Marcus Hayes: Tush Push pushback is just more Philly and Eagles hate from the NFL's establishment

Marcus Hayes, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 1, 2025

Published in Football

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PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles have an unstoppable, completely legal play. It is explicitly safe and it completely embraces the spirit of old-school football.

So of course the rest of the NFL wants to outlaw it. The Green Bay Packers brought the proposal to the league meetings and teams will vote Tuesday to see if it stays or goes. Opponents need 24 votes.

Opponents? Sorry.

Meant to say, Cowards.

The Eagles have devised a powerful short-yardage strategy in which the quarterback receives the snap under center and then follows a surging line forward. Occasionally, a big receiver like A.J. Brown, a big running back like Saquon Barkley, or a biggish tight end like Dallas Goedert will push the quarterback from behind.

It’s ugly, but it works. The only problem: It works for Philadelphia.

There would be no pushback against the Tush Push if it was being successfully used by the Dallas Cowboys or the Packers.

One of the enduring realities of sports in America is that the other cities don’t like Philadelphia. This is not without cause: The fans can be violent and insulting; the franchises can implicitly cheat, as “The Process” Sixers did; and the media, newspapers included, can be crass and inelegant.

No one likes us. Yes, we care.

More specifically, the NFL establishment doesn’t like us. The NFL has never liked owner Jeffrey Lurie, whom it sees as a political progressive and nonfootball guy, whatever that means. Same with GM Howie Roseman, who has proved he’s smarter than any of them, just like his mentor, Joe Banner, did. And yes, sometimes Howie rubs it in their faces. And the NFL establishment really doesn’t like coach Nick Sirianni, whose immaturity, it believes, was rewarded with a Super Bowl title.

This is how that dislike manifests itself.

They lie.

They say they’re worried about injuries — on a play that, in four years of use, has produced one injury. It’s more dangerous to celebrate a successful field goal than push the tush.

No team is remotely as efficient at running the Tush Push because no other team has a quarterback remotely as strong as Jalen Hurts, or an offensive line nearly as good as the Eagles’ offensive line. The pushing part might help some, and even more now that they have running back A.J. Dillon and his 250-pound thighs.

This is just gaslighting to the degree of DOGE and all those claims of massive fraud that doesn’t exist.

There is no data that remotely indicates that the Tush Push puts players at risk of injury. Even failed coaches like Sean McDermott in Buffalo, the Push’s biggest enemy, admit this. There is no player safety issue. It’s probably one of the safest plays you can possibly run.

You want to change the rules to make players safer? OK. No more crossing routes.

Morons.

But, like the Elon Musk-ovites, NFL types are so narcissistic, arrogant and self-unaware that they don’t realize how ridiculous they’re making themselves look right now.

Because the reality is this: If the Eagles are innovative enough to successfully run the Tush Push, they’re innovative enough to run some sort of variation that takes advantage of whatever rule change develops.

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