After the Eagles mounted a defense against the potential ban of its most successful and controversial play, a vote on the Packers' proposal for a rule change failed.
The Tush Push isn't getting pushed out of the Eagles' playbook anytime soon.
At the spring league meeting in Minneapolis on Wednesday, clubs failed to pass a rule change proposed by the Green Bay Packers that states an offensive player may not "push or pull a runner in any direction at any time," which would have eradicated the ability for offenses to run the push sneak made popular by the Eagles.
The proposal needed at least 24 "yes" votes from the 32 total teams to enact a change to the playing rules. According to The Athletic, 10 teams voted against the Packers' proposal.
The Eagles brought in a reinforcement to Wednesday's meeting in a last-ditch attempt to persuade owners to vote against the proposal. Jason Kelce revealed on his New Heights podcast earlier that morning that he was going to Minneapolis to speak to attendees and dispel misconceptions about the perceived injury risk of the Tush Push.
ESPN reported in April that Bills co-owner Terry Pegula said at the last league meetings before the initial proposal was tabled -- perhaps jokingly -- that Kelce retired after the 2023 season as a result of injuries sustained running the Tush Push.
"I'll tell you this right now," Kelce said on the podcast. "I'll come out of retirement today if you tell me all I 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 and it'll be like 80-some snaps."
The previous version of the proposal contained different language that appeared to specifically target the Eagles, and to some extent the Buffalo Bills, seeking to "prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap."
The Eagles, followed by the Bills, have run the push sneak more than any other team. At the league meetings last month, clubs were reportedly split evenly on the issue after roughly 40 minutes of discussion, leading to the tabling of the proposal.
Atlanta Falcons CEO and competition committee co-chairman Rich McKay said the Packers requested to review and potentially alter the language in their proposal. Ultimately, the delay and the language change helped the proposal garner more "yes" votes, but not enough to enact it.
The second version of the proposal closely reflected the language that existed in the rule book prior to 2005, when "assisting the runner" by pushing was prohibited anywhere on the field at any time. The language was changed that year to legalize pushing the ballcarrier because it was difficult to officiate, according to Mike Pereira, who was the league's vice president of officiating at the time.
"It was hard to tell who was pushing who," Pereira said in an interview with The Inquirer in 2023. "Was an offensive player just pushing a pile? Did they have their hands on the runner? It just kind of became impossible to decipher."
The Tush Push has been scrutinized over the last few years. The competition committee has discussed the play and monitored it during the season, but the Packers' proposal was the first formal club-led attempt to eliminate it.
Their efforts fell short, though. The Packers included player safety concerns in both their initial and revamped proposals, but league data revealed that the Tush Push led to zero injuries in 2024.
While the potential injury risk of the play was a topic of conversation in April's league meetings, clubs also fixated on the highly-subjective aesthetics of the play. Sean McVay, the Los Angeles Rams head coach who sits on the competition committee, explained at the time that he doesn't like the "optics" of the play, claiming that it "looks like a rugby scrum."
Jordan Mailata, the Eagles left tackle who previously played rugby league in his native Australia, has taken issue with the play's comparison to a rugby scrum over the last few years.
"I think it's kind of crazy," Mailata told The Inquirer in late April. "It's kind of whack. You want to try to understand, like, I've tried to understand why they want to ban [it]. But when I hear it being called a rugby play, that angers me. Because I'm just like, you guys don't know what you're talking about. It's definitely not a rugby play. So it's just frustrating. But whatever happens, happens. I'm sure we'll figure out something else in the short-yardage game."
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense have run the Tush Push with great success, contributing to the quarterback racking up 14 rushing touchdowns (most among quarterbacks) last season. The Eagles also converted 90% of their fourth-and-1 rushing plays last year, in large part thanks to the Tush Push.
Throughout the offseason, Nick Sirianni has advocated for the Tush Push and has encouraged members of his coaching tree to follow suit. In the days leading up to the initial vote, Sirianni told The NFL Network that he expected the Tush Push to have support from Jonathan Gannon, Shane Steichen, and Kellen Moore, all former Eagles coordinators turned head coaches.
Prior to the initial vote last month, Sirianni emphasized why he values the Tush Push, especially because of the team's ability to run complementary plays off of a look that can generate explosives.
"Our job as coaches is to be able to mesh things that look alike together to create explosive plays," Sirianni said. "You try to do that with your run game to your play action. You try to do that with your quarterback sneak play to your gadgety-type plays. I think it's an exciting play."