Mike Vorel: The NFL's tush push was almost banned. Here's why it had to live.

Mike Vorel, The Seattle Times on May 25, 2025

Published in Football

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SEATTLE — Of course the tush push deserved to die.

I’m happy it didn’t.

On Wednesday, a proposed ban of the play — in which players line up behind the quarterback to provide a push on an unstoppable sneak — failed to receive the 24 needed votes at the NFL’s owners meeting. According to ESPN, 22 teams voted to ban the tactical battering ram, while 10 teams opposed the proposal.

Last month, the NFL tabled discussions on the Packers’ original pitch, which sought specifically to stuff the tush push. After ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler reported that April’s vote was split 16-16, the Packers produced a revised proposal this week that prohibited pushing or pulling a ball carrier anywhere on the field.

The cited concerns were — seriously — player safety and pace of play.

Not that the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles had perfected a play the complaining Packers can’t seem to stop.

Because, let’s be honest: that’s what this is all about. Not player safety, considering the absence of data suggesting the super sneak invites added injuries. Not pace of play, considering a smattering of two-second scrums is unlikely to impact kickoff windows or advertising slots.

Though the tush push appeared in only 0.28% of plays last year, according to ESPN, the Eagles were a singular exception. Philadelphia and 6-foot-1, 223-pound quarterback Jalen Hurts have recorded 27 touchdowns and 92 first downs on push sneaks in the past three years, an 85.6% success rate.

In a (cue the cliché) “copycat league,” where every successful maneuver is instantly stolen and repurposed by your opponent, it looks like 22 teams — the Seahawks included — opted to remove a play they couldn’t replicate or efficiently defend. Rather than finding a strategic solution or devoting more practice time to the play, it looks like they decided instead to rip up the rule book.

Maybe there are other, more legitimate, reasons. But that’s what it looks like. The optics are ugly.

And, by the way? I don’t even believe the tush push belongs in football. As a 15-year-old Notre Dame fan in 2005, the “Bush Push” — in which USC running back Reggie Bush shoved careening quarterback Matt Leinart into the end zone to cement a stolen 34-31 win — left permanent scars on my sports psyche. Back then, the play was illegal in both the NFL and NCAA, and the prospect of pushing a player across the goal line still feels like a defiance of the spirit of football.

But you can’t ban it now, in the immediate wake of an Eagles Super Bowl win. And you can’t ban it on the disingenuous basis of player safety, pace of play or any other unconvincing excuse.

After all, what message is that supposed to send? If at first you don’t succeed, riot and change the rules?

It’s not that the tush push is impervious to injury. Giants center John Michael Schmitz and tight end Daniel Bellinger were injured on an unsuccessful attempt during a 24-3 loss to the Seahawks in 2023. After which, Giants coach Brian Daboll conceded that his players had rarely practiced the play live.

But you know what else is an injury issue? Football in all its forms.

Take former Eagles center Jason Kelce, who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting in assumed support of the play. On his “New Heights” podcast this week, Kelce said: “I think a regular short-yardage play is probably more unsafe than a tush push,” and added: “I’ll come out of retirement today if you tell me all I’ve got to do is run 80 tush pushes to play in the NFL. I’ll do that gladly. It’ll be the easiest job in the world.”

Which makes the Seahawks’ stance even more mystifying.

In April, president of football operations and general manager John Schneider told 710 AM Seattle Sports that the Seahawks didn’t support a tush push ban. He added that the injury evidence is “not as clear as the hip drop [tackle that was banned in 2024] has been. Last year they were going through the hip-drop stuff, and the videos are awful. … But the medical portion wasn’t as clear on this.”

Similarly, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said: “I think it’s a good play. I understand the positions people have with the health and safety of it. … That’s something that you have to kind of measure against any other football play that you see on a normal basis. But it seems to me like there’s enough plays where it feels like that isn’t the case right now. So I think it’s a good play and we’ve got to defend it, and maybe we’ll execute it one day.”

And yet, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Wednesday that the Seahawks were one of 22 teams that voted for the tush push ban. Per Schefter, the 10 teams that supported the play were the Eagles, Ravens, Browns, Lions, Jaguars, Dolphins, Patriots, Saints, Jets and Titans.

Maybe, when the Seahawks kick off their 2025 season against the 49ers on Sept. 7, they’ll employ a tush push package with quarterback Sam Darnold or rookie Jalen Milroe. Maybe running back Kenneth Walker III will propel one of them into the end zone.

Maybe then the Seahawks will support it.

Even if, God forbid, it slows the game’s pace of play.

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