It is “rules change” season in the NFL, and one of the rules the league is considering changing would ban one of the Buffalo Bills’ most successful plays.
Every year the NFL looks at what rules need to be added, eliminated, or just tweaked to make the game a better experience for both the players and the fans. The teams send in their suggestions, almost like a rule change proposal. The competition committee then looks at the rules and votes on which ones they think will improve the game. They then send their proposals to the owners who vote on the rule changes at the owners’ meetings. In order for a rule to be changed it has to get votes from two-thirds of the owners in the league (24 teams).
The Tush Push rule is starting to gain traction
One of the rules that is starting to gain traction as they head into the owners’ meetings is about the play that many know as the “Tush Push.” It was first made popular by Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, but has easily also become one of the best plays in the Buffalo Bills’ playbook too.
They call it the tush push because the ball is snapped to the quarterback who then lunges forward and then gets pushed from behind by someone in the backfield.
According to NFL Insider for The Atlantic Dianna Russini, it’s starting to gain some favor with teams that were originally opposed to banning it.
Why would they ban the tush push?
The Green Bay Packers were the team that proposed that the NFL ban the tush push. One of the biggest reasons is the health and safety of the players. There are huge concerns with a ball carrier rushing head first into a line of very large men and the chances of them getting injured.
Sean McDermott’s thoughts at the NFL Scouting Combine were about the safety of the players also. He said, “I just feel like player safety and the health and safety of our players has to be at the top of our game, which it is. It’s just that play to me – or the way that the techniques that are used with that play to me – have been potentially contrary to the health and safety of the players.”