The so-called “Tush Push” has been hotly contested and debated since Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles perfected it.
In fact, the Eagles have been so successful running the play that the NFL debated banning it this past offseason. The proposal reached the NFL competition committee, but it failed to ban the play by two votes, which the Eagles celebrated with a “push on” tweet.
As ESPNso eloquently noted in its May report, “even the most powerful figures in the NFL were unable to stop the tush push.”
“It’s not disappointing for me, for our committee, for the committees that did the work,” said NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay, via ESPN. “It takes 24 votes to pass anything. We don’t set a low bar.”
What is the ‘Tush Push’?
Per CBS Sports, the “Tush Push” is when “the quarterback is pushed forward through the defensive line by players behind him. The running back and the tight end are lined up behind the quarterback and push the quarterback through the defensive line. The play is used in short-yardage and goal-line situations and has a very high success rate.”
The “Tush Push” has proven controversial each time it’s executed.
Just last week, the Eagles turned to the play against the Kansas City Chiefs and got away with essentially getting a head start on a play that relies on momentum. The NFL recently said the Eagles should have been flagged at least once for a false start.
As a result, officials have since been instructed by the league to call the controversial play “tight,” according to ESPN.
Joe Buck’s take on the ‘Tush Push’
ESPN’s Monday Night Football announcer guest-hosted Good Morning America on Friday ahead of an exclusive interview with NFL superstar and Eagles running back Saquon Barkely.
George Stephanopoulos asks Buck if he can make an argument for banning the “Tush Push” ( Stephanopoulos called it “The Push Tush,” but that’s neither here nor there), to which Buck immediately replies with, “No.”
Buck’s advice to the 31 other NFL teams when facing the “Tush Push?”
Joe Buck defends the tush push. Or as George Stephanopoulos calls it, “the push tush”
“Stop it. Figure out a way to stop it.” pic.twitter.com/Gwu08hQJFO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 19, 2025
“Stop it,” Buck said. “Figure out a way to stop it.”
Barkley’s take on the “Tush Push”
The topic came up during his Good Morning America interview, and Barkley says the play’s not going anywhere so long as it’s still a legal play in the NFL.
“They haven’t taken it away yet, and we’re gonna continue to use that as a weapon, and continue to help us win games,” he toldGMA‘s Rhiannon Ally.
Barkley also asked rhetorically, “What’s not to like about it?”
Neil DeGrasse Tyson on why the “Tush Push” works
NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt visited the nation’s, if not the world’s, foremost scientific mind, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who brilliantly explained why the play is so effective.
Essentially, deGrasse Tyson says the Eagles have the advantage because they’re the team on offense and move first.
Is time travel possible?
Are we alone in the universe?
How do you stop the Eagles’ Tush Push?
I asked Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson one of these questions. @neiltyson pic.twitter.com/tVUzp1zXII
— Kyle Brandt (@KyleBrandt) January 14, 2024
“The Eagles get, like, a quarter-second head start in momentum transfer, OK?” deGrasse Tyson said in the January 2024 interview. “So the Eagles are already in motion. They are using Earth as a launch point for their movement. In fact, if you run the math on this, every time the Eagles run this play, it slightly changes the rotation of the Earth.”
It also helps to have a quarterback who can squat 500 pounds, right?
deGrasse Tyson says hell no. Watch the video in full. It’s fascinating.
