One of the NFL’s most controversial rule debates this offseason revolved around a single play — the Philadelphia Eagles’ now-iconic “Tush Push.” Many teams tried to get it banned, but the push to outlaw the play came up just short.
One of the 22 teams that voted to ban it was the Dallas Cowboys. But if you ask team owner Jerry Jones why, you won’t get a straight answer — and that might be the most honest thing about the whole discussion.
Jones openly admitted that he doesn’t actually know whether he voted against the play because he believes it’s bad for the game or because he’s tired of watching the Eagles turn it into a cheat code.
Jerry Jones Isn’t Sure If He Hates the Tush Push or Just Hates the Eagles
Jones, never one to shy away from speaking his mind, laid it out clearly during a May 21 chat with NFL reporters.
“Any play that’s out of the ordinary gets some extra scrutiny just because of the competition in there,” he said. “Here we are, the world champion is the main focus of the Tush Push, and here we are debating it and having to decide. I thought, am I really against the Tush Push, or just don’t want Philadelphia to have an edge?”
Asked which one it really is, the longtime Cowboys owner didn’t even try to bluff.
“I don’t know. I flip-flop.”
And that’s what really made Jones’ comments stand out. Not just because they were refreshingly candid, but because they might reflect what a lot of owners around the NFL are privately thinking.
The Eagles do the “Tush Push” better than anyone else, and they just won a Super Bowl doing it. That combination was always going to ruffle feathers.
NFL Owners Fell 2 Votes Short of a Ban
The league needed 24 votes to push the “Tush Push” out of the playbook. They got 22, just two votes shy. That meant teams like the Eagles — and nine other organizations who felt it was unfair to outlaw a legal play just because one team executes it better — won the day.
The Green Bay Packers, one of the teams that wanted it gone and proposed the ban themselves, had successfully stopped Philadelphia’s version of the play in a past matchup.
So after the vote, the Eagles’ social media team posted a picture of that failed attempt with the caption: “Push On.” Cold.
That kind of confidence (or trolling, depending on who you ask) is part of why the Tush Push got so much attention to begin with. It’s not just about the play; it’s about the team running it and what it represents.
The move itself is simple in concept: the quarterback gets behind a wall of bodies, and they all surge forward in a synchronized motion, bulldozing for that extra yard. But the Eagles made it almost unstoppable. And that’s why teams like the Cowboys want it gone — even if they can’t quite say it out loud without flip-flopping.