Spencer Shrader
Getty
Indianapolis Colts kicker Spencer Shrader.
In football, just like in life, leverage can mean everything.
In life it’s usually a great thing. In the NFL, it can be good
Good leverage: Using whatever mode you can — including other players as wedges or springboards — to get in the end zone or get a first down in short yardage situations. Just like what we see every week from the Philadelphia Eagles and their famous “Tush Push” play.
Bad leverage: Denver Broncos defensive lineman Dondrea Tillman getting called for using leverage to block a potential game winning, 60-yard field goal by Indianapolis Colts kicker Spencer Shrader as time expired — an attempt that came up woefully short.
After Tillman’s 15-yard penalty, Shrader nailed the 45-yard field goal for a 29-28 upset win at Lucas Oil Stadium for the Colts’ first 2-0 start since 2009 — when Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was still their starting quarterback.
It’s yet another example of a hypocritical, confusing set of rules that came on a weekend where frustrations were at an all time high with the Eagles and the Tush Push as they used it 5 times in the fourth quarter of a 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Explain to me this, people who run football,” Bill Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on September 14. “Here’s my question … leverage is apparently unsafe for the center (on kicks) for the center because (Tillman) leaned down on him so the other guy could jump behind him. So what’s the tush push? It’s safe to have a running back and another guy shove the quarterback behind his teammates? That’s not leverage? So is leverage good or bad? What is it? What do we do in the NFL?”
This was the 51st time “Leverage” has been called since 2010 (3037 Total Games Played, 1.65% Call-Rate)
“Leverage” has only been mostly used in games where money is on the kicking team that needs the FG to cover some type of Spread/ML for Vegas.pic.twitter.com/4LPDoGYeAc
— 𝓒 𝓜 𝓒 (@ShutdownSurtain) September 14, 2025
Broncos Don’t Place Blame on NFL
One person who didn’t take the NFL to task over the Broncos loss was head coach Sean Payton, who refused to blame the loss on the penalty.
“We did a lot of things late in that game to keep ourselves from winning,” Payton told ESPN. “It’ll be painful to watch that film. There will be a bitter taste for a little while. We put ourselves in position to control the game late. Then, it slipped out of our hands.”
Online reaction was far less muted.
“Refs literally swung a game result from a Broncos win to a Colts win calling thisleverage on the final play,” Bad Sports Refs wrote on its official X account.
“Theleverage rule is stupid because it affected my team negatively and therefore it should be changed,” X user Brandon Perna wrote on his official X account.”I hate football. It’s stupid and all the rules are dumb.”
“Look, the Broncos had multiple mistakes and shouldn’t have let it go down to the final play, and players should have been extra careful on a 60-yard attempt,” USA Today’s Jon Heath wrote. “But if officials are going to callleverage, you can call it on countless kicks.”
“The Broncos got screwed by the refs,” Benchwarmer Sports wrote on its official X account.
“If you put the Broncos’ loss on the leverage call at the end of the game, you’re doing it wrong,” Broncos Reporter Andrew Mason wrote on his official X account. ” … the responsibility can be spread all around, including re: a defense that has been diced up too often in Denver’s last eight games.”