Adam Schefter slams attempted ban of tush push: ‘It’s football!’

The tush push of the Philadelphia Eagles is one of the most successful plays in NFL history. Nobody can stop it and nobody can duplicate it.

So the Green Bay Packers have tried the next best thing, appealing to the NFL to have the play banned. Some voices within the league have questioned the safety of the play, even though actual injuries on the play have been very few and far between. Quite infamously, it was the New York Giants that suffered multiple injuries when they tried and failed to pull off a tush push.

The Packers were widely mocked for their attempt to get the play banned with the NFL universe basically telling them to learn how to stop it or do it themselves. And that included ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter on Tuesday’s edition of Unsportsmanlike on ESPN Radio.

IT’S FOOTBALL! @AdamSchefter shares his thoughts on the Tush Push pic.twitter.com/Csf1dszQNK

— UNSPORTSMANLIKE Radio (@UnSportsESPN) February 25, 2025

“I think it’s kind of crazy. It’s like, ok, so then when Patrick Ricard the Ravens fullback, are we going to ban fullback blast because he’s really strong and tough and that’s health and safety? It’s football. It’s football! Everybody in the league is allowed to run the play,” Schefter exclaimed. “One team can do it and nobody else can do it, right?”

“By the way, the Commanders are the one that were jumping over the line to bring attention to this initially. Ok, then don’t jump over the line like that… so if Tyreek Hill and Patrick Mahomes are playing together, he’s so fast, we’re risking hamstring injuries on defensive backs, we should ban the deep ball. No! It’s football!”

“I’m sure I’m missing some injury data that’s relevant, I don’t want to diminish that because that’s always important, health and safety. But every team in the league is allowed to run it. One team runs it incredibly well, nobody seems to be able to stop it,” Schefter continued.

The tush push isn’t without its detractors, at least from an aesthetic point of view. Even Jim Nantz came out to say that he wasn’t a fan of it because it feels too automatic. From that aspect, the play does resemble more of a rugby scrum or maul than anything we would associate with the NFL.

Of course, the NFL could severely decrease the impact of the tush push if they went back to the league’s pre-2006 rules. It was then that the league made it legal to push an offensive teammate forward, but still made it illegal to pull them. It was almost 20 years later that the Eagles found a way to use that rule to their advantage, which every NFL team is within their rights to try, even though none have been able to succeed.