Tush Push Ban Fails By Two Votes

At the league’s spring meetings, NFL owners failed to pass a proposal by the Green Bay Packers to ban pushing the runner, the latest proposal to target the Eagles’ successful “Brotherly Shove” play, also known as the “tush push.”

Rules changes require a 3/4 vote of approval by league owners to become official. As first reported by Diana Russini at The Athletic, the Packers’ proposal fell just two votes shy of this threshold. This was confirmed by a release by the NFL confirming that the only rules change approved at the spring meeting was a rule allowing onsides kicks to be used any time during the game.

This was the most serious attempt by league owners to ban the play. At the league’s annual meeting in March, following the owners tabling the proposal, Packers President Mark Murphy indicated that it was tied to safety concerns and pace of play concerns, but provided evidence widely considered by play supporters as flimsy.

“There hasn’t been that many plays, so there wasn’t a lot of injury data,” Murphy said in April. “I was really moved by Alan Sills, Chief Medical Officer [for the league]. He felt very strongly that it was just a question of when there would be a catastrophic injury with this.”

The other reason, Murphy noted, was for pace of play concerns. Murphy explained that he had one particular scenario in mind where the play supposedly slowed the game down.

“The NFC Championship game, with players jumping over the line,” Murphy recalled, “I don’t think it was good for the game. It slows down the game with the penalties.”

Eagles Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie said back in April that they believed that the play was safer than the regular quarterback sneak, and reportedly said during today’s meeting that the owners who voted for it would be responsible for the safety of the Eagles’ quarterbacks.

“We will always, always support what is safer for the players. It’s a no-brainer,” Lurie said back in April. “If this is proven to be less safe for the players, we will be against the tush push. But until that’s the case, to me, there’d be no reason to ban this play.”

The Eagles pulled out all the stops to campaign against the Packers’ proposal. Nick Sirianni had called coaches to campaign for the play. Lurie also introduced Jason Kelce to the spring meeting to correct the record regarded incorrect reports cited by the Packers and others that Kelce retired due to the play.

In the end, only the Detroit Lions voted to support the play among the Eagles’ 2025 opponents, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

“If you’ve got something, we’ve gotta stop it,” said Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell at the annual meeting in March. “So, like, to me, leave it in.”

The only other NFC team to oppose the Packers’ proposal was the New Orleans Saints, according to Schefter. The other seven were AFC teams.