Tush Push Ban Does Not Pass After Incredibly Tight Vote at NFL Owners Meeting

The tush push lives on for the 2025 season.
The play the Eagles made popular has not been banned
The play the Eagles made popular has not been banned / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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After several months of discussion and debate, NFL owners finally voted on whether to ban the tush push on Wednesday.

The vote did not pass. The tush push will be allowed for the 2025 season.

The Athletic's Dianna Russini was first to report the result of the vote from Wednesday's meetings, and additionally noted that 22 teams voted in favor of the ban. But the proposal, first put forth by the Green Bay Packers earlier this year, needed 24 votes. It fell short by two, with 10 teams voting against the ban.

The play popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles became quite a hot-button topic this NFL offseason. The push to ban it outright was motivated primarily by player safety, despite NFL data showing no injuries were suffered on tush push plays last year. Those against the ban contended it was unnecessary to ban a play outright when defenses are entirely capable of stopping it themselves.

It seems the arguments from the latter party won out. The Eagles, and any other team interested in trying the short-yardage formation, will be allowed to run the tush push in 2025.


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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.