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<\/p>\nAmid the ongoing controversy over the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature “Tush Push” play, many NFL fans have criticized the league for failing to ban the play when they had a chance to this past offseason. But one longtime NFL head coach had a different view of the controversial play.<\/p>\n
It was Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton who told reporters in a video conference today that he considers the tush push play to be perhaps “the safest play in football.” Payton said that he was skeptical of the debate on the play centering on “health and safety” and believes it’s a simply, “well-run quarterback sneak.”<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen health and safety was pulled into that, which might be\u00a0the safest play\u00a0in football, my (expletive) nose kinda went up,\u201d Payton said. \u201cLook, it\u2019s a quarterback sneak and, I think, credit Philadelphia. Take a peek at this past week\u2019s touchdown off the tush push look and it was a sweep to the left. I\u2019m one that looks at it, you know, as long as the line of scrimmage is clean, it\u2019s a well-run quarterback sneak. When you really evaluate it, it\u2019s more the technique of the sneak than the push.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incidentally, the Broncos’ ownership voted FOR eliminating the Tush Push play when it was brought to a vote this past spring. Payton’s bosses clearly don’t share his sentiment.<\/p>\n
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As much as Payton respects the play, he’s going to need to figure out how to defend it when he takes his team to Philly to play the Eagles this coming Sunday.<\/p>\n
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NEW ORLEANS, LA – FEBRUARY 09: QB Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles gets a tush push for a touchdown during Super Bowl LIX between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday February 9, 2025 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA.(Photo by David Buono\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)Icon Sportswire/Getty Images<\/p>\n
What is the Tush Push?<\/p>\n
The Tush Push or \u201cBrotherly Shove\u201d is a variation of the quarterback sneak used by the Eagles, in which additional teammates line up directly behind the quarterback (usually Jalen Hurts) and literally push him forward, while the offensive line also surges ahead to gain short yardage. It\u2019s been highly effective\u2014conversion rates are much higher than typical QB sneak plays\u2014and it played a key role in several critical situations, including scoring in Super Bowls.<\/p>\n
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Critics argue the play poses fairness and safety issues. Some contend it gives an unfair advantage to the offense, is difficult to defend, and skirts the edge of rules against \u201chelping the runner.\u201d Others point out that officials have a hard time spotting early movement or false starts in the chaos of the snap. Proposals to ban or change the rule have been floated (for example, by the Packers in 2025), but so far none have passed\u2014partly because many teams support keeping it, and because the NFL has found no significant injuries tied directly to its use.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported by The Spun<\/a> on Sep 30, 2025, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid the ongoing controversy over the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature “Tush Push” play, many NFL fans have criticized the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,1256,6579,1240,593,1260,116411,40052,85,100756],"class_list":["post-181247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-denver-broncos","tag-jalen-hurts","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-nfl","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-quarterback-sneak","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports","tag-tush-push"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}