Steelers Now
Banning the tush push was trending on X during the Championship Games on Sunday, especially after the Washington Commanders went offside three straight times on the goal line against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Kansas Chiefs stopped Josh Allen twice on Buffalo’s version of the tush push, however
“I can’t stand this tush Push BS. Go back to making it a penalty to shove the player from behind. Keep the QB sneak alive but no more pushing,” NFL writer Scott Kacsmar wrote on X.
The officials warned the Commanders that they would use the “palpably unfair rule” and reward the Eagles a touchdown if they jumped offside again. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ultimately scored on a 1-yard plunge off the tush push to extend Philadelphia’s lead to 41-23 in the fourth quarter.
When discussing the sequence on Inside the NFL, former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick revealed that he learned a hidden trick from the Pittsburgh Steelers during his time in the NFL.
“I learned that from a trick that your Steelers used to pull,” Belichick told former Steelers free safety Ryan Clark. “Back when those PATs were on the two-yard line. Score tied, end of the game, PAT to win. And the corner would jump offside and go block it. Be offsides by two yards. And now it’s kinda in the head of the kicking team of ‘What’s going to happen here?’ And then they’d do it again and again. They’d try to beat the count, sorta like this, until it was kicked or they blocked it and they weren’t offsides. And there was a judgement by the referee, if you do this again, we’re just going to make the extra point good. Because they’re kicking from the one-inch line.
“I don’t want to name names, but the Steelers did it.”
While it wasn’t the exact situation that Belichick described, the Steelers were called offsides twice in a row during a game-winning field goal situation for Los Angeles Chargers kicker Michael Badgley in 2018. Badgley ultimately made a 29-yard field goal to give the Chargers a 33-30 win over Pittsburgh. On the game-winning kick, the Steelers were offsides again.
"I don't wanna name names…but the steelers did it" 🤣
Belichick is all too familiar with the refs ability to award points on "palpably unfair acts" pic.twitter.com/icFpIPKK4c
— Inside the NFL (@insidetheNFL) January 30, 2025
