The “tush push” may have been a key factor in the Philadelphia Eagles’ second Super Bowl win, but Jim Nantz is over it. The lead play-by-play voice for the NFL on CBS has made it clear: he thinks it’s time to put the play out to pasture.
Recently appearing on What the Football with Suzy Shuster and Amy Trask, Nantz addressed the proverbial elephant in the room.
“I’m done with the tush push,” Nantz admitted. “I think it needs to go away. I know that’s a big part of the arsenal for the Eagles. I think it needs to change. Now, they execute it better than anyone, so Philadelphia fans will be in outcry, saying, ‘Why are you penalizing us?’ I don’t like the play.”
Why?
“I just don’t like the play,” he adds. “It feels too automatic. Now, they had a point in the first half [of Super Bowl LIX] where they settled for a field goal… I think it was at 7-0. But, they had first-and-goal at the four. Why wouldn’t you have just run the tush push? You got four plays to get it across. You’re probably only going to need three — maybe two.
“Jalen [Hurts] doesn’t fumble that snap. He doesn’t. I mean, he’s going to get a yard and a half every single team. And it was later in the game, now that I think about it. Because it would’ve completely broken [Kansas City], if they weren’t already mentally broken in that game — just imposing their will on them. But I don’t like the play. It just doesn’t feel like football to me.”
Nantz may want to tread carefully, but clearly, he doesn’t care about the outcry. Back in October 2023, Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post was criticized for calling for the ‘tush push’ or the ‘brotherly shove’ to be banned following the Eagles’ 31-17 win over the Miami Dolphins.
Schad argued that it was not a legitimate football play, as did Nantz. Suzy Shuster did, too.
“And maybe you could do something to phase it out a little bit — and totally penalize it,” Nantz says. “Maybe it’s like coaches’ challenges. Maybe you get two a game, or one a game. Don’t take it completely away, but you have that in your hip pocket. And if you’re going to use it, you can use it twice in a game. We’ll see where it goes from there.”
Call it unpopular, call it controversial, but at least Nantz is sticking to his guns. And if the ‘tush push’ stays, it won’t be because of him.
