Copyright Essentially Sports
As long as it’s within the league’s rule book, the “tush push” isn’t going anywhere. Even if half the teams are wishing ill on the play. The Philadelphia Eagles’ trademark play keeps sparking debate, and this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell finally addressed it. Goodell said, “It’s not something we’re focused on in the season. We’ll monitor it.” Still, behind the scenes, the league’s top officials admit they’re having real trouble keeping up with it. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said on Tuesday that officiating the tush push has become a nightmare for referees. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad “It’s very difficult to officiate in real time,” Vincent said. “What we’re seeing is that line judge, sometimes on a replay we see the guard jump or move. It’s hard when the guard was in the neutral zone or someone else was in the neutral zone. Really hard for the line judge to identify that based on where he’s at looking down the line of scrimmage.” Vincent even admitted, “At the end of the day, there’s a team that still does it well,” clearly referring to the Eagles. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad Earlier this year, the league’s 32 owners voted on whether to ban the pushing of players from behind but fell short of the majority needed. So the tush push survived, at least for now. But after this week’s meetings and Goodell’s new comments, it’s clear the league isn’t done talking about it. Whether the Eagles’ unstoppable sneak survives another offseason could depend less on precision and more on patience from the league office. Reporter Judy Battista explained how the Tush Push is a big topic at the NFL Fall Meeting: “Something really interesting that came up yesterday was the tush push because that’s all we talk about basically in the NFL. We talked to football operations executives yesterday and Troy Vincent said they are having trouble officiating the tush push. This has been an issue all season.” Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports She added that the league already tried to get rid of the play last offseason over health and safety concerns but didn’t have the votes. Now, the struggle to officiate it fairly might be what brings the issue back to the table. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad “As this goes forward,” Judy said, “you would think that their issues with officiating — the fact that they are having a tough time officiating it properly — is going to enter the conversation.” NFL insider Ian Rapoport agreed. “Yeah, the NFL really has gone round and round on the tush push,” he said. “Still a topic of conversation. Still, as they mentioned yesterday, one team that does it pretty well, that would be the Eagles. A bunch of other teams that try to do it and, just to be real, don’t do it quite as well.” He pointed out that there haven’t been many major injuries from the play, but the issues have been building all year. Eagles make Tush Push their unstoppable weapon In Week 3, after Philadelphia escaped a flag against Kansas City, the NFL told referees to call the play “tight” going forward. An officiating training tape sent to all 32 teams showed the Eagles’ quarterback sneak from that game. Even Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said the Eagles “got off a little early” on several snaps. NFL vice president of officiating training and development Ramon George later admitted, “This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.” And yet, the Eagles just keep mastering it. Nick Sirianni’s team has turned the tush push into a cheat code, with the coach joking that it’s basically like having “first-and-9” every time they start a drive. Even when defenses get creative, like when the Vikings had a lineman literally lie down across from the center last week, Philadelphia finds a way. Jalen Hurts still converted early, and when the Vikings tried it again, he burned them with a 37-yard touchdown to A.J. Brown. Retired Eagles center Jason Kelce, who helped perfect the play, called the Vikings’ strategy “interesting,” saying it created a “log jam” but didn’t really stop the push. “I love seeing teams come up with new ways to try and stop it,” Kelce said. Still, the play remains practically controversial.
