'Push On:' Eagles Keep Winning

In a rare defeat for the NFL, which got behind a reworked proposal put forth by the Green Bay Packers, which was attempting to "push" things back to 2004 when offensive players were not allowed to aid the ball carrier by pushing him. 

The language read that an offensive player could not “push or pull a runner in any direction at any time,” which would have erased the Eagles’ push sneak.

The final tally was 22-10, ironically the same score when Philadelphia topped Green Bay in the wild-card round of the playoffs back in January.

Typically, when the NFL wants something to pass and doesn’t have the votes, they table the issue to continue lobbying for the needed 24 “yes votes.”

That’s what happened at the annual NFL meeting earlier this year with the Packers’ original proposal, which was more targeted and directed at the Eagles’ version of the push play.

When it was clear that the votes weren’t there (a straw poll had it at 16 to 16 in Palm Beach, Florida), the league tabled the issue until the spring meetings in Minneapolis.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie spoke for 30 minutes in defense of the play and brought in a ringer in future Hall of Fame center Jason Kelce, who tried to debunk ideas on the perceived injury risk of the play.

Whether that was enough to turn 24 to 22 will be unveiled in the coming days. Either way, the Eagles bucked some serious odds after the NFL’s Competition Committee, and both its Player and Owner Health and Safety Committees got behind the proposal.

"In this case, those votes were not there, so it stays the way it is," Competition Committee Chairman Rick McKay said.

The league was dishonest in its reasoning to want to eliminate pushing and revert to the 2004 rule, which was removed without fanfare or any kind of groundswell because it became too difficult to officiate in the era of video replay.

The Packers also included player safety concerns in the proposal despite league data revealing no injuries on push plays last season.

Aesthetics and optics were the bigger drivers, especially after an ugly sequence in the NFC Championship Game where Washington linebacker Frankie Luvu tried to guess the snap count on the play, igniting a situation where Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts simply drew him offsides on multiple occasions, forcing the officials to consider awarding a touchdown to Philadelphia. 

The league’s poor handling of the situation created unnecessary scrutiny for a play that is run in a very limited way in Philadelphia, never mind league-wide. 

If the original proposal wasn't overtly directed at one team and framed as a more encompassing rule related to aiding ball carriers, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would have gotten his votes. 

Instead, the league turned a minor issue into a rallying cry symbolic of extremism in politics, where the lowest common denominator yells at each other.

As for the Eagles, they don’t need the “Tush Push” to be successful, but winning is a habit, and the organization found a way to do it again.