Are the Carolina Panthers the unnamed NFL team that wants to ban the tush-push?

The Carolina Panthers were one of the many teams plagued by the tush push this year. The Brotherly Shove, or whatever the Philadelphia Eagles call it, is perhaps the most unstoppable play in the NFL. It only nets a yard or two, but it virtually always gets those yards when the Eagles run it.

One team has now officially proposed that the league ban the play. There has been growing sentiment behind that plan, and now it's officially been put forward. Were the Panthers the team that proposed this?

Did Panthers ask to ban the tush push?

One team, though an unnamed one, has pushed for the league to forbid the tush push. This wouldn't just hurt the Philadelphia Eagles, though they do it more often and with more success than anyone else. That probably means it wasn't Carolina who asked to ban it.

There's been a league-wide sentiment to ban this play for a while, but the Panthers just aren't victims of it enough to warrant a request like this. It's someone who plays the Eagles a lot and has suffered as a result.

Dec 8, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) against the Carolina Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

The most likely team is a division rival, and the Washington Commanders make sense. They tried to stop the play by jumping the snap and kept getting offsides penalties until the refs warned them to stop or it would be an automatic touchdown. They make the most sense for a team wanting to ban it.

It's not just a fairness issue, though. There are apparently safety concerns as well. NFL EVP of football operations Troy Vincent said via NFL.com, "Hip drop and the tush push were in the same conversation three years ago. A year ago, we felt like let's just focus in on the hip-drop tackle, and the tush push, just say, hey, the Philadelphia Eagles, they just do it better than everybody else. But there are some concerns. Our health and safety committee has laid that out today with a brief conversation on the injury report. There's some challenges, some concerns that they'll share with the broader group tomorrow. But the tush push will become a topic of discussion moving into March."

There's not a lot of injury data to back this up, but there is overall some support for removing the play or at least modifying it to allow defenses a theoretical chance at stopping it in the future.

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