The Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LIX last season thanks in large part to the infamous “tush push,” the short-yardage play where quarterbacks attempt a QB sneak and are assisted by being pushed from behind to help them gut out just enough yardage for a score or first down.
Unsurprisingly, some around the league are taking exception to the play. Many are saying that it’s not a “true football play” and doesn’t belong in the sport, while others have noticed the Eagles’ offensive lineman getting off to early starts without being flagged. Now, the league is finally moving to crack down on the play.
“Any time we have this situation we’re in short yardage, we know we want to make sure that we officiate these plays — the offensive team has to be perfect in every aspect,” the NFL’s vice president of officiating training and development, Ramon George, said in a training video for league officials, per Next Impulse Sports.
“We want to officiate it tight. We want to be black and white and be as tight as we can be when we get into this situation where teams are in the bunch position and we have to officiate them being onsides, movement early. … Prior to the snap, looks like we have movement by the right guard.
“We also have movement coming across from the defensive side. This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.”
“You can see the right guard moves early,” George went on . “You’ve got your defender who’s trying to punch the ball. But more so, we have a false start coming from the right guard.
“We want to make sure that we officiate these plays tight and make sure that every aspect of the offensive team is legal and any movement . . . that’s not correct, we want to shut it down as a false start. False start would be the proper call here.”
Fans reacted to the news on social media.
“Wait til u see this total disaster unfold. . . Refs calling phantom false start penalties cuz they dont wanna hear the criticism, over calling & over blowing the whistle is about to unfold. They couldn’t vote the Push out of the game so now they will officiate it out of the game,” one fan wrote on Twitter.
“Finally! They should watch False Start Johnson on every play not just tushy Tush,” someone else added.
“Once the chiefs aren’t the ones getting the calls, NFL gonna crack down lmao,” another fan added.
It’ll be interesting to see how this impacts the Eagles.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.