Jeffrey Lurie and Jason Kelce were not letting the Tush Push get banned

As we all know, the Great Tush Push Hearing occurred this afternoon up in Minnesota, where the Eagles’ momentous play secured another year of eligibility with the 22-10 vote.

Representing Philadelphia, along with the 31 other owners, were Eagles CEO Jeffrey Lurie and long-time center Jason Kelce, who helped enshrine the Brotherly Shove. The two of their diplomatic addresses helped save the tush push.

Dianna Russini of The Athletic provided the details on Lurie and Kelce’s pitches to other owners before voting took place on the proposal from the Packers to ban the play.

Lurie did not hold back:

“One high-ranking league source who was in the room said, ‘Lurie was like a guy trying to convince his girlfriend why she shouldn’t leave him.’ Throughout his pitch, Lurie was emotional, passionate and — at one point — crude. He said the fact that his team came up with a play so unstoppable that the rest of the league had no other choice but to try to ban it was ‘like a wet dream for a teenage boy.’ Toward the end of his address, he told the assembled owners that, regardless of the day’s result, he and his franchise would walk out winners, with Super Bowl rings to show for it.“

Lurie also reportedly went after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and former Eagle and now Executive Vice President of Football Operations at the NFL, Troy Vincent, critisizing them for pushing to ban the play.

After Lurie finished, Vincent called him out for using the “wet dream” phrase in front of women in the room, per Seth Wickersham of ESPN. NBC10’s John Clark reports that it was not a preplanned statement from Lurie, and it was off the cuff because he was fired up fighting to save the tush push.

Now, could this argument and somewhat inappropriate language have turned some teams off? Maybe. The last time the owners voted on the tush push ban, votes were split 50%.

However, this was Lurie speaking from the heart, calling everyone weak for wanting to ban the play just because his team was so much better than everyone else at it, and ultimatley getting the rightful result.

Lurie also recruited Kelce to help with the pitch, after there were rumors swirling that Kelce retired in 2023 becuase of the tush push. He shot that narrative down:

“[Kelce] spent his entire playing career with the Eagles, retiring after the 2023 season, and ran the tush push countless times over his final two seasons. On Wednesday, he wasn’t loud and animated, instead offering his expertise as an All-Pro center and arguing for why the play should remain in the game. He told the room: ‘If I could run 60 tush pushes a game, I’d come back.‘“

A large narrative in the tush push fiasco was the safety of the players invloved. Kelce, who was right in the middle of most of them, saying how it is one of the easiest and safest plays in the playbook certainly had a pretty large effect on the voting.

The Eagles were one of 10 teams that voted down the potential ban, with ESPN‘s Adam Schefter reporting that theother nine were the Ravens, Browns, Lions, Jaguars, Dolphins, Patriots, Saints, Jets and Titans. 

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