The “tush push” is causing a lot of strife among the NFL ranks.
The Packers’ proposal to ban the version of the quarterback sneak the Eagles have used in recent years sparked a “heated” exchange during the football operations meeting Sunday at the league’s annual meeting in Palm Beach, according to ESPN.
Two Eagles executives, GM Howie Roseman and ᴀssistant GM Jon Ferrari, and two of the head coaches on the league’s compeтιтion committee, the Rams’ Sean McVay and Bills’ Sean McDermott, had an “animated side conversation” in a hallway outside the operations meeting.
The vote on Green Bay’s proposal will be held Tuesday.
It seems Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, fresh off of winning his first Super Bowl, is concerned about the potential outcome of the vote.
He sent a playful warning to his former coordinators who are now head coaches about which way to vote.
“We’ll see how it goes. All I will say about it is (Jonathan) Gannon, (Shane) Steichen and (Kellen) Moore better vote for it,” Sirianni told NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo on Sunday. “They are in the (head coach) position right now because of that play. So all three, I better have those three votes right there and the Eagles’ vote. I at least know we have four.”
Twenty-four of the NFL’s 32 teams have to vote for the ban in order for it to pᴀss.
Philadelphia has enjoyed great success in short-yardage scenarios in recent seasons with their version of the sneak, in which teammates push quarterback Jalen Hurts in a rugby-esque move to help get him pick up a first down or score a touchdown.
The Packers are citing player safety as one of the reasons for wanting the play banned, though ESPN reports there’s no data that supports outlawing the play.
One team executive told ESPN the proposal to ban the tush push is “weak.”
“It’s punishing a team who became excellent at executing the play. In 2022, when Philadelphia was the only team doing it, there was a concern that it made the game less compelling because fourth-and-short was no longer in doubt. Then other teams copied it, and they can’t do it as well,” the exec told ESPN.
“It reeks of jealousy.”
