The Green Bay Packers aren’t fond of the “brotherly shove.”
And they are apparently pushing back.
The Packers have reportedly submitted a proposal to the NFL to ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ “tush-push” play in short yardage situations.
The formation features two players lining up behind quarterback Jalen Hurts and leveraging him over the scrimmage line to gain yardage after he receives the snap and runs a quarterback sneak. When called, it has been nearly unstoppable.
The Athletic was the first to report the Packers as the team that asked for the change.
In an interview with the NFL Network on Monday, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said an unidentified team had asked the league to consider banning the play. The Athletic reported that team was Green Bay. The Packers lost to the Eagles twice this season, including a 22-10 defeat at Philadelphia in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy voiced his displeasure about the set Eagles coach Nick Sirianni has made famous earlier this month in a Q&A on the team’s website.
“I am not a fan of this play,” Murphy said. “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”
Packers had version of the tush-push, using Tucker Kraft
Though Murphy wishes to terminate the play, the Packers ran a variation of the set on select short-yardage downs with tight end Tucker Kraft lining up behind center. Here’s an example of it being successful in the playoff loss to the Eagles.
The Packers were actually slightly better than the Eagles on third-down conversions last season and the Eagles were among the best in the league on fourth down.
