Tush push will remain as proposed ban falls short

The play will stay in 2025

NFL owners voted on Wednesday to keep the tush push, the quarterback sneak on steroids used so successfully the past couple of seasons by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Green Bay Packers had sponsored a resolution to ban the play. The final vote was 22-10, two votes short of the 24 need to ban the play.

Since they began using the play in 2022, the Eagles had a success rate of 86% with it. The rest of the league was at 76%.

The Eagles took to social media to both troll the Packers and celebrate being allowed to run the play for at least one more year.

Valentine’s View

Personally, I wish the play would removed from football. It doesn’t look like football — it looks like rugby.

I have, honestly, never liked any play that sees ball carriers being pushed by teammates for yardage they did not earn on their own. That puts an already disadvantaged defense in an even worse position, and sometimes a dangerous one.

I do agree with a common sentiment I am seeing online that the play is garnering way too much attention.

Other changes

• Owners approved a couple of tweaks to the onside kick rule. Teams will now be allowed to declare an onside kick at any point during a game in which they are trailing rather than just in the fourth quarter. Players on the kicking team will now be allowed to line up on the line of scrimmage rather than 1 yard behind it. The latter change is an effort to increase the onside kick success rate, which was only 6% in 2024.
• One change that won’t happen is playoff reseeding. The Detroit Lions withdrew that proposal on Wednesday.