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Green Bay has been burned by the play recently, but they likely would be minimally affected themselves if the rule change goes through.
There is at least one NFL team that is sick of seeing the Philadelphia Eagles convert nearly every 3rd- and 4th-and-short opportunity. News broke on Monday afternoon that one NFL team has submitted a proposal to the league that the so-called “Tush Push” play be made illegal by league rules.
The play, popularized and run to great effect by the Eagles and Jalen Hurts, features one player (typically a quarterback) lined up under center with multiple other players directly behind him in the backfield. After the quarterback receives the snap, his teammates push him from behind in an attempt to pick up the short yardage needed for a first down or a touchdown.
Not long after the news broke that the proposal exists, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported that it was the Green Bay Packers who submitted it. Packers team president Mark Murphy has long been on the record opposing the play’s usage, and he made his position crystal clear just a few weeks ago. In his monthly Q&A with Packers fans published on February 1st, Murphy said the following:
I am not a fan of this play. There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less ... 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.
Given those comments and the fact that Murphy serves as the Packers’ representative in discussions with the rest of the league’s team owners, he is almost certainly the driving force behind the Packers’ submission of this rule change proposal. The details of the proposal are yet to be announced, but based on Murphy’s comments above, it would simply consist of banning players from pushing a ball-carrying teammate from behind in general.
Adding to the Packers’ motivation to eliminate the play is the fact that they lost to Philadelphia twice during the 2024 season, with each game featuring at least one Eagles first-down using this play. Jalen Hurts converted a 4th-and-1 early in the fourth quarter of the Eagles’ Wild Card victory when the Packers were down by just six points, and he converted a 3rd-and-1 in the second quarter of the teams’ week one matchup in Brazil. (The Packers did get a stop on a 3rd-and-1 early in the week 1 game, but then were flagged for encroachment when the Eagles lined up for another attempt on the ensuing 4th down.)
Although the Packers had some great success with unconventional short-yardage sneaks in 2024, they did not typically benefit from the...
