CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns were among the 10 NFL teams who voted to keep the league’s most polarizing play— the “tush push”— and the Orange and Brown Talk podcast crew had plenty to say about it, including a heated debate over whether the play’s name is as offensive as the play itself.
The Browns’ vote shouldn’t come as a surprise given their deep Philadelphia connections, as Mary Kay Cabot pointed out on the podcast: “You’ve got Andrew (Berry) having worked for Howie Roseman, the great GM of the Eagles, you’ve got Catherine Hickman, who worked for the Eagles... It’s almost like the Browns sister team in the NFL.”
When it comes to the play itself, however, the podcast hosts couldn’t have been more divided. Dan Labbe enthusiastically backed the Eagles’ signature short-yardage play, while Mary Kay Cabot took issue with both its execution and its unfortunate nickname.
“I am pro. I am pro-brotherly shove. Pro-tush push, whatever we want to call it, I am for it,” Labbe declared. “I personally think just leaning into who you are and leaning into the people you have and saying, hey, see if you can stop this. And again, no one’s been able to. I’m all for it.”
Cabot, however, wasn’t having it: “I’ve never really liked the tush push because I feel like you should be able to find a Jacoby Brissett or someone on your football team ... I feel like you should be able to get that yard and you should be able to come by it honestly without getting pushed by a bunch of big, huge guys in the tush.”
But it wasn’t just the mechanics of the play that bothered her. “And I don’t like the fact that it’s called tush either,” Cabot added. “If it has to be called tush, then it doesn’t belong in football.”
The hosts agreed that “The Brotherly Shove” — a clever nod to Philadelphia’s City of Brotherly Love nickname — would be a far more appropriate title than the current moniker. Ashley Bastock, meanwhile, just wanted the conversation to end, noting: “My only take about the Tush push is that I’m sick of people talking about the tush push.”
Despite her personal objections, Cabot predicted the Browns will likely implement their own version under new offensive line coach Mike Bloomgren: “I think the Browns are going to try it. I think we’re going to see them work on it in training camp ... I think Mike Bloomgren might be all over something like this. I think he’s very aggressive. I think he’s innovative.”
The challenge for Cleveland would be finding the right player to execute it. Unlike the Eagles, who have the powerfully-built Jalen Hurts at quarterback, the Browns lack an obvious candidate. As Labbe noted, “The one problem you have is, like, none of their quarterbacks are big guys, and none of their quarterbacks, I don’t think can squat like Jalen Hurts can squat.”
This personnel question highlights what makes the play so special — and so difficult to replicate. While it looks simple on television, the Eagles have mastered its execution through specific personnel and extensive practice. As Labbe observed: “No one else has consistently done this as successfully as Philadelphia ... it’s not like 32 teams are getting first downs every time by running this play.”
Whether you call it the tush push, the brotherly shove, or something else entirely, this controversial play continues to divide opinions across the NFL — even within the same podcast.
Want to hear the full heated debate about football’s most controversial play and the Browns’ potential plans to implement their own version? Listen to the complete Orange and Brown Talk podcast for all the passionate arguments about the play that just won’t go away.
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Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from the Cleveland Orange and Brown Talk Podcast by cleveland.com. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.