February 25, 2025

Packers want to ban Eagles' 'Brotherly Shove'

The Packers have proposed a "Tush Push"/"Brotherly Shove" ban to the NFL a few weeks after their president wrote about his disdain for the play.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Stephen Lew/Imagn Images

Pictured: The play the Packers didn't even lose to.

The Eagles' "Tush Push"/"Brotherly Shove" is back under fire this offseason.

The Green Bay Packers have submitted a proposal to ban the play to the NFL's competition committee, per The Athletic's Dianna Russini, which comes a few weeks after the Packers' president and CEO Mark Murphy wrote about his disdain for the play while answering a fan's question in a year-end column published to the team's site.

Wrote Murphy at the time:

"I am not a fan of this play. There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. The referee even threatened to give the Eagles an automatic touchdown if the Commanders did not stop it. I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl." [Packers.com]

The Eagles' signature short-yardage play has been scrutinized before, mainly after this era of the team's first run to the Super Bowl two years ago, but so far, no complaints against it have truly held up.

The play works because of the strength of the Eagles' offensive line, which was the best in the league this year, and quarterback Jalen Hurts' own powering himself forward overtop. What's happening behind him is secondary.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it 🙂‍↕️@jalenhurts | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/xaCKAfZXjc
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 10, 2025

Moreover, for a play that requires no skill as Murphy claimed a few weeks ago, it continues to hold that no other team in the NFL has been able to replicate the "Brotherly Shove"/"Tush Push's" success on 3rd and 1s and 4th and 1s to the regularity the Eagles have reached.

But the Eagles winning the Super Bowl, and Washington repeatedly getting penalized trying to jump the play at the goal line in the NFC Championship Game a couple of weeks prior, puts it all under a microscope again.

The Packers' proposal is only the latest shot to try and ban the play, but it is worth noting that Green Bay didn't even lose to the Eagles in the Wild Card Round because of the "Brotherly Shove."

They lost because Jordan Love threw three picks, and Dallas Goedert took in a screen pass and stiff-armed Carrington Valentine all the way down the field and into the end zone.