The Latest Push To Ban The Tush Push Makes No Sense

Somehow, a single play still dominates the NFL Headlines every week. The Tush Push. It dominated the conversation in the summer as the league attempted to ban it. They said it was too dangerous. That argument fell flat due to the complete lack of evidence. Now, people around the league have a whole new narrative they push every week. It is too hard to officiate.

The narrative started after the Chiefs' game in week 2, when the Refs missed a couple of false starts on the play. Now, it has been kicked into high gear when refs ruled forward progress on something that should have been a fumble. It was a terrible mistake by the refs. They should not have blown the whistle for forward progress; it should have been a fumble.

There is a new combatant in the war against the Tush Push. Dan Orlovsky went on the Pat McAfee show and said he now wants the play banned because it is just too hard to officiate.

And it is not just him. Following that play, talking heads are all singing the same tune.

Here is the problem with what Dan said though: it is disingenuous. It assumes that the refs do a good job officiating every other play, but just struggle with the Tush Push. But people who watched that game know that the refs struggled for 4 quarters and made all types of mistakes.

Refs miss holds all the time. They miss facemasks. They call Pass Interference when there is none, and miss PIs when they are blatant. A few weeks ago vs the Broncos, Dallas Goedert got mugged near the Red Zone, and the refs never called it.

But no one says those plays need to be banned. No one gives the refs the excuse when that HB dives are just too hard to officiate if they miss a blatant hold by a Lineman. No one will say that it is hard to officiate hits on the QB when they throw a bad roughing the passer flag. In those instances, we just call the refs out for being bad at their job. Somehow, it is only the Tush Push that is hard to officiate.

No one said it was hard to officiate until the league failed to ban it. Then all of a sudden everyone agreed that it is jsut to hard to officiate and needs to go.

The thing is, even if you take away the push part, it will still have the same problems. The play on Sunday had nothing to do with him being pushed. A normal QB sneak would have had the same problem. The same goes for the false starts and the offside claims. Making a new rule that Saquon Barkley can't push Jalen Hurts will do nothing to prevent those "issues."

The Eagles will still line up in the exact same formation and run the same play. They just won't use the RB to push him. The Push aspect is the most overrated part of the play. The real key is the O-Line and Hurts, and saying they can't do push plays anymore likely will have little to no impact on the play. It certainly would not have changed anything on that would be fumble.

The Tush Push detractors will grasp at any straw to make their argument. But they just need to be honest. They don't like the play, and want it banned. Stop coming up with bad excuses like it being "unsafe" or "hard to officiate," and be honest. No one can stop, so people want to ban it.

But stop with the nonsense excuses about it being hard to officiate. It is just a QB Sneak. And all the issues people claim exist with the play will be there even if they ban the push aspect of the play.