Packers reportedly submit proposal to ban tush push

Monday afternoon, Troy Vincent, who has been the executive vice president of football operations for the NFL since 2014, revealed that an unnamed team proposed banning the tush push, Judy Battista of NFL.com reported.

There is a proposal from an unnamed team to ban the Tush Push, Troy Vincent said. We’ll see where it goes.

— Judy Battista (@judybattista) February 24, 2025

A few hours later, Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported that the team that submitted the proposal was the Green Bay Packers.

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

Former Packers president Mark Murphy, who is just retiring following this season, has put his displeasure for this play out there to the public.

“I am not a fan of this play,” Murphy wrote in his monthly Q&A on Green Bay’s website. “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner 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. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”

The play is definitely not the most pleasurable to see, of course. It is a bunch of grown men trying to use their mass to surpass another line of men to get a yard. If that is the stand you are taking in this argument, whatever.

“Don’t punish a team that strategically does it well,” Vincent said on the tush push on Pro Football Talk last February.

The tush push, Brotherly Shove, or whatever you want to call it, has been a hot topic the past few years, and it seems as if there is a proposal every year for it to be banned. A few years ago, the thought process was that the other 31 NFL teams would be able to catch up to speed with the Eagles and run the play effectively. However, the only other team that comes close is the Bills with Josh Allen. And still, the Eagles are miles ahead better at it.

I do not know if this proposal will formulate into anything, but it should be interesting how it develops. At this point, the only thing all the other 31 teams can do when they see the Eagles line up in the tush push formation is sigh and try their best.

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