Sean Payton Calls ‘Bulls–t’ on Tush Push Narrative, May Be ‘Safest Play in Football’

While most public opinions from people within the NFL about the tush push seem to skew negative, one prominent voice has spoken out in favor of the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature play.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton said his “bulls–t” detector went up when the opposing teams were citing health and safety reasons as justification for voting to ban the play during the offseason.

“It might be the safest play in football,” Payton added.

The Green Bay Packers brought forth the proposal to ban the play, with one of the key points being player safety.

There’s no evidence from the league that anyone has ever been injured on the tush push, with the NFL’s internal data citing a zero percent injury rate from the 2024 season.

The play did receive a new piece of criticism earlier this season when the Eagles were playing the Kansas City Chiefs. Fox’s broadcast crew pointed out at least one instance when they should have been flagged for a false start.

Ramon George, the NFL’s vice president of officiating training and development, agreed with that assessment in a training video sent to officials in the aftermath of Philadelphia’s 20-17 win over the Chiefs.

There’s an expectation for a renewed push to ban the play after this season, with ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler citing one league executive as saying the difficulty of officiating the play “fairly…probably hurts the chance” of it not being banned in 2026.

If the ban is put back on the table during the offseason, it would require 24 votes from the 32 owners. The vote from this past offseason was 22-10, finishing two votes shy of approval.

Payton and the Broncos could potentially get a close look at the tush push this week when they take on the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, looking to hand the defending Super Bowl champs their first loss of the season.

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