Dolphins Help Keep Tush Push in Play

The "tush push" lives on for at least another NFL season, and the Miami Dolphins played a role in its survival.

A proposal from the Green Bay Packers to eliminate the play — and all others where the ball carrier gets pushed or pulled by a teammate — failed to get the necessary 24 votes from league owners Wednesday.

Among the 10 teams who voted against baning the "tush push" — or "Brotherly Love" — were the Dolphins, according to ESPN reporter Adam Schefter.

The Dolphins were joined by the Eagles (obviously), Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Tennessee Titans.

The Dolphins will not face the Eagles, who have perfected the play, during the 2025 season. But they will face the Buffalo Bills, who also have been generally successful with the play but voted for banning it.

Head coach Mike McDaniel was asked for his thoughts on the "tush push" at the 2025 NFL scouting combine.

“It’s tough because I have a hard time making things illegal because of success," McDaniel said. "However, I think in my mind it’s a different thing if it’s a safety issue. For me in the game of football, when your job is to take 11 people, possess the ball, move it down the field to try to get in the end zone to score points, I think because it’s successful I have a hard time being that the teeth of the argument to move on from it. That’s just my opinion; I do understand both sides.”

PLAYOFF FORMAT ALSO MAINTAINS STATUS QUO

If the NFL playoff format is to change, it's going to happen down the line and not in 2025.

The Detroit Lions have withdrawn their proposal to change the format, away from giving division winners and rewarding those with the best regards, so it will not be voted on at the spring meetings in Minnesota. It's entirely possible the issue will be revisited, but logic suggests it might be part of a reshuffling of the scheduling format once the league inevitably moves to an 18-game regular season.

Had the proposal moved forward and been approved, the change could have had a significant impact on the playoff matchups — as it most certainly would have for the Dolphins' last playoff game, the freezing cold Saturday night game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium in the first round of the 2023 playoffs.

Under the proposed change, the NFL playoff seeding format would have eliminated the automatic home game for the four division winners in each conference and simply seed the teams by record.

The division winners still would get into the playoffs regardless, but no more home games for teams that finish with mediocre records.

So in 2023, had that rule been in effect, the Dolphins would have played that first-round game against the Cleveland Browns as the No. 5 seed. They still would have been on the road, but Cleveland obviously isn't the same kind of matchup that Kansas City was on its way to its second consecutive Super Bowl title.

It was the Houston Texans who benefited in 2023 from the current playoff seeding format because they got a home game with a 10-7 record when the Browns and Dolphins each finished with an 11-6 record.

The Dolphins also would have had a different first-round playoff match in 2016 under this proposed new format because Houston (again) wound up with the No. 4 seed despite having the worst record of any AFC playoff team that season.

So instead of facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dolphins would have played the Oakland Raiders on the road, Houston would have been at Pittsburgh, and New England and Kansas City still would have had the two byes (there were six playoff teams in each conference that year).

It's worth noting that the current format has benefited the AFC South champion (Jacksonville once and Houston twice) and the NFC South champion (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) each of the past three seasons.

From this vantage point, though, while there's merit in rewarding a team for finishing with a better record, this proposed change would take away one of the big perks for winning a division title. And it says here that for every team that's hurt by the currently setup, there's a team that benefits, and chances are it will even out in the end.

NFL owners voted unanimously Tuesday to allow NFL players to participate in the 2028 Olympic Games' flag football event.

More Miami Dolphins news: