The ‘tush push’ lives on. NFL teams vote to keep the controversial play
The “tush push” is here to stay.
An effort to ban the controversial football play failed to get enough votes among the NFL teams gathered in Minneapolis Wednesday, with the Philadelphia Eagles among the first to announce the news with a two-word post to X: “Push On.”
A proposal by the Green Bay Packers earlier this year would have barred any player who receives the snap from being pushed forward by one or more of his teammates. NFL owners tabled the proposal during a meeting in April.
But this week the Packers submitted an updated and more far-reaching proposal, which would prohibit offensive players from pushing or pulling a runner “in any direction or at any time” or lifting him “to his feet,” according to an article on NFL.com. That hews closer to former NFL rules, the article said.
The proposal lists “player safety” as one reason for the rule change, though no teams have shown evidence that the play is unsafe, according to the article. The proposal also lists “pace of play” as another basis for the plan.
Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst told reporters in March that he supported banning the play, even though his team had run a version of it in the past. “I think this is something that needs to be discussed and we need to be proactive about it rather than reactive,” he said.
The effort to ban the play has faced pushback from teams that regularly employ it, perhaps none more successfully than the Philadelphia Eagles. The squad’s high-profile use of the move has led to its other moniker: the Brotherly Shove.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni rejected the argument that the tush push leads to automatic yardage gains, instead saying that the team’s success with the play comes from the fact that they work on it.
“I can’t tell you how many times we practiced the snap, we practiced the play, because it’s not a play that’s easy to practice. There’s different ways we figured out how to practice it,” Sirianni said during a press conference earlier this year. “It’s a little insulting to say we’re good at it, so it’s automatic. We work really hard at it.”
The Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40 to 22 in this year’s Super Bowl.
A proposed Bessemer data center faces new hurdles: a ‘road to nowhere’ and the Birmingham darter
With the City Council in Bessemer scheduled to vote Tuesday on a “hyperscale” data center, challenges from an environmental group and the Alabama Department of Transportation present potential obstacles for the wildly unpopular project.
Birmingham Museum of Art’s silver exhibit tells a dazzling global story
Silver and Ceremony is made up of more than 150 suites of silver, sourced from India, and some of their designs.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
