The Philadelphia Eagles continue to make things difficult on the NFL by effectively running the Brotherly Shove.
NFL executive vice president Troy Vincent, who also was a former Eagles player, opened up about the league’s ongoing mission to properly officiate the Tush Push at the league’s fall meetings in New York on Tuesday.
The Eagles, of course, remain the gold standard in gaining a yard by using quarterback Jalen Hurts on the one-yard, rugby-style sneak play.
But the play remains a subject of controversy, mainly due to cries that the Eagles are getting a head start by lining up offside or moving prior to the snap while running the play. That belief gained traction after FOX commentator Tom Brady pointed out some of their head starts during the Eagles’ 20-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.
As a result of the successful play, Hurts is tied for fifth in the NFL in rushing touchdowns (5) and has rushed for 23 first downs on just 54 rushing attempts this season through seven games.
Troy Vincent: Tush Play Is ‘Difficult To Officiate In Real Time’
Vincent reiterated what the NFL has said all along: that defending the Brotherly Shove is tricky.
“It’s very difficult to officiate the play in real time,” Vincent said from the NFL’s fall meeting at the InterContinental New York. “Sometimes on replay we see that a guard jumps or a guard moved.”
The onus is on either line judge — whose pre-snap position is at the line of scrimmage on the sideline — to make the call of offside or a false start, which is where trouble begins.
“When the guard is in the neutral zone or someone else is in the neutral zone, it’s really hard for that line judge to identify based on what he’s looking at down the line of scrimmage,” said Vincent.
Vincent indirectly lauded the Eagles’ success — since the play has been near impossible to stop since they began running it upon Nick Sirianni’s hiring as head coach in 2022. But he also stated the league is constantly working to be better at officiating the play.
“At the end of the day, there’s a team that still does it well, and we’ve seen other people have versions of it,” Vincent said. “But from an officiating standpoint, we’re going to try to get better at identifying when someone is in the neutral zone or when someone leaves a little early.”
Troy Vincent: Tush Push Ban Unlikely
Of course, the Brotherly Shove play survived the chopping block, since not enough clubs voted to ban the play in the off-season meetings. Though a majority of clubs did vote to outlaw the Tush Push — the Green Bay Packers raised the issue to ban — it did not reach the requisite two-thirds margin.
Vincent said there had not been discussion of outlawing the play at the fall meetings. He also stated he was unsure if a push to outlaw the play would come up in the off-season.
“There hasn’t really been much discussion internally,” Vincent said.
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