Steelers owner says Eagles legend helped prevent Tush Push from being banned

Pittsburgh Steelers team president Art Rooney II says Philadelphia Eagles legend Jason Kelce helped save the Tush Push from being banned.

Kelce, who flew into Minnesota to help save the play and explain why it is not dangerous, demonstrated to owners and the competition committee why there should be little worry about the player safety aspect of the play.

“(He highlighted) it’s a safe play and not something you need to worry about much,” Rooney said.

Twenty-two teams voted to ban the play and push ball carriers forward. However, it needed twenty-four teams to pass, meaning that the ten teams who voted against the resolution saved the play.

In March, head coach Mike Tomlin said the first time he saw it, he could not believe it was legal in the NFL’s rulebook. However, he used player safety to promote the idea that the play would likely have to be removed from the game.

“The first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe that it was legal because it was illegal on the field goal. That being said, you hate to be against it because when people are innovative, you want to respect that. There’s certainly been some teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us in that regard. You hate to penalize them for it. But again, we got into the discussion on the field goal block because of player safety, and so that still remains to be a component of the discussion,” Tomlin said.

Rooney said in March that the team voted to ban it, but the discussion delved into deeper issues related to pushing offensive players forward. Defensive players can not be pushed forward by their teammates, which was part of the discussion.

“We were in favor of the rule as proposed.Yeah. It’s a fairly narrow proposal in terms of just eliminating the ability to push the quarterback on a quarterback sneak. So, we were in favor of that,” Rooney said.

The Steelers still voted to ban the play despite Kelce easing the player safety concerns. However, the Tush Push will not go anywhere despite the resolution to outlaw the play.