The Green Bay Packers made some waves in the football world when they proposed a ban on the controversial ‘Tush Push’ play in February, ahead of the NFL annual meeting at the end of March that was ultimately tabled until the meeting in May – which is currently in progress.
Despite widespread support amongst franchises for the proposal to get rid of the speciality play from the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, the rule change did not pass as it fell two votes short of the 24 votes needed to get the motion through.
Packers Not The Primary Force Behind Advocating For Tush Push Ban – Report
Now, in the aftermath of the failed proposal, a report from Mike Florio suggests that it perhaps was not a coincidence that the Packers were the one to file the proposal to end the Tush Push – or the “Brotherly Shove” in Philadelphia.
With the president of the Detroit Lions, Rod Wood having revealed to the press that the league had a large hand in suggesting the Lions put forward their ultimately-withdrawn proposal to change the seeding system for the playoffs, Florio reports that a similar thing looks to have happened with Green Bay.
“We suggested at the time that 345 Park Avenue [NFL headquarters] possibly put the Packers up to proposing a tush-push ban, too.” Florio writes, “Per a league source, that’s exactly what happened. The league asked the Packers to do it. And the Packers took one for the team. As the source put it, most in the Green Bay organization don’t care about the play, either way.”
Packers ‘Don’t Care’ About The Tush Push – Florio
Suspicions were bought up by figures such as Fox’s Colin Cowherd, that it seemed convenient that the Packers were perhaps “chosen” to be the figurehead of the anti-Tush Push movement as they do not have an owner.
Without an owner they would not have a pinnacle figure to be hit by backlash or embarrassment – as many in the media called the team “weak” for wanting the play gone, particularly in light of the Packers’ Wild Card loss to the Eagles back in January.
In fact, the vote count that ended up sealing the play’s fate to remain legal, 22-10, was the exact same score as that by which Philadelphia beat Green Bay earlier this year in the playoffs, in rather poetic fashion.
Perhaps it is far-fetched to note that the Packers fully don’t care about the play; the NFL would have had to offer them quite some package in exchange for the trouble and potential damage to the team’s public image for putting the proposal forward, if they were truly ambivalent to the play.
But it is quite possible that – if this report is indeed accurate – the team would have not gone to the trouble of putting forward this proposal had the league not encouraged them – and perhaps offered them something in return for doing so.
