Steelers Vote Against Controversial Rule Change

One of the more pertinent topics for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the rest of the league at this week's annual meetings was the "tush push" play made infamous by the Philadelphia Eagles, which the Green Bay Packers proposed a ban for.

The Steelers were one of 16 franchises who were in support of the proposal in an informal tally, though 24 teams are required to back a proposition for it to officially pass.

"We were in favor of the rule as proposed," owner Art Rooney II said. "It's a fairly narrow proposal in terms of just eliminating the ability to push the quarterback on a quarterback sneak. So we were in favor of that."

An official vote never took place, however, and the rule will be rebroached at next month's owners meetings in Eagan, Minn.

Rooney added some context as to what stood in the way of the rule being passed, as well as what led to a finite decision being delayed.

"I think it was a combination of things," Rooney said. "It also got into a discussion about there [being] other similar kinds of plays where we have these scrums downfield where guys are pushing the pile, and, 'Why aren't we addressing that while we're addressing this?', so it got into a number of different things that came up that just, I guess it seemed like it was better off tabling it and coming back and talking about it more later."

The play, also known as the "Brotherly Shove", has been a source of discontent for several years running.

Some believe that it gives Philadelphia, the reigning Super Bowl champions, and other teams who have utilized it an unfair competitive advantage while also citing potential safety concerns, though there's little data to back up the latter notion.

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin played both sides when sharing his thoughts on the matter earlier in the week.

"The first time I saw it, I couldn't believe it was legal," Tomlin said. "That being said, you hate to be against it because when people are innovative, you want to respect that, and so there's certainly been some teams that have been more innovative then the rest of us in that regard. You hate to penalize them for it, but again, we got into the discussion on the field goal block because of player safety, and so that's still remains to be a component of the discussion."

It remains to be seen if enough supporters are pulled together to outright prohibit the play, while Green Bay's proposal may be altered in a fashion where it would forbid the pushing of ball carriers downfield in an attempt to avoid singling out a specific team or two in regards to the "tush push".

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