The tush push is about to get shoved out of the rulebook.
It didn’t happen in March. It’s likely coming in two weeks.
Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports that, when the owners meet in Minneapolis on May 20 and 21, they are “expected to consider a revised proposal that would prohibit a teammate from pushing or pulling a ballcarrier anywhere on the field.”
The Packers made a proposal for the March meetings that was hopelessly flawed (it prohibited only an “immediate” push of the player receiving the snap). Given the league’s role in nudging the Lions to propose an altered playoff seeding formula, it’s reasonable to wonder whether the NFL also quietly partnered with the Packers to pulverize the tush push.
The Packers, per the report, have not yet submitted their revised proposal. It is expected to be much broader than their prior proposal, with any and all pushing of the player with the ball banned.
It’s the only way for the NFL to get rid of the tush push without looking like the league is getting rid of the tush push. A more focused proposal (e.g., no pushing in the tackle box) would be too obviously directed at the Eagles.
If/when this proposal passes (and, with the Commissioner seemingly behind it, it likely will), we have two predictions.
One, the officials will not consistently call pushing that happens down the field. At first, there might be a flag or two. Over the long haul, it will be overlooked — just as pulling (which is currently against the rules) has been ignored. For years. (The last flag for assisting a runner was thrown during the 1991 playoffs.)
Two, the Eagles will still run the quarterback sneak on a regular basis. It will still look like it currently does, but for the mini-cluster of players around and behind quarterback Jalen Hurts. And it will still be effective — because it’s far more about the push that happens at the front of the play and less about the push that happens behind it.
The whole thing makes the league look petty. One team has cracked the code on how to get an easy yard or two. The other teams don’t like it. And so, absent any reliable injury data, the league is sounding a safety alarm and/or citing aesthetics and trying to level the playing field by taking away the Eagles’ signature play.
Here’s hoping that the likely change won’t change anything, and that the best strategy will be to tell the other teams to: (1) come up with a way to stop it; and/or (2) figure out how to use it.
Here’s also hoping that the Packers have gotten, or will get, something valuable from the league for becoming the anti-tush push poster child. We doubt that coach Matt LaFleur relishes the perception that he’s the one who got this ball rolling. Our guess is that he had nothing to do with it — and that he’d prefer to keep it that way.
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