The NFL tabled the Green Bay Packers‘ proposal to ban the “tush push” play that helped propel the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl championship last season, but not before 16 teams threw their support behind the rule change.
While the play survived the NFL’s Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, its fate for the upcoming 2025 campaign has yet to be determined.
Shortly after the proposal was tabled, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie opened up about his thoughts on the proposal.
“We’ve been very open to whatever data exists on the tush push,” Lurie told reporters, of the supposed elevated injury risk associated with running the play that some teams have used to justify calling for it to be banned. “And there’s just been no data that shows it isn’t a very, very safe play. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be pushing the tush push.
“I don’t ever remember a play being banned because a single team or a few teams were running it effectively. It’s part of what I think most of us love about football is it’s a chess match. Let the chess match play out. And if for any reason it does get banned, we’ll try to be the very best at short-yardage situations. We’ve got a lot of ideas there,” Lurie pointed out.
The Packers fell twice to the Eagles in 2024, in the season-opener in Brazil, and in a season-ending loss in Philadelphia in the NFC Wild Card Game, but they aren’t the only team hoping that they won’t have to see Jalen Hurts lined up to run the tush-push ever again.
Green Bay, Philadelphia, and the rest of the league will need to wait at least a month to get clarity on the tush-push’s future, though, as the next time it will likely be discussed is during May’s meetings.
