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As NFL coaches, executives and team owners gathered Sunday at a resort in Palm Beach, Fla., for the annual league meeting, it remained unclear whether a proposal to effectively ban the Philadelphia Eagles' signature push-the-quarterback sneak would generate the 24 votes among the 32 owners necessary to be ratified.
"Not sure it can get 24," a person familiar with the situation said last week.
The proposal, made by the Green Bay Packers, would "prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap." Such an action would result in a 10-yard penalty for illegally assisting the runner. The proposal says it is being made for player safety and pace of play.
The measure is being discussed and debated as the Eagles savor their second Super Bowl title, achieved last month in New Orleans with a convincing triumph over the Kansas City Chiefs. They have made the push play, commonly called the "tush push" or "brotherly shove," their nearly unstoppable short-yardage staple because of the proficiency of quarterback Jalen Hurts and an offensive line as good as they come. The Eagles remained adept at the play even after the retirement of their Hall of Fame-bound center, Jason Kelce.
Debate about the play intensified following an unsightly goal line sequence during the NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia, when the Washington Commanders jumped offside repeatedly and the officials threatened to award the Eagles a touchdown for what the rule book describes as a palpably unfair act. Mike Pereira, the NFL's former vice president of officiating and now a rules analyst for Fox, said during Super Bowl week that sequence would lead to renewed consideration of a ban.
Packers team president Mark Murphy wrote in a column on the team's website that the NFL should revert to making it illegal for a teammate to push the ballcarrier. Some within the league said publicly at the NFL scouting combine, after the Packers' proposal became publicly known, that the play indeed should be banned. Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni argued that the play should remain legal, maintaining that his team should not be penalized merely because of its success with the technique. Some others agreed with that.
The injury considerations are not clear-cut. League health and safety officials have said they have concerns about the play, given that it puts the quarterback in the middle of players on both teams applying tremendous force to attempt to move him in one direction or the other.
"We've had many rules over the years that come in about some play or some tactic or something that was just never contemplated that all of a sudden is introduced and there's a rule put up to say maybe we shouldn't have that tactic or that play," Rich McKay, the CEO of the Atlanta Falcons and co-chairman of the competition committee, said during a video news conference last week. "So I don't think any of us like the fact that there's teams associated with this particular rule proposal. But I think you have to ask the teams that support it as to why."
The underlying issue is that it generally is difficult for any proposal to get 24 votes, particularly a measure that is put forth by an individual NFL team rather than by the competition committee. Only eight teams would need to join the Eagles in voting against the proposal to keep the push play legal.
The meeting is expected to run through Tuesday. It's not clear when a vote will be taken, if at all.
The owners also will consider proposals this week to make the NFL's year-old kickoff format permanent and move the touchback spot from the 30- to the 35-yard line in a bid to further boost the rate of returns; to adjust the alignment of the kicking team on onside kicks in an attempt to increase the success rate; to expand the replay-assist system to include objective aspects of face mask violations, illegal hits on defenseless players and other plays; to extend the overtime period in regular season games from 10 to 15 minutes and guarantee each team at least one offensive possession, as in postseason overtime; to modify the playoff seeding system to allow a wild-card team with a superior record to be seeded ahead of a division winner; and to eliminate automatic first downs associated with defensive holding or illegal contact penalties.