The tush push is a quarterback sneak where two or three teammates line up behind the quarterback and shove him forward the moment he takes the snap. The Philadelphia Eagles turned it into a near-automatic play on short yardage, which is why it also gets called the Brotherly Shove. Pushing a runner has been legal since 2005. A 2025 proposal to ban the play did not get enough votes, so it is still legal.
Updated Sept. 17, 2026.
The play only needs a yard or two. The quarterback lines up under center with the offensive line in tight splits. Two or three players, usually a running back and a tight end, stand directly behind him. At the snap the line surges, the quarterback drives forward with the ball, and the players behind him push on his back and hips. The whole thing is over in about a second and rarely gains more than the yard it needs.
It is legal because of a rule change most people never noticed. Before 2005 the rulebook said no offensive player could push, pull or lift the ball carrier. In 2005 the league dropped the word push, so shoving a runner from behind is fine while pulling or lifting him is still a penalty. The Eagles built the play around Jalen Hurts, who squats well over 500 pounds, and converted short-yardage sneaks at a rate the rest of the league could not match.
The controversy is about whether it is really football. Critics, including several coaches and the Packers, who proposed banning it in 2025, called it a rugby scrum with no skill and raised injury worries. Supporters pointed out that no injury data backed that up and that other teams were free to run it. At the May 2025 owners meeting the ban got 22 votes, two short of the 24 it needed. The play stayed legal for the 2025 season.
In the Eagles' Super Bowl LIX win over the Chiefs in February 2025, Philadelphia used the tush push on short yardage the way it had all season, and Jalen Hurts scored a first-quarter touchdown on a sneak from the 1-yard line. Three months later the owners voted on banning the play and fell two votes short.
No. The Packers proposed a ban in 2025 and the owners voted 22-10 for it in May 2025, but a rule change needs 24 of 32 votes. It fell two short, so the play stayed legal for the 2025 season.
Since 2005 the rulebook has only barred pulling or lifting the ball carrier, not pushing him. Teammates shoving the quarterback from behind is within the rules. Any team can run it.
Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love, and the Eagles are the team that made the play famous. Brotherly shove is the local nickname; tush push is what the rest of the league calls it.
Category: CBA & League Rules. Part of the StickToTheModel NFL Encyclopedia.