With Week 3 set to begin Thursday night with the Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers, the NFL has issued a memo regarding the tush push.
Despite all the debates surrounding the tush push, the NFL hasn’t received the necessary 24 votes to ban it. There was some momentum for the league to outlaw it during the 2025 offseason, but the outrage surrounding the Philadelphia Eagles’ controversial play has seriously cooled down since then.
One reason the NFL hasn’t dealt with so much drama regarding the tush push is because refs are now calling offensive offside penalties.
© Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
On Thursday, the NFL reminded teams that players on offense must line up correctly if they want to avoid being penalized.
The NFL’s memo included a clip from Week 1 that showed Seattle Seahawks tight end AJ Barner lined up offsides on the tush push.
“We have covered this before, but clubs are reminded on both sides of the ball to line up properly on these push plays,” NFL officiating and rules analyst Walt Anderson said. “Here, this hand is clearly offside, this head is clearly offside, as is the right hand of the tight end.”
The tush push isn’t going anywhere.
The Packers were actually the first team to suggest banning the tush push in 2025. They backed off that proposal in 2026, probably to the delight of the competition committee
“There’s no team proposal that I’ve seen from it,” competition committee co-chairman Rich McKay said, via ESPN. “So, I wouldn’t envision it. But you never know.”
It wouldn’t surprise us to see the tush push on full display during Week 3. Will teams actually pull off the play without being penalized though? That seems to be an entirely different story.
