Was the NFL right in keeping the tush push, or does it need to get banned? Polling Detroit Lions fans.
On Wednesday, the tush push ban died a calamitous death. After months and months and months of debate, the NFL did not get the votes they needed to ban the controversial play. While the majority of team owners wanted the play out of the game, the league requires two-thirds votes to pass new bylaws, and they came up two votes short (22-10).
The Detroit Lions were one of the 10 dissenters, and I wrote up why I think the tush push not getting banned actually helps Detroit , but based on the reaction from Wednesday’s news, I get the sense fans are still very split on the topic.
So today’s Question of the Day is:
Should the tush push be banned?
My answer: I’m with Dan Campbell. I’m a firm no. As a reminder, here’s what Campbell had to say about the play back during the owners meetings in early April.
“Philly’s obviously known for this because they’re the ones who’ve really kind of perfected it and done it and do it over and over, and I’m like, ‘Hey, good for them, man.’ If you got something, we gotta stop it. So to me, leave it in. We play them this year, we gotta find a way to stop it. I like that.”
The league claims they want to ban this play in light of player safety, but the evidence that this play is more dangerous is flimsy at best. I get that a basically-automatic conversion on third and fourth-and-short is bad entertainment and a huge advantage, but Philly’s earned it. They have the perfect personnel for the play, and their creative minds were the ones who developed the play. It seems weirdly specific to essentially target one team with one specific rule.
As for the “boring” part of the argument, my counter is that not every single play needs to be a thrill. The NFL has a problem of trying to perfect an imperfect sport. The extra point was moved back because it was too easy for kickers and boring. The kickoff needed to be changed because touchbacks are boring. Onside kicks need to be changed because the conversion rate is so low, making the play boring.
It’s okay to have a boring play or two. It’s supposed to be hard to recover onside kicks. If kickers get better, we can just marvel at their progress, rather than making their job harder. And if one team has cracked the code to short-yardage situations, well hats off to them!
So I’m glad the tush push is still here. I hope it leads to more creative ways to try and stop it, because that should be the only path to killing the play.