The NFL is hoping to crack down on any controversy surrounding the Tush Push.
After the Eagles’ short-yardage play went viral on Sunday after some apparent missed calls, the league has now admitted that there should have been at least one false start called on Philadelphia, the Washington Post reported.
On top of that, the outlet reported that the league, in its training tape for referees this week, told game officials to call the Tush Push “tight.”
“We want to officiate it tight,” Ramon George, NFL vice president of officiating training and development, said in the tape, according to the Washington Post. “We want to be black and white and be as tight as we can be when we get into this situation where teams are in the bunch position and we have to officiate them being onsides, movement early. … Prior to the snap, looks like we have movement by the right guard. We also have movement coming across from the defensive side. This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.”
There was plenty of outrage over the “Brotherly Shove” after the Eagles won, 20-17, over the Chiefs on Sunday, particularly over a play that went viral in the fourth quarter when it appeared the Eagles should have been penalized for a false start.
The NFL, according to the Washington Post, said the Eagles’ right guard, Tyler Steen, should have been assessed a penalty for moving early.
This came months after the Packers led a push to ban the play this spring, but a proposal that needed 24 votes got 22, with the Ravens, Patriots, Jets and Lions reportedly among the teams that agreed with the Eagles that it should remain legal.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter explained on “Get Up” earlier this week that the Chiefs lost this game in part because of the owners’ vote.
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“The biggest thing here to me is this game was lost in March,” Schefter said during “Get Up” on Monday. “This game was lost when the NFL owners refused to ban the tush push. It wasn’t lost yesterday. It was lost in March!
“There might be a lot of games the Eagles play that are lost in March. Because this play is unstoppable. Not only does the defense not know how to handle it, even the officials don’t know how to handle it. You’re seeing the Eagles’ linemen jump offsides every play and nothing’s called! The officials have no idea, defenses have no idea, and the Eagles get to do whatever they want on every single play in the tush push.”
On the “New Heights” podcast this week, former Eagles center Jason Kelce, who used to be heavily involved in the play, said that referees justifiably have a hard time calling false starts on the play because of how fast things develop.
Kelce did add, however, that he expects the NFL to judge Philadelphia harder on subsequent Tush Push attempts.
“They’re going to be under a microscope moving forward. Everybody is going to be looking at this because of what happened,” Kelce said. “They’re saying they’re in the neutral zone, they’re saying they’re false starting because they slow it down to 1,000 frames per second.
“They need to be very, very cautious because the calls are going to be starting to come, and they should be.”
The 2-0 Eagles get set to face the unbeaten Rams on Sunday in an NFC heavyweight clash.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
