Feb 3, 2025; New Orleans, LA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie walks across the field during Super Bowl LIX Opening Night at Ceasars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images Kirby Lee
Surprise, surprise. The Tush Push stopped being controversial when it stopped being automatic for the Eagles.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, 'there will be no discussion' about the Tush Push and its legality at next week's NFL owners' meetings in Phoenix, Ariz. Schefter confirmed that the Tush Push will return in 2026.
On Tuesday, the NFL released the list of proposals the owners will vote on during the meetings. The competition committee proposed five changes to playing rules, and none of them are related to the Tush Push.
Of course, this follows the Green Bay Packers' 2025 proposal 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."
TLDR: the cheeseheads are anti-Tush Push.
Well, Jeffrey Lurie's impassioned NSFW speech defending the play apparently worked. The Packers' proposal fell two votes short of the required 24 votes, so the Tush Push remained legal in 2025, and the Eagles continued to heavily utilize the play, especially in the beginning of the season. As the Birds kept pushing their way to success, criticism hit a fever pitch. After the Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2, Schefter went as far as to say that the Chiefs lost the game in March, when the NFL failed to ban the Tush Push.
"This game was lost in March. This game was lost when the NFL owners refused to ban the tush push from happening. It wasn't lost yesterday."
—@AdamSchefter on Eagles-Chiefs pic.twitter.com/rl60G5Pa6n
(The actual vote happened in May 2025... but I digress.)
However, the Eagles' Brotherly Shove efficiency drastically dropped during the back half of the 2025 season. From Week 9 onward, the Eagles converted just seven of their 14 attempts, according to tushpush.fyi. Other teams began to incorporate the play (cough, cough, Bills) and saw success.
Now, all of a sudden, the controversy surrounding the play has vanished into thin air. It will remain legal in 2026. Perhaps Sean Mannion can return the play to its former brilliance... but if the Eagles once again become the singular authority on the Tush Push, watch out. The league won't like that. The Eagles could find themselves staring down the barrel of a Tush Push vote for the second time in three seasons, because that's just how it works.
