Mike Vrabel Gives Honest Opinion About NFL Potentially Banning Tush Push

The proposed ban has become quite the topic of conversation ahead of Tuesday's vote.
New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel speaks to media.
New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel speaks to media. / Eric Canha-Imagn Images
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All 32 NFL owners will vote on the Green Bay Packers' proposal to ban the tush push—the quarterback sneak variation made famous by the Philadelphia Eagles—on Tuesday. And, the proposal has been quite the topic of conversation during Monday's coaches meeting.

One coach who didn't hold back his opinion about the proposal was New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. If the NFL bans the tush push, he asked, then where does the league draw the line about other plays that are hard to defend?

"There's a lot of plays that you have to defend, whether that's quarterback sneaks, whether that's read zone—there's a lot of plays that are hard to defend, and I don't think that you can get rid of them every time that you have a tough time stopping it," Vrabel said in an interview with Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio. "I mean, Lamar Jackson shouldn't be able to run with the football anymore, how about making that rule? Like that's tough to defend."

It seems so far that the league's coaches have differing views on the proposal. Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott expressed his concern for player safety with the tush push, meaning he's for the ban. There is an anonymous coach, though, that thinks the ban is "rooted in envy" for the teams who use it since they're good at executing the play.

We'll see what happens with the owners vote on the proposal on Tuesday. The vote needs the support of at least 75% of NFL teams to pass.


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Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.