Tristan Wirfs is happy the Tush Push ban failed.
Football people and those who know how to make and invest money look at the world through two different prisms.
Apparently, despite the vocal public protests of Bucs coach Todd Bowles, Team Glazer voted yesterday to ban the Tush Push, per Adam Schefter of BSPN.
This is a weird one for Joe. The controversial play does not have any data to back up claims it is dangerous. There has to be a longer-range view to this attempted ban that relates to dollars and cents that Joe isn’t recognizing. Joe’s not being sarcastic here. The NFL is a business, not a recreation.
So many teams being against the Tush Push tells Joe there is something financial to lose by keeping the play. Otherwise, since it doesn’t cause injuries, why would the league seem hellbent on getting rid of it?
If there was a logical reason to get rid of this play that wouldn’t anger fans, the NFL would have already come out and explained it to help boost its case to ban it. You know, win the court of public opinion.
The league hasn’t, which leads Joe to believe it’s a financial incentive of some sort.
(The term “follow the money” very much applies to the NFL.)
So Joe wonders what the reaction is in the highest reaches of One Buc Palace to Team Glazer’s best player not named “Mike Evans” or “Lavonte David” openly celebrating the attempted ban was foiled today at the owners meetings in Minneapolis.
Bucs All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs did a podcast with AP senior NFL writer Rob Maaddi, a former Eagles beat writer who currently lives in Central Florida. Maaddi is regularly at One Buc Palace writing Bucs’ Bucs-related items.
Wirfs was very happy the play’s ban failed to pass. In a roundabout way, he echoed Bowles, saying the lone problem with the play is that few teams have found a way to stop it — except the Bucs.
“I was definitely against it being banned,” Wirfs said. “It’s a hard thing to do. [The Eagles] are one of the only teams to have success with it.
“If there was a cheat code, then everyone would do it. But not everyone can.”
Then, Wirfs broke out in a huge smile and added, “I will say the Bucs were one of the [very few] teams that stopped it.”
That the Bucs did. Joe isn’t saying the Bucs shut that play down but they’ve had a lot better luck stopping it than many other teams.
Joe finds the Bucs’ angle curious, if not humorous. Bowles has been publicly vocal against the proposed ban. Now Wirfs has joined Bowles. Yet Bucs ownership is clearly for the ban.
(One Buc) Palace intrigue!
#Buccaneers All-Pro LT Tristan Wirfs on the tush push: "If it was a cheat code, then everyone would do it, but not everybody can." Wirfs spoke today at a leadership event in Tampa presented by @ChaseforBiz pic.twitter.com/wGzABSnMQC
— Rob Maaddi (@RobMaaddi) May 21, 2025