While his love for running the football is legendary, Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher isn’t a fan of one specific running play that is as controversial as it is successful.
Cowher recently offered up his thoughts on the Philadelphia Eagles’ “Tush Push” play that played an integral role in the team’s Super Bowl championship run. The longtime Steelers head coach and current analyst on The NFL Today was very transparent when he was asked if he is a fan of said play.
“I’m not. It’s not a football play,” Cowher said on The Dan Patrick Show. “It’s rugby. They call it a scrum. I mean, that’s what it is, Dan. Let’s call it the way that it is. I mean, you’re pushing people and pushing them over. If it’s just a quarterback sneak, I get it, but it becomes like a push in the back, and it’s a scrum. It’s not a strategical play, in my opinion.”
It may not be a strategical play, but it’s certainly an effective one. The Eagles, whose success rate when running the play is around 90%, used it to score one the first touchdown in their eventual 40-22 blowout win over the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX.
The play has received a good amount of push back, though, for reasons that Cowher alluded to during his interview with Patrick.
“I think there’s a safety element to this,” Cowher said. “I would have to think, because when you have 600 pounds pushing on one person who’s trying to stay in there at 300 pounds. That just seems like it’s a safety issue.”
Cowher’s opinion is shared by Green Bay Packers present and CEO Mark Murphy, who publicly criticized the play prior to the Super Bowl.
“There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less,” Murphy wrote on the team’s website. “I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner (QB) on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see. The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl.”
Like Murphy, Cowher is also a proponent if the traditional quarterback sneak. He is not, however, a fan of teammates pushing someone forward, which is a stable of the “Tush Push” and one of the main reasons why it’s so successful.
“The game of football is more strategic,” Cowher continued. “That’s rugby. Nothing against rugby, but if you want to get a scrum, you want to see a scrum, go to a rugby match.”
Amid growing backlash, the NFL deemed prior to the 2024 season that “pushers” are required to stand at least 1 yard behind the quarterback prior to the snap. The league may make more adjustments to the play this offseason, although it appears — despite some of its detractors — that the “Tush Push” will continue to be a thing in 2025 and beyond.
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