Total Pro Sports
Unsurprisingly, it was reportedly one of the Philadelphia Eagles’ top NFC rivals who sent a proposal for the NFL to ban the “tush push” play.
Under head coach Nick SIrianni, Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles have popularized the rugby-style tush push play, where two players line up behind the quarterback and push him forward to reach the first-down marker or end zone.
On Monday, news broke that one NFL team sent a proposal to the league to ban the practically unstoppable play. According to NFL insider Dianna Russini of The Athletic, that team has been identified as the Green Bay Packers.
Since they made the play popular in 2022, the Eagles have had a tush push success rate of over 90 percent. Hurts scored the opening touchdown of Super Bowl 59 against the Kansas City chiefs on the play that’s also known as “The Brotherly Shove.”
The Green Bay Packers are the team that submitted a proposal to the NFL’s competition committee to ban the tush push, per sources.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) February 24, 2025
Quarterback sneaks are difficult enough to stop when the signal-caller needs only one yard (or inches) to reach the line of gain. The Eagles’ have mastered the art of the Brotherly Love, so they should almost take it as a compliment if the NFL ends up banning it.
The Eagles and pro-tush push crowd have an easy argument for keeping the play legal: If you can’t stop it on defense, what’s stopping your team from executing it on offense?
The problem for other teams is that they haven’t been as successful running it. As noted by ESPN’s Tim McManus back in September, the average Brotherly Shove success rate league-wide was 76 percent.
It’s not the Eagles’ fault that they know how to execute it, or that other teams simply haven’t made it as automatic as them. So if the NFL bans the play, one can understand any frustration and anger that comes out of Philly.
