As NFL teams prepare for vote on tush push ban, they can’t avoid a discussion ‘nobody likes’

Whether the Green Bay Packers’ proposal to ban the tush push holds validity is one question.

Whether league leadership trusts the intention of that proposal is a different matter.

As NFL team owners prepare to vote on whether to ban the much-discussed tush push next week, NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay expressed skepticism.

“The thing that nobody likes about this discussion that we’re having … is the idea that the rule is directed towards two teams,” McKay, who’s also the Atlanta Falcons’ CEO, said Tuesday over Zoom. “We’ve had many rules over the years that come in about some play or some tactic or something that was just never contemplated, that all of a sudden is introduced and there’s a rule put up to say maybe we shouldn’t have that tactic or that play.

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“So I don’t think any of us like the fact that there’s teams associated with this particular rule proposal.”

The Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills have run a combined 163 tush push plays over the past three years, per ESPN Research. That’s more than their 30 counterparts combined.

The Eagles and Bills converted for a first down or touchdown on 87% of those plays as teammates (often offensive linemen) pushed a ballcarrier through the line to gain or goal line, per ESPN’s data.

The Packers have proposed adding a clause that would rule no offensive player could “immediately at the snap, push or throw his body against a teammate, who was lined up directly behind the snapper and received the snap, to aid him in an attempt to gain yardage.”

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The penalty for a violation would be a loss of 10 yards.

The Packers’ listed reasons for banning the play are “player safety” and “pace of play.” Some around the league wonder if Green Bay simply doesn’t want to get beat on it anymore.

“The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think is a little unfair,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said last month at the scouting combine.

The proposal needs approval from at least 24 of 32 team votes to pass.

While the competition committee creates its own rule proposals for the league’s annual spring meeting, the committee does not weigh in on the validity of team proposals, McKay confirmed.

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Competition committee proposals are often introduced alongside data showing an increased injury rate or other case advocating for a more entertaining or competitive outcome. Club proposals can be more ad hoc.

“Any club’s allowed to propose whatever they may want and then we’ll take a position,” McKay said. “But we’re only individual votes by our clubs and they have to get 24 votes to pass.

“There’s no filter that’s applied to any rule proposal by any club.”

In an article published on the Packers’ team site Feb. 1, Packers president Mark Murphy said he’s “not a fan of” the tush push. Murphy cited the officiating response to the Washington Commanders’ repeated offsides penalties in the NFC championship game as “ridiculous,” saying that the league used to prohibit pushing or aiding the runner on a play until officials were deemed unable to litigate responsibility.

“This play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner,” Murphy said. “I am not a fan of this play. There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less.”

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Sirianni said he was “a little insulted” at the notion of automatic success in the play.

“It’s a little insulting to say it’s just we’re good at it, so it’s automatic,” Sirianni said. “The amount of things that we’ve looked into how to coach that play, the fundamentals — there’s 1,000 plays out there, but it comes down to how you teach the fundamentals and how the players go through and do with the fundamentals. I can’t tell you how many times we practiced [it] because it’s not a play that is easy to practice.

“Just because it’s a successful play for us doesn’t mean that it should go away.”