Packers' New Proposal to Ban Tush Push Reportedly Revealed, GM Calls It 'Sour Grapes'

The Green Bay Packers reportedly aren't giving up their efforts to ban the tush-push play even after the topic was tabled during the NFL owners meetings because of a split vote.

ESPN's Kalyn Kahler reported Thursday that Green Bay plans to rewrite its initial proposal that called for a 10-yard penalty whenever an offensive player immediately pushed the player who took the snap. 

The rewritten proposal will "be broader and prohibit all pushing of the runner" as the Packers look to change the minds of at least eight teams before the next league meeting on May 20-21 to get the majority necessary after a 16-16 split in Tuesday's voting session.

Making the proposal broader is notable since the previous one seemed to target the Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills as the only teams in the league to run the tush-push play more than five times during the 2024 campaign.

A general manager told Kahler that Green Bay's first proposal "feels like sour grapes" after the Eagles defeated the Packers in their 2024 season opener and the playoffs. "They're hiding behind player safety."

Kahler pointed out the tush push happened in just 0.28 percent of total plays in 2024, leading one source to say, "we spent so much time on this single play. How many times did the pushing even make a difference last year? Once or twice, and the teams were less successful than they were on traditional sneaks. It was less about competitive edge than it was about health stuff. Why was this specific thing the most interesting?"

Outgoing Packers president Mark Murphy said player safety was the driving force behind his team's proposal, and the NFL's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, made presentations about the injury risk of the play.

Yet even that reportedly led to disagreement, as Kahler noted three different teams said the lack of proven injury data instead of hypothetical situations was why they didn't plan on supporting Green Bay's proposal.

"It's all about health and safety," one NFL owner said. "[Dr. Sills said], 'It's not if but when a catastrophic injury occurs.'"

Yet another source said, "If that's the argument, the whole sport is a matter of 'if not when.' That rubbed some people the right way, and some people the wrong way. When [Sills] said it at the combine meetings, I don't think it was intended to serve as the water carrier for Green Bay's proposal."

Nobody ran the play more than the Eagles did on their way to the Super Bowl title, and head coach Nick Sirianni was adamant the play wasn't any more dangerous than any other type of play. 

He told reporters in February such health concerns are "a little made up. … I can't remember one injury we had on that play, and we ran it more than anybody else."

Still, one source told Kahler "you can't disregard" health concerns since "nobody wants to vote no on it, and then God forbid, something happens."

Another suggested it should be banned because it's not a football play, while one said the proposal was too specific to the Eagles as written. "A push is a push," that source said. "If it's illegal somewhere, it'll be illegal everywhere."

That plays into Green Bay's reported plans to make the language broader for its next proposal, and Murphy said "we're always in touch with the league" even though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell didn't share his opinion with teams during debates about the latest proposal, per Kahler.

For now, the Eagles and others are still allowed to run the tush-push play.

It seems like there will be future discussions that could take it out of the playbook, but not enough teams agreed with the Packers' reasoning at the NFL owners meetings. That means, unless something changes, opponents will still have to deal with Saquon Barkley and others pushing Jalen Hurts forward behind the Eagles' dominant offensive line.

And that formula was hard to stop in 2024.