NFL owners table proposal to ban Tush Push, Eagles’ overtime rule approved

The Tush Push saga continues.

NFL owners have tabled the Packers’ proposal to ban the Tush Push on Tuesday morning in Palm Beach, Florida, at the NFL’s annual meetings.

The suggestion made by Green Bay is to “make the push element of the play illegal.” The proposal would have needed 24 of 32 owners to pass, but clearly did not earn the votes. Per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, 16 teams voted in favor of the rule change.

Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay said the discussion prevailed for 30-40 minutes and went beyond potential player safety concerns into the aesthetics of the play.

“You guys know my opinion on it,” Nick Sirianni said on Tuesday morning ahead of the debate. “I’m not going to continue to dive into it. My opinion is very well documented and I won’t continue to dive into that. I think maybe that’s why there’s so many cameras here today to talk about that. I still stand where I stood when we talked at the Combine. We’ll see how it goes down. Have I been lobbying? I’ve talked to a couple people, yeah. We’ll see how it goes today.”

A big argument against the play was the high risk of injury, even with NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent saying that there were no injuries on the play in 2024. Bills head coach and Competition Committee member Sean McDermott said banning the play is “proactive,” as eliminating the Tush Push could prevent future injuries, even though his team ran it the second most times behind the Eagles.

McKay preached on Tuesday that the discussion around the play was not just injury concerns, but also around the aesthetic of the play and whether or not it belongs in the game.

“I would say that there are definitely some people that have health and safety concerns but there’s just as many people that have football concerns,” McKay said. “… I wouldn’t say it was because of one particular health and safety video or discussion. It was much more about the play, the aesthetics of the play, is it what football has been traditionally, is it more a rugby play. All those types of discussions. Health and safety is still there, that potential, but I wouldn’t go beyond that.”

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said on Tuesday, “I don’t think it is a great football play. It’s more of a rugby play.”

It is such a weak argument. Is there anything more football than can our mass out-mass yours? And if we are being visionary about preventing injuries, should we not just shut down the NFL in that case?

Everyone is so soft.

The other two proposals, made by the Eagles and Lions, came to a full conclusion on Tuesday.

The NFL owners passed a rule that both teams will be allowed to possess the ball in overtime in the regular season, which the Eagles suggested, and is just common sense. The original proposal was for a 15-minute overtime period, but was amended to 10 minutes. This is long overdue.

The Eagles, a lot of times, propose rules that are just a layup, and everyone is on board. This is one of them.

So now, both teams get a chance in overtime, not just if the team that wins the coin flip does not get in the endzone.

The Lions’ proposal to “eliminate an automatic first down as a penalty imposed for defensive holding and illegal contact” did not pass. So, for a defensive holding and illegal contact, it is five yards and an automatic first down.

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