It has seemingly become the biggest story in the NFL as of late. Is the Tush Push, notoriously coined by the Philadelphia Eagles, actually unfair? Is it really bad for football? I’ve never personally been on the field going up against it, but I can see why defenders around the NFL have called for its banishment.

Can it be officiated?

This year especially, more and more zoomed in replays show the Eagles offensive line geared up for a tush push. Although when you slow it down it seems as though Philly’s guards jump just a fraction before the ball is snapped. Typically, that’s called a false start. But referees are human too, they’re bound to miss a call here and there. The issue here is fans have dissected almost every tush push the Eagles have run this year, and find more often than not a false start occurs and is not called. Okay so if another team does it, they should get that same treatment right? Wrong. The Steelers are the most recent bunch to attempt their variation of the tush push, only to get a sea of yellow flags thrown at them for a false start. Not to mention that in a dogpile like that, there’s physically no way of knowing when someone is down, or if there is a fumble, a facemask, a holding, anything. It’s too much of a scrum to have any idea what actually happens in the middle of it.

Does it hurt football entertainment?

Let’s not lie to ourselves, the tush push is not a very glamorous play, but it is effective. For a 4th and goal, it makes sense to run every now and again. But nobody wants to see 4 straight tush pushes from the 5 yard line. We all remember as well seeing the Washington Commanders jump offsides so many times in the NFC championship last year trying to stop the tush push, that the referees were close to giving Philadelphia the touchdown anyway. That to most is not an enjoyable product, and while right now it hasn’t hurt the league much, at what point does football become rugby? If it gains you 3 yards per attempt, what’s stopping a team from tush pushing all the way down the field?

The league had the opportunity to ban the tush push this past offseason, but were just 2 votes shy of the 24 needed to push through the ban. Perhaps we will see another vote this year. But for the time being, the tush push stays, and NFL teams will have to continue to try and defend against it.