NFL's Tush Push Play to Remain Legal as League Committee Confirms No Ban Proposal
The controversial quarterback push sneak known as the Tush Push will remain a legal play in the National Football League for the foreseeable future. Rich McKay, chairman of the NFL competition committee, told reporters this week that there has been no internal push within the league to outlaw the signature play that the Philadelphia Eagles turned into a brand.
No Formal Proposals Submitted to Ban the Play
ESPN's Adam Schefter summarized the situation on social media platform X, stating: "No team has offered a proposal to ban the Tush Push and there has been no recent discussion about changing the rule, Rich McKay told reporters today." For those who wanted the play erased from the rulebook, this announcement essentially ends the debate for this offseason.
McKay made it clear there is no current movement to ban the Tush Push, marking a sharp turn from last year's discussions. In February 2025, the Green Bay Packers formally proposed banning the play, and the Tush Push became one of the dominant storylines at the annual league meeting in March as owners complained about everything from player safety to aesthetics.
Safety Concerns and Efficiency Statistics
That noise has now disappeared. McKay told ESPN there is nothing on the table at the moment: "There's no team proposal that I've seen from it," McKay said via ESPN. "So, I wouldn't envision it. But you never know."
Eagles-focused outlets have already called the whole saga a witch hunt, and the league's own numbers undercut the safety argument. ESPN reported that the Tush Push and similar sneaks were actually less efficient in 2025. The play was used more often across the NFL, but the league-wide success rate dropped from the low 80s to the mid-70s as defenses finally adjusted.
Philadelphia still leaned on it more than any other team, running it 27 times in 2025, but their conversion rate slid to around 68% after peaking near 93% in 2022. One of the lowest moments came when Chicago Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright stripped Jalen Hurts on a Tush Push attempt in the Eagles' Black Friday loss.
How the Pittsburgh Steelers Benefit from This Decision
Once the play stopped looking automatic, the outrage dried up. Owners stopped screaming. Proposals stopped coming in. All of this matters significantly in Pittsburgh because Mike Tomlin's staff built its own version of the play and leaned into it hard in 2025.
The Steelers rolled out a twist called the Spartan, named after Connor Heyward's ties to Michigan State. Instead of the quarterback, Heyward lines up under center on short yardage and gets shoved from behind behind the interior line.
Pittsburgh even added a trick wrinkle off it. On one variation, running back Kenneth Gainwell takes a handoff off the same look, a play the staff nicknamed Yazoo after his Mississippi hometown. That kind of deception only works if defenses still have to respect the straight-ahead shove and if the league lets the formation live.
League-Wide Trends and Future Implications
With no team willing to put a fresh ban on paper, the Steelers keep all of it. Nothing in McKay's comments suggests a late surprise, and the lack of proposals means the Spartan and every other copycat version will remain legal for at least another year.
League-wide, the trend is clear. Defenses are solving the play on their own, and officials have tightened up on alignments and early movement. That is exactly how football is supposed to work. The play was never declared illegal. It just went from an almost guaranteed conversion to another situational tool that smart teams can still weaponize.
For the moment, that reality suits the Steelers and the Eagles just fine. The rest of the league had its chance to kill the Tush Push. Instead, it blinked, and now Pittsburgh walks into 2026 with a short-yardage package the rulebook still fully allows.
