Tush Push everything NFL doesn’t want to be
- col-dave-mast
- February 26, 2025
- 429
I am not a fan of the Tush Push.
While there is a certain amount of strategy involved, it is an ugly play, a boring play, a play nobody wants to watch take place.
The world champion Philadelphia Eagles and quarterback Jalen Hurts have made the play their own, even giving it the moniker “The Brotherly Shove.”
However successful, it’s a play that flies in the face of everything the NFL wants to be.
Shoving a player with the ball from behind simply is horrible football in almost every sense. It takes away from the skill level of some of the world’s finest athletes and brings the game down to the level of a bunch of drunk has-been men playing some pickup game on some sandlot after having a few too many and wanting to flex their egos.
Pushing a ball carrier from behind simply is not a good football play in any way, and I’m not even talking about the Tush Push, but any play where a ball carrier has half the team joining the scrum to shove away in the hopes of gaining one more yard.
It didn’t used to be this way.
For decades NFL rules prohibited offensive players from directly aiding a runner in any form or fashion, whether it was pushing from behind or pulling a runner forward. Players had to earn their yards the hard way — on their own.
However, in 2005 the NFL modified its stance on aiding a runner. There would still be no pulling of ball carriers by teammates, which does happen anyway with no repercussion, but apparently it was too difficult to legislate when a runner was being pushed from behind.
Mike Pereira, former NFL director of officials who became the rules analyst for Fox, said at some point it became too difficult to determine what a push was and what wasn’t, so it became very difficult to officiate. Therefore, the NFL said, “OK, push away boys.”
That set in motion the idea of giant linemen joining forces when a runner is stopped after an insignificant 2-yard gain. They huff and puff and with all their might create what has easily become the ugliest, most boring play in football.
I’m not talking specifically about the Tush Push itself. I’m talking about an insignificant run on the 38-yard line on first and 10 after a 3-yard gain.
The entire prospect of a gaggle of guys getting into a scrum should be left to rugby because football in the NFL is all about having fun. Isn’t that why they have allowed all these end zone celebrations — in the name of making the game fun?
Everything about the NFL is about entertainment, and seeing a scrum of 300-pound linemen pushing a runner downfield while another group of men push in the other direction while at the same time trying to rip the ball out of the ball carrier’s hands isn’t fun, exciting or good for the game.
It’s a glob of goo. It’s a mass of mayhem that brings everything to a standstill.
Fans want excitement, and instead they get two walls crashing together for seven seconds of nothingness.
Really, what is to stop a team from inventing a style of football where they snap it to the quarterback and quickly form a protective coating of human beings around him and then simply walk the ball carrier up the field like a giant amoeba slithering along, picking up 4 or 5 yards at a clip every single play?
Boring!
But in this case legal.
Any type of push is simply not conducive to good football, either on the field or watching it as fans.
That teams are now taking advantage of it by implementing the Tush Push on third and one or fourth and inches on the goal line or at the 40 has simply taken everything to the extreme.
Well, I’m all for taking it to the extreme if it works both ways, which is pretty much what Washington did in its NFC championship game with the Eagles.
On a critical play late in the game near the goal line, Washington linebacker Frankie Luvu was flagged not once but twice for leaping over the line and careening into Hurts. That effort prompted referee Shawn Hochuli to announce he would award Philadelphia a touchdown if Luvu was flagged a third time.
I say go for it Luvu.
If the Eagles are going to make a travesty of the rule, why not go to the other end of the spectrum and make a mockery of it as well?
Force the officials to make the call on the play and award a touchdown on a play that is going to result in a touchdown anyway. Bring on a cascade of boos from the crowd and watch how quickly the NFL bigwigs react to that scenario.
Nobody wants to see officials presenting a team with a TD without said team entering the end zone, but when it happens again and again, it’s going to force the NFL to take a good hard look at a rule that doesn’t enhance its product in any way.
Factor into the equation that at some point a top-quality quarterback like Hurts is going to have his knee caved in by some overly aggressive linebacker who jumps the gun, jumps the pile and delivers a shot squarely to Hurts’ knee that destroys his career, and the Tush Push has all the makings of a farcical, horrible play gone grossly awry.
Why not take the opportunity now to just get rid of the play and the entire idea of pushing from behind, for the good of the game.