Rival Wants Eagles Play Banned

Not that they hold a grudge, but the Packers have submitted a rule proposal to the NFL to prohibit the "tush push" quarterback sneak last employed in the Super Bowl by the reigning champions. The Philadelphia Eagles' playoff run included a defeat of Green Bay in the NFC wild-card round in January. "There is no skill involved" in the play, CEO Mark Murphy wrote on the Packers website before the Super Bowl, per CBS Sports. The NFL said Monday that a team had proposed outlawing the play to the competition committee, and the Athletic posted on X that that team is the Packers.

The play involves the offense lining up one or more players behind the quarterback who then push him forward into the defense. ESPN's research shows the Eagles and the Buffalo Bills have used the tush play a total of 163 times over the past three seasons, which is more than all other teams combined have run it. Still, Bills coach Sean McDermott, a member of the competition committee, expressed reservations on Monday about calling the push. "To me, there's always been an injury risk with that play," he said, adding, "I just think the optics of it, I'm not in love with." The play works: The Eagles and Bills have averaged a touchdown or a first down 87% of the time they've run the push. The success rate for the rest of the NFL is 71%.

The committee has considered the propriety of the play before, but not much came of it. The league did decide last offseason to require the "pushers" to start at least 1 yard behind the quarterback. "It's not a football play," former coach Bill Cowher said this month on The Dan Patrick Show. "It's rugby." Any rule change would require the approval of 24 of the league's 32 owners. The Packers, evoking past glory, sound like a yes. "The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner," Murphy wrote. "This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl." (More NFL stories.)