Excuses are like assholes, right? Everyone has one. That hilariously crude joke applies to quarterbacks amid the ongoing NFL controversy surrounding the Eagles’ Tush Push. Or Brotherly Shove, whatever name you prefer.
On the play in question, the signal-caller lines up under center with his backside on full display, vulnerably exposed for his big-bodied teammates to gently leverage and shove into the end zone. It’s a 100% legal formation. There is nothing unfair about it. And any head coach worth his salt can add it to his playbook.
Yet, a groundswell of negativity around the Tush Push has clouded the NFL Scouting Combine in recent days. Everyone has an opinion on why the play is unfair. Everyone has an excuse on why they want it banned. Problem is, there is nothing illegal about the most unorthodox quarterback sneak ever. It isn’t a proprietary play, owned by the Eagles … no, any team can run it. It’s purely a matter of execution.
Ahh, there’s the rub. Execution. The rest of the league simply cannot figure out how to pull off the greatest Houdini act in sports. NFL Media’s James Palmer reported the Eagles had a 76.5% success rate on the Brotherly Shove in getting a first down or a touchdown last season, down significantly from 83.7% in 2023.
Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports calculated a different percentage (including playoffs), accounting for failed attempts and what happened on the next play, saying the Eagles were essentially 47-of-48 (97.9%) during the 2024 regular season and postseason. Remember, Jalen Hurts showed it off in Super Bowl 59 when he broke the plane from the 1-yard line with 6:15 showing in the first quarter to put the Eagles up 7-0
The #Eagles were 39-of-48 (81.3%) converting the “tush push” into a first down or touchdown this season.
Of the 9 times they failed, they followed with a 1st down/TD on the next play using a tush push 8 times.
Essentially they were 47-of-48 (97.9%).
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) February 25, 2025
Meanwhile, Hurts has scored 28 touchdowns from the 1-yard line since 2022. That accounts for two-thirds of his total rushing touchdowns (48) over the past two seasons. The Tush Push isn’t dumb-luck. Those touchdowns aren’t coincidence. The Brotherly Shove has been perfected thanks to countless hours of practice.
Head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine that he felt a “little insulted” that rivals thought it was an “automatic” play. They work extremely hard to make it look so damn easy.
“There’s a thousand plays out there, it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players (execute) the fundamentals,” Sirianni said. “I can’t tell you how many times we practice the snap, we practice the play – because it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, there’s different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it.”
Injury Risk? Sorry, No Proof Tush Push Hurts People
Bills head coach Sean McDermott raised eyebrows when he lobbied against the Tush Push by calling it an “injury risk” despite an on-the-record quote from Troy Vincent — Executive Vice-President of Football Operations for the NFL — saying there was “zero” injuries due to the play last season.
“I just feel like, player safety, and the health and safety of our players has to be at the top of our game, which it is,” McDermott said at the NFL Scouting Combine. “You have to go back though in fairness to the injury data on the play, but I just think the optics of it, I’m not in love with.”
Ironic comment, considering McDermott’s team ran the play at the next highest rate after the Eagles. According to ESPN Research, the Bills and Eagles have combined to run 163 Tush Push plays over the past three years which is more than the other 30 teams combined. On those 163 plays, the Bills and Eagles achieved a first down or touchdown 87% of the time, compared to only 71% for the rest of the league.
“We do it a little bit different than other teams,” McDermott said. “One team in particular, who does it a certain way, that’s the one that is really, there’s just so much force behind that player.”
Bills HC Sean McDermott “Not in Love” with Eagles Tush Push
“There has always been an injury risk with that play & I’ve expressed that opinion for the last couple of years… the techniques used with that play have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the… pic.twitter.com/UcUsBrOyoT
— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) February 25, 2025
McDermott — obviously referencing the Eagles in his above comment — wasn’t alone in his thinking. Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel expressed a similar sentiment in banning it to protect players. The success part is what gives him pause.
(For the record, Miami was among the worst teams in the NFL at executing the play. The Dolphins were one of four teams who didn’t get a first down at least 50 percent of the time on 4th-and-1 runs).
“It’s tough because I have a hard time making things illegal because of success,” McDaniel said. “However, it’s a different thing if it’s a safety issue … I think because it’s successful, I have a hard time that being the teeth of the argument to move on from it.”
Blame the Packers; Listen to Todd Bowles
Haters gonna hate, right? Shout it from the rooftops (again): No one likes us, we don’t care.
The Packers were the latest team to submit a proposal banning the Tush Push. Team president Mark Murphy stated the following (via Dianna Russini): “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.”
Then, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst clarified why they want it banned during comments at the NFL Scouting Combine: “We’re not very successful against it, I know that, but to be honest with you I haven’t put much thought into it. I’ve got to look at some of the information as far as injury rates, things like that, to see. But we’ll see.”
It will take 24 “yes” votes out of 32 teams to outlaw the Tush Push. Look for a resolution on the matter next month at the Annual League Meeting (March 30-April 2) in Palm Beach, Florida.
I wonder why the Packers want to ban the Tush Push 🤨#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/EzZZdeOWDW
— The Philly Times 📰 (@the_phi_times) February 24, 2025
The injury thing might be the sorriest excuse since the dog ate my homework. Here’s an idea: instead of banning a perfectly legal play, maybe the 31 other teams need to scheme better. Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles — a respected defensive mind whose strategies have routinely stymied Hurts and the Eagles’ offense — suggested that his jealous peers should go back to the drawing board.
“I think it’s a rugby element but at the same time when a team gets something that they’re good at, you gotta learn how to stop it,” Bowles told reporters. “But I don’t think the first thing you can do is try to take it out of the ball game or that takes away the creativity of everybody trying to do everything else so … gotta learn how to stop it. I mean, they are going to continue to use it because if it’s not broke, then don’t fix it.”
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid added (via Bleacher Report): “[The Eagles] do it better than anybody, so they’re gonna get criticized. Heck, if we could do it effectively, I’d probably do it.”
Tracing the Origins of The Tush Push
Tush Push. Cheeky Sneaky. Derriere Over There … all these catchy nicknames for the suddenly controversial play have entered the ether, with people in Philly mostly preferring the “Brotherly Shove” moniker. Hurts himself wouldn’t reveal what he calls it and told Jimmy Fallon: “I’m not gonna say what I call it, but it’s not that,” while Darius Slay divulged on his podcast that several guys on the Eagles call it “The Snoopy.”
Either way, the bump-and-grind play works — almost all the time. They have called 108 tush pushes since 2022, picking up a touchdown or first down on 87% of those plays. That’s a ridiculous stat.
NFL Films produced a deep dive on the origins of the Tush Push in a clip that went viral. In it, Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr — mic’d up for sound on the sideline — floats out the idea of having two “big dudes” line up behind the quarterback in a mushroom formation, then “double push” him across the line of scrimmage.
Two years later, then-Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni does exactly that when he subs in 238-pound backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett on a goal-line sneak. The result? Touchdown.
The real Tush Push origin story:
Anthony Barr was 2 years ahead of the curve 🤯 #NFLFilmsPresents pic.twitter.com/dShAYxQ3vc
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 26, 2025
Sirianni took the play with him to Philly, leveraging Jason Kelce’s athleticism to turn it into the most unstoppable short-yardage call in football. The Eagles owning the NFL’s best offensive line certainly didn’t hurt anything.
“It’s a 92 percent chance. Other teams don’t run it at the same success rate,” Kelce said, via Pro Football Talk. “Maybe the Eagles just happen to be really, really good at it. Is it fair to punish a team just because they’re better at it than everyone else? I don’t think that’s fair.”
Looking at Basketball’s Slam Dunk for Precedent
The idea of the NFL potentially banning a play because one team executes it better than anyone else sounds preposterous when spoken aloud. Nick Sirianni had some fun with reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine, calling the proposal to ban the Tush Push “unfair” and likening it (tongue-in-cheek) to putting restrictions on superstars for being playmakers at their positions.
“AJ Brown’s really good at catching the deep ball but I don’t think we’re going to ban it,” Sirianni said. “Patrick Mahomes is phenomenal at playing quarterback but we can’t ban all those things that he does so well.”
“I think that’s a little unfair … A.J. Brown’s really good at catching the deep ball — I don’t think we’re gonna ban it.”
– Eagles coach Nick Sirianni on potential ‘Tush Push’ ban pic.twitter.com/snyIUcAgqv
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) February 26, 2025
Time for a history lesson. There is a precedent for banning a legal play in another sport. In 1967, the NCAA nixed the slam dunk in college basketball after schools started complaining about Lew Alcindor (later: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) using the slam dunk to his advantage. Never mind that he was more talented than everyone else.
Anyway, Alcindor leveraged the slam dunk to win three national championships as his UCLA Bruins lost only two games in three years. Basketball purists hated the dunk, seeing it as a sign of disrespect especially among the shorter guards who couldn’t reach the rim, and banded together in rebellion.
“It didn’t make sense,” former Detroit player Tery Tyler told The Guardian. “In their minds, it wasn’t fair. But this is something to this day that goes on in sports – people make the wrong decisions.”
The slam dunk made the 7-foot-2 Alcindor automatic in the paint. No one could guard him down low. No one could get enough air to stop the dunk. No one wanted to deal with it. So, the NCAA banned it from 1967-76, calling it the “Lew Alcindor Rule” and citing injury concerns as the main reason.
“To me the new ‘no-dunk’ rule smacks a little of discrimination,” Alcindor said at the time. “When you look at it … most of the people who dunk are Black athletes.”
After the ban, Alcindor pivoted to the Sky Hook and took it to the NBA where he won six world championships and retired as the league’s all-time leading scorer. The Joker never had a last laugh that good.
.@JalenHurts really stuck out his tongue before the Tush Push 😂😜 pic.twitter.com/2KVQ27Bsy2
— NFL (@NFL) December 18, 2024
Point is, you can’t simply ban something because you don’t like it. Sorry, Roger Goodell. Sorry, Mark Murphy. Sorry, Jim Nantz. There is no probable cause — or a reasonable belief that a crime has been committed — for investigating it, let alone getting rid of it.
Imagine a police officer giving you a ticket for going through a green light. He legally can’t do it. You’re supposed to go through green lights, just like football players are supposed to pick up first downs and score touchdowns — and the law doesn’t care if you coast through that green light on four wheels or on the flatbed of a tow truck.
Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-Imagn Images
