One of the biggest debates this NFL off-season is whether or not the Eagles infamous Tush Push should be banned. They have dominated short-yardage situations in the last several years. But now there is suddenly a push to ban the iconic play. But one person not in favor of a ban is Jason Kelce.
Few players in the league have more experience with the play than the Eagles' former Center. He was heavily involved in it up until last year when he retired, and he thinks the arguments in favor of banning it are just weird.
On his podcast with his brother Travis "New Heights," he broke down each of the arguments people make to ban it, explaining why none of them hold any water.
"The Tush Push Is Not a Football Play"
Firstly, Kelce addressed the most popular thing used against the Tush Push. people who say it is "Not a football play"
"I don't know what's more of a football play, I really don't. What represents football? Physicality, toughness, will. We're going to fight for half a yard. You know what's coming, we know what's coming. We're just going to bulldoze against each other like machines made of meat. It's like completely about football."
And he is right. What is more Football than our big guys vs your big guys, whoever is stronger wins.
"The Play Is Dangerous"
This is one recently reignited by Bills head Coach Sean McDermott, even though his team runs the play the 2nd most in the league. Here is what Jason Kelce said.
"Do guys get hurt on it sometimes, yes, but so does every other play that you run in the NFL. Typically it's more of a grueling play. The plays where you get hurt are usually these high-impact collisions or somebody gets landed up on wrong or twisted, and that just doesn't happen much on that play because everybody's just nose-diving forward, trying to get as low as possible and push for a yard."
Anyone who has run the play will tell you it is not a fun play to run. You certainly get beat up. But as Troy Vincent pointed out, the NFL has recorded no injuries being sustained on the play. As much as the Eagles and the Bills ran it last year, there were still 0 injuries.
"The Play is Unfair"
Finally, Kelce addressed complaints that the play is "unfair."
"It doesn't feel like teams across the league are as good as the Eagles are at it, so it feels weird to try and ban this play for an advantage that it seems like really just one team majorly has, in my opinion. Like if it's an unfair advantage, do we ban Saquon Barkley from running with the football because that seems like an unfair advantage to me, you know what I mean?"
Why can't other teams run it? That is always my thing. If it is so unfair, and so impossible to stop, why isn't every single 1-yard situation automatic around the league the way it is with the Eagles?
It would be like banning 3s because Steph Curry is too good at shooting them or banning steals in baseball back in the day when Rickey Henderson just took every bag he wanted. If every team can exploit something, it is a problem. If only 1 team is good at something, that is not unfair, that is just one team being better than other teams.
You can watch the full conversation in the latest episode of New Heights below. The Tush Push conversation begins at 41:10.
