While the Philadelphia Eagles are celebrating their recent Super Bowl championship victory, the Green Bay Packers have issued a proposal to ban one of the team’s patented plays. The Eagles’ “Tush Push” is a polarizing subject. The play, which has a roughly 90% success rate, could face a ban entering the 2025 season if the Packers get their way.
Former Super Bowl champion Ryan Clark was highly critical of the Packers’ request.
“How soft do you have to be?” Clark asked on a recent episode of ESPN NFL Live. “Oh, we can’t stop it. Our defensive tackles aren’t tough enough. Our linebackers get hurt. Shut the hell up. Somebody [needs to] get physical and stop the play.
“It’s like everything else in sports. If you don’t have the personnel to do it, you actually don’t do it. Trust me, whatever team Matthew Stafford plays for next year is not implementing the tush push. Don’t even trip. Don’t even worry about it. Don’t even practice it.”
Why Did the Green Bay Packers Propose a Ban of the Tush Push?
The Packers lost to the Eagles in this year’s NFC Wild Card game. Green Bay’s president and CEO Mark Murphy publicly criticized the Tush Push prior to the Super Bowl on the team’s website.
“There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. 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.”
However, Clark obviously disagreed and believes NFL teams should stop complaining and rise to the challenge.
"It's dumb and it's soft."@realrclark25 on the proposal of banning the tush push. pic.twitter.com/kVwlbm4Drs
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 24, 2025
“Instead of actually coaching, let’s run away from coaching and try to outlaw this play,” Clark said. “It’s dumb and it’s soft. To be honest, when you look at the actual play and the way that they run it, it’s actually more difficult for them to practice it.”
There’s only one reason why Clark would support a ban on the Tush Push.
“Unless it’s a player health and safety decision, you don’t take it out of the game,” he said.