The tush push play has really taken the NFL world by storm as of late. A play first implemented by Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2022 has now seeped its way into other teams’ playbooks. It was Nick Sirianni who decided to implement the play after just one season coaching Philly. It’s basically unstoppable, and while others have tried it, they’ve failed, miserably at that.
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In response, some NFL squads want it banned, citing player safety as the main issue. Well, the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the play was overturned by the league this Wednesday, with 10 out of 32 teams voting against it. That’s below the 75% threshold needed to ban it.
Famed football analyst Rich Eisen decided to tackle the topic following the recent report, which delighted hundreds of Philly fans.
“The tush push survives. Football League members have just voted. And they voted to keep the tush push legal,” the broadcaster recognized on the Rich Eisen Show.
“As the Philadelphia Eagles tweeted out 2 minutes after the vote was announced, ‘Push On,’ as the Eagles tweeted that out with an Eagles logo,” he added.
Eisen also went on to describe the photo the Eagles shared on social media as an intentional jab at the Packers, who will surely try again next year to ban the play. What did the picture feature? A shot of them running the tush push against the Cheeseheads.
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) May 21, 2025
Later on, Eisen delved further into the conversation surrounding the tush push. One of the key points he mentioned was how the play was initially proposed to be banned.
“Interestingly enough, the rule change was first proposed back in the wintertime when the competition committee and player and safety committees meet, in advance of the main annual meeting… And the initial vote on it was tabled to this membership meeting in Minneapolis.” Eisen started.
“I guess what happened today is that in the full-on membership plus team president’s meeting, the Eagles showed up. Jeffrey Lurie walked in the room, and it was a full hour-long session where members heard pros and cons on the subject matter from folks other than other owners. Jeffrey Lurie apparently walked into the room with Jason Kelce. And Kelce spoke on behalf of keeping the tush push,” he added.
It’s a wild sequence of events that Eisen detailed. Who better than to stick up for the integrity of the play than the guy who was one of its founding fathers? Kelce has popularized the tush push behind quotes like “92 percent” to refer to the success rate of the play. Even the membership club on his podcast, New Heights, is called the 92 percenters club.
At the end of the day, though, it was surprising to see the play survive the vote. Dianna Russini reported that just moments before, momentum was building to ban it. However, 10 teams ultimately decided it’s a worthwhile play to keep in the league.
It’s hard to watch a tush push play and not feel like it’s cheap. But it’s a part of the game. Sports are about entertainment, but they’re also about finding advantages to win games. And the Eagles have found a great one.
It’s not like it’s a completely unstoppable play. Other teams have run it and failed. The Eagles themselves have been stopped on it several times as well. As long as they aren’t abusing it by running it 90% of the time downfield, it’s hard to get too mad at them for taking advantage of the play. But that’s just our opinion, what do you think?
