positions he expected Steichen, Gannon, and Saints coach Kellen Moore (the Eagles’ offensive coordinator in 2024) to take.
“Gannon, Steichen, and Moore better vote for it,” Sirianni said. “They are in the position right now because of that play. So all three, I better have those three votes right there and the Eagles’ vote. I at least know we have four.”
Moore and the Saints opposed the proposal.
Obviously, Steichen and Gannon didn’t have the final say regarding their teams’ positions. It’ll be for them to explain to Sirianni why they weren’t able to make a difference.
By next year, when the league potentially takes another run at killing the play, the Eagles may have placed one or two more coordinators in head-coaching jobs — if the Eagles fly again to a Super Bowl, and if offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio get opportunities.
It’s fitting, we suppose, that the debate regarding an awkwardly-named play included an awkwardly-worded comment.
And the Eagles tell PFT they have no comment at all on the thing owner Jeffrey Lurie said while addressing the room in support of keeping the “tush push” in the rule book.
Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com reported on Wednesday that, near the end of a speech that lasted close to an house, Lurie told the general ownership meeting in Minneapolis that the attack on the play was a “win-win” for the Eagles. If the vote fails, the play stays. If the vote succeeds, it would be “like a wet dream for a teenage boy” to have a play so successful that the only way to stop it is to ban it.
After the remarks concluded, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent reportedly “chastised” Lurie for his analogy. Vincent specifically pointed out that women were present in the meeting.
While it apparently was an off-the-cuff remark near the end of a lengthy and impassioned speech, it slipped through the filter that’s always critical when speaking extemporaneously to others.
Anyone who talks into a microphone, in any setting, is well aware of the reality that many potential things pop into the brain during the word-formulation process. Some things that potentially could be said might not be appropriate. (Recently, as Simms and I were engaging in an unplanned riff on PFT Live regarding the phenomenon known as “swamp ass,” I resisted the temptation to say something that possibly would have likely been very funny, because it might have been too close to the line.)
The goal is to know where that line is, and to stay safely away from it. On Wednesday, Lurie apparently flew too close to that line on wings of a teenage boy’s, well, never mind.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones voted in favor of the rule that would have banned the Eagles’ tush push, but he admitted that he’s not sure himself whether he really thinks the play should be taken out of the game, or whether he just doesn’t want the Eagles to have such an effective play in their arsenal.
“Any play that’s out of the ordinary gets some extra scrutiny just because of the competition in there,” Jones said. “Here we are, the world champion is the main focus of the tush push, and here we are debating it, and having to decide. I thought, am I really against the tush push, or just don’t want Philadelphia to have an edge?”
Asked which it is, a principled opposition to the play or just wanting to stop a division rival, Jones answered, “I don’t know. I flip flop.”
Jones is saying out loud what others in the NFL won’t admit, that part of the opposition to the tush push is unrelated to the merits of the play. Instead, it’s about one particular team doing that play very well, and that one team winning the Super Bowl, and other teams wanting to ban the play to take away something that the best team in the league is doing better than everyone else.
Ultimately, Jones and his allies mustered only 22 votes to change the rule, and changing any rule in the NFL requires 24 votes. The Eagles were joined by nine other teams that didn’t think it was fair to take away one play just because one team does it so well.
When the Lions (the league office) realized that 24 votes didn’t exist for changing the playoff seeding process, the Lions (the league) withdrew the proposal.
So why didn’t the Packers (the league office) withdraw the rule banning the tush push when it was obvious that the proposal from the Packers (the league) was going to fall short of the mark?
As one source with direct knowledge of the dynamics told PFT, the two situations were very different. On playoff seeding, the discussion began with an acknowledgement that the Lions were inclined to table it. It never went to a vote or even a straw poll.
Regarding the tush push, the owners had a “long discussion” that resulted in the call for a vote. There was never a discussion about tabling it.
Some would say that it would have been better to withdraw the proposal than to have it lose. That said, every team is on the record. Twenty-two said yes to the ban, and 10 said no. We know who supported the ban, we know who didn’t.
More importantly, the league knows. And now the league can go to work on the long-term goal of twisting the arms of two of the 10 holdouts.
Make an overt deal. Make a subtle threat. Do whatever needs to be done to get two more teams to flip, and the tush push is kaput.
There has now been reporting on all the teams that declined to vote to ban the notorious tush push.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Browns, Jaguars, Dolphins, Saints, and Titans voted with the Eagles, Ravens, Patriots, Jets, and Lions against the proposal that would have banned the play.
Of those 10 teams, the Saints are particularly notable as they employ former Philadelphia offensive coordinator Kellen Moore as their new head coach, and Moore called that play plenty of times en route to a Super Bowl victory last season.
Cleveland, Jacksonville, Miami, and Tennessee do not have the same direct connections to Philadelphia, though Browns G.M. Andrew Berry did work in Philadelphia’s front office and his twin brother, Adam, is the Eagles’ VP of football operations and strategy.
Notably, the Cardinals and Colts — who also have former Eagles coordinators as head coaches — did vote to ban the play.
Either way, the tush push will be in use for at least another season.
As Black Bart once said, “OK, Ralphie. You win this time, but we’ll be back.”
The anti-tush push forces inevitably will return with another effort to remove the Eagles’ signature play from the rulebook.
Wednesday’s effort failed, by only two votes. With 24 required, the final tally was 22-10.
Multiple reports indicated that the Ravens, Patriots, Jets, and Lions were among the 10 “nay” votes. We’re told that the Titans, Jaguars, and Browns also were opposed to the proposal. Throw in the Eagles, and that’s eight of the 10.
The vote ends the matter for 2025. It undoubtedly will be back, as soon as next March. Especially if/when the anti-tush push forces can bring evidence to the table tangible evidence (real or imagined) of a safety risk.
Until the play is eliminated, all teams other than the Eagles have two ways of dealing with the situation: (1) figure out how to stop it; and/or (2) figure out how to run it.
The third strategy is to create the kind of spectacle that results in the same ugliness that happened in the NFC Championship — and which seemed to light the fuse for the league’s failed effort to dump the play.
Get ready to hear plenty from the NFC East late in 2025.
Commissioner Roger Goodell announced on Wednesday that the NFC East will be featured on this year’s edition of in-season Hard Knocks.
The Colts, Cardinals, and Dolphins were previous singular teams featured on the in-season version of Hard Knocks. Last year, the AFC North was the first division featured with the Ravens, Steelers, Bengals, and Browns.
For 2025, the Commanders, Cowboys, Giants, and reigning Super Bowl Champion Eagles will have cameras in and around their respective facilities to find compelling storylines for the show that will be televised on HBO and streamed on HBO Max starting in December.
Everyone knew that the Eagles were one of the 10 votes against the Packers’ proposal to ban the tush push on Wednesday and the identity of some of the other teams that joined them has come to light.
According to multiple reports, the Ravens, Patriots, Jets, and Lions also voted against the ban.
None of those votes should come as a surprise to those who have followed the discourse around the proposal over the last few months. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh called it a football play and Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said you can’t ban a play for being hard to defend. Lions head coach Dan Campbell said it’s up to other teams to stop the offense and Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, who was Campbell’s defensive coordinator the last few seasons, shared a similar view.
Campbell will get his chance against the Eagles in Week 11 while the Packers will be hosting the team they targeted with their proposal the previous week.
The tush push will remain legal for the 2025 NFL season.
In a vote of owners today, the Packers’ proposal to ban the pushing of ball carriers was voted down. The proposal got 22 yes votes and 10 no votes. NFL rule changes need at least 24 yes votes, a three-fourths majority, to pass.
The specific rule change would have banned all pushing of all ball carriers, restoring a rule that had been in effect for most of NFL history. But while the rule would have been broad, it was clearly aimed specifically at the Eagles, who have successfully used the tush push in recent years to make first downs almost automatic when they have only a yard to gain.
Despite some arguments that the tush push is dangerous and banning it is needed for player safety, the Eagles argued that there’s no data showing it’s any more dangerous than any other play.
Ultimately, the Eagles convinced nine other teams that a ban was unnecessary. And so the tush push will remain. For at least another year.
