Chicago Bears’ George McCaskey wound up caving to Packers’ demand

McCaskey told reporters why he voted for the Packers’ proposal to ban the “tush push” play. McCaskey admitted that the Bears were one of the 16 teams that voted in favor of the ban for health and safety reasons.

Via video from CHGO Sports:

“We don’t have sufficient injury data on it, but to us, it appears to be an inherently unsafe plate,” McCaskey said as to why the Bears took an unscientific approach to agree with his rival. “I had the opportunity during committee meetings here earlier in the month to sit in the back of the room for the health and safety committee meeting and both Dr. Alan Sills (NFL’s Chief Medical Officer) and Dr. John York (Chairman of the NFL Owner’s Health and Safety Advisor) expressed concerns about the safety of everybody involved in that play.

“And you know, for decades, there was a rule on the books making it illegal to push the runner, and it went away in 2004 and I always wondered why that happened. And Rich McKay, the chairman of the competition committee, explained to us yesterday that the officials said that it was too difficult when there was like a moving scrum down the field to determine whether an offensive lineman was blocking or pushing the runner.

“So they took it out, which led to the push play. From what I understand yesterday, the discussion about the push play is going to lead to a broader examination of whether that general rule should be brought back and again, we think it would be an enhancement to the game to make it safer for the players.”

The NFC North was known as a black-and-blue division. It’s growing soft.