The Philadelphia Eagles are on a one-team warpath to guarantee that their signature play, the Tush Push, will remain a legal play moving forward.
Some teams say it’s unsafe. Some teams say it’s illegal. And others still just seem upset that they can’t stop it. But over the course of the NFL meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, the Eagles have maintained a united front, with Howie Roseman and Nick Sirianni using their connections and respective trees to make sure that 24 votes weren’t cast in the other direction.
But what does owner Jeffrey Lurie have to say on the subject? Well, on Tuesday, he let his voice be heard too, letting it be known that he doesn’t believe the Tush Push is an unsafe play and thus should remain legal.
“I think for everybody, including myself especially, health and safety is the most important thing when evaluating any play,” Lurie said via CBS Sports. “We’ve been very open to whatever data exists on the ‘Tush Push,’ and there’s just been no data that shows it isn’t a very, very safe play. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be pushing the ‘Tush Push.’”
Turning attention to the suggestions that the play is unsafe, Lurie noted that he doesn’t actually believe that to be the case, as he’s never seen a single study to prove such an unfounded point.
“I don’t think there are any [numbers],” Lurie said. “If you wanna say that it could be, it’s hard to make rules on could-bes and should-bes. The quarterback sneak is one of the reasons we like using the ‘Tush Push’ is because we feel it’s safer play than a quarterback sneak. If you talk to quarterbacks about it, there’s more spearing going on, they’re less protected by players around them, and one of the reasons we got motivated to develop an expertise in this play is it was more protective to the quarterback,” Lurie said.
“It’s ironic that people would bring up health and safety. We’re at the top of the game in terms of wanting health and safety on every play. We voted for hip-drop tackle and defenseless receiver. We will always, always support what is safer for the players. It’s a no-brainer. If this is proven to be less safe for the players, we will be against the tush push. But until that’s the case, to me, there’d be no reason to ban this play.”
Are opposing teams actually worried about player safety when it comes to the Tush Push? Unlikely, as having players pushed from behind isn’t on par with targeting knees, head-to-head hits, or hip-drop tackles, which all are legitimately dangerous. Until those claims are backed up with actual numbers, it would appear that Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and AJ Dillion will be putting their quads to good use on fourth and short plays.
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