NFL: The Eagles’ “Tush Push”, a refereeing challenge and controversial

The “Tush Push” Under the Microscope: The NFL Addresses the Challenges of the Controversial Play

The execution of the famous “tush push” remains a challenge for the league office. Troy Vincent, executive vice president of football operations, stated that although it is not a frequent topic of discussion at league headquarters, it is “very difficult to officiate in real time.” This is despite intensified efforts to detect potential false starts in recent weeks. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles continue to perfect this signature play.

“When the guard is in the neutral zone or someone else is in the neutral zone, it’s really difficult for the line judge to identify it based on what he’s looking at on the line of scrimmage,” Vincent commented at the NFL’s fall meeting at the InterContinental New York. “At the end of the day, there’s a team that still does it well. And we’ve seen other people have versions of it. But from an officiating standpoint, we’re going to try to get better at identifying when someone is in the neutral zone or when someone leaves a little early.”

Troy Vincent, Executive Vice President of Football Operations

In Week 3, the NFL instructed officials to be stricter with the controversial play. This, after the Eagles should have been penalized for at least one false start in the Week 2 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs. An officiating training tape distributed to the 32 teams showed Philadelphia executing the “quarterback sneak” on third and short at the end of the 20-17 victory over the Chiefs. After that game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid told reporters that Philadelphia “got a little jump” on multiple “quarterback sneaks”.

“Whenever we have this situation in short yards, we know we want to make sure we officiate these plays: the offensive team has to be perfect in every aspect,” said Ramon George, NFL Vice President of Officiating Training and Development. “We want to officiate it rigorously. We want to be clear and be as strict as possible when we get to this situation where teams are in a group position and we have to officiate that they are in a legal position, false start”.

Ramon George, Vice President of Officiating Training and Development

The NFL penalized a team for a false start on a “tush-push” style play: the Pittsburgh Steelers on last week’s “Thursday Night Football.” The previous Thursday, the Eagles ran the play four times in a row on their way to the end zone. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has compared the Eagles’ masterful play execution to having a first-and-nine advantage on every new set of downs, instead of the usual first-and-ten. In May, NFL owners voted on whether to ban the quarterback sneak, but they did not get the majority of votes (at least 24 out of 32). It has not been determined whether a team will draft a new proposal this offseason to trigger another vote.