NFL Competition Committee Not Pushing to Ban ‘Tush Push’ for 2026 — But Future Remains Uncertain

The NFL and its powerful Competition Committee are not making a push to eliminate the controversial “tush push” for the 2026 season, coming as a surprise to some around the league.

But that doesn’t mean the short-yardage, heavy-contact, rugby-like play made famous by the Philadelphia Eagles is here to stay, according to league sources.

A year ago Commissioner Roger Goodell was campaigning hard behind closed doors and speaking out about the potential “health and safety” issues of the play and it was a hot button issue after a playoff game between the Eagles and Commanders featured a bizarre sequence of events around the Washington endzone with Commanders defenders repeatedly jumping offsides. 

Rich McKay, head of the league’s competition committee, reported recently that there is currently no proposal afoot to ban the play for 2026, but that doesn’t mean it’s here to stay.

A year-to-year proposition

“I can promise you one thing,” said one NFL general manager who wouldn’t mind seeing the controversial play banned, “if Roger and his guys on Park Avenue (at the NFL headquarters) decide a year from now they think it’s bad for the game, and they want it out, you’ll see a proposal to get it banned. It got really heated last year. Maybe they don’t want to jump right back into that again.”

The NFL badly needs to clean up its act in the officiating department, and several NFL team executives said they anticipate a heavy focus from the league office in regards to improving the instant replay process and specifically how the NFL wades into in-game decisions from the central command center in New York. Getting back into a leaguewide argument about the merits of a “Tush Push” play only two teams heavily employ might not be the optics the NFL has in mind this offseason.

The measure to eliminate the play from the game failed by just two votes last year, but it required a concerted push from the league over two NFL meetings last spring to reach that point. And some football people still wouldn’t be shocked if it was out by 2027.