Andy Reid is wrong – Tush Push belongs in NFL and whining coaches’ only problem is they can’t stop Super Bowl Eagles

Andy Reid normally gets it right.

But the Kansas City Chiefs head coach who was blown out in Super Bowl LIX is starting to sound like a total loser.

“Tough play to stop,” said Reid, referring to the Philadelphia Eagles’ infamous Tush Push.   “But then you’re listening to that and the medical side and you probably could go either way with it.   “But I would say if it’s putting a player in a bad position, then you probably have to do something about it.   “But if it’s not, it’s a heck of a play.”

If ifs ands and buts were candy and nuts, Reid would have won LIX 40-22 in New Orleans, and the Chiefs would have become the first team in NFL history to win three consecutive Super Bowls.  But Jalen Hurts passed all over Kansas City’s dynasty.  Saquon Barkley stomped on the Chiefs’ face.

And the best team in the NFL last season went 18-3 overall by basically being unstoppable.  “The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think is a little unfair,” Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni said.  That’s the real problem with the ‘heated’ debate currently surrounding Philly’s Brotherly Shove.

It’s almost unstoppable.  Just like a dual-threat quarterback creates a contemporary problem that modern defenses struggle to solve, the Tush Push has enough rugby in it that NFL defenders become helpless when 11 offensive players are collectively pushing one way – forward.  “It’s tough to punish a team for being really good at something,” Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said.

A few yards are almost always guaranteed, and rushing touchdowns regularly follow.  The Eagles lost highly respected veteran center Jason Kelce to retirement after the 2023 season, which was supposed to mark the end of the Tush Push.  The Eagles responded by unleashing Barkley in Kelly Green on the world, and kept using the united pushing of Hurts’ tush all the way to a Super Bowl party that took over New Orleans and made Patrick Mahomes question his NFL future.

“Credit to the Eagles, man, they played better than us from start to finish,” said Mahomes, on a night when Philly led 34-0 and 40-6 in a lopsided Superdome.  Less than two months later, NFL coaches are secretly uniting in the hope of getting the Tush Push banned.  No one is making light of player safety – it’s emphasized game after game and week after week in a sport that is inherently violent.

But why the uproar now, when the Tush Push has been around for years?  Because the Eagles just won the Super Bowl and proudly stomped on 31 other teams.  It’s that simple.  The Washington Commanders turned themselves into a clown show in the NFC Championship, jumping offsides over and over in a desperate attempt to stop the push before it started.   Sirianni’s crew racked up 55 points and 459 total yards in that blowout, including 229 on the ground.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott is apparently blaming bad ‘posture’ for the reason that the super-scary Tush Push must be removed from the rule book of allowable plays.  “The proposal from Green Bay … it takes away the force,” McDermott told reporters.  “Traditional quarterback sneaks have been around for a long time.  “The pushing of it as the force piece … that exponentially raises my concern.”

But why weren’t those concerns publicly raised during Weeks 1-17 of the NFL season, or during the playoffs?  It’s only after the Eagles absolutely dominated Super Bowl LIX that NFL coaches have become so afraid of the Tush Push that it’s now a moral problem on the verge of abrupt cancelation.

That’s weak and laughable, and there’s nothing iffy about it.  Take away the Tush Push, and the world champs become weaker.  Ban the Brotherly Shove, and the Eagles lose a key offensive weapon.  The Chiefs, Bills and more want to get rid of the pushing of the tush because it’s the hardest play in the NFL to stop.  If Reid and McDermott admitted that, at least their whining would sound more reasonable.