Oct 12, 2025; Tottenham, United Kingdom; A NFL fan dressed as a referee during an NFL International Series game between the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Tush Push.

Three words that strike fear in the hearts of anyone who discusses or watches football at even the most casual level. A convergence of the meatiest men on planet earth, smashing into each other as a quarterback inches forward, not knowing where the push begins and ends.

It's a maneuver that the Philadelphia Eagles have mastered en route to a Super Bowl victory as other teams either try to copy it, malign it, or straight out attempt to ban it like it's witchcraft in the 1600s. Every week, there's more debate on whether it's in the spirit of the game. At a time when sports are maximizing every inch of their game to appeal to the masses, how can football justify a play viewed by the common fan as boring?

I don't care about any of that.

The Tush Push could somehow trigger an internal response in most viewers' brains that literally puts them to sleep, and I would shrug my shoulders and move on with my life. The beauty of sports is that the most exciting play you've ever witnessed in your life could be a team getting five yards on a play, ala Saquon Barkley, while the most plain, ho-hum call could be the difference between a win and a loss.

Anyone who tries to get the play banned from an enjoyment angle is going about it all wrong. If we ban the Tush Push for making us snooze, what's next? Are we going to axe runs up the middle on first down because a vast majority of them go for two yards? Of course not, because that dull play could be the reason why the defense bites on the next fake handoff, which results in a 40-yard snipe to a speedster down the sidelines.

It's not a competitive advantage issue. Every team has tried to copy it to some extent. It's not a viewership issue, as NFL ratings continue to be the only thing on television that sees its viewership increase instead of decline.

The reason why the Tush Push needs to be banned is that the referees can't call it. Through the first six weeks of the NFL season, you have a better chance of flipping a coin and calling it correctly than seeing a Tush Push and knowing how the refs are going to call it.

It's a play whose entire crux is how miserable it is to officiate as somehow out of the pile. The largest humans you'll ever see in your life pressed against each other like two pieces of bread with a football in the center, a split-second flinch being the difference between a converted fourth-down play or a turnover on downs.

Time and time again, slowed-down replays of the play show that one or more players are moving too early. In real time, it's almost impossible to keep up with the play's formation, leading to dazed looks before a first down is called, as the ball has navigated its way through the half inch needed amidst the vortex of meat to reach its goal. The supporting side cheers, the opponent calls foul, and the neutrals shake their head, hoping it never happens to them.

If that was the only strike against the Tush Push, it should be enough to see it gone, but that's not it. Refereeing staff struggle not only to determine when the play starts, but also seem uncertain about when to end it.

In Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams, the Ravens attempted numerous Tush Pushes on the goal line to no avail. Good, right? It's not unbeatable.

Yet, during one of their attempts, the Ravens tried to use their mass to get the ball over the line in a lunge attempt. As they reached for the goal, Jared Verse of the Rams used his own strength to knock the ball free, leaving himself with no one around him for a 100-yard dash for a touchdown to end the half.

Except, as he picked it up and the sumo wrestling battle royal continued behind him, the refs then blew the call dead. We've seen Tush Pushes go on for ages, as the tug-of-war escalates into a glorified shoving match. In this case, the play was waved off the moment the Ravens failed. However, we've seen the opposite happen repeatedly, where the offense has had ample time to push their pack to the goal until they capitalized.

In any good sport, in any good game ever created since the dawn of time, counter-play is the key. A fantastic move can always get deflected if countered perfectly—the push and pull of strategy. Sometimes a move is so good that the opposing team can only tip their hat before poring over footage to find a way to stop it.

The Tush Push? At its inception, there were theories and ideas on how to combat it. But now? When a ball flies free during a struggle, it's considered a dead ball rather than a play that carries some risk. Linemen jumping like frogs before the play begins.

It's a sea of chaos with no rules and seemingly no counter-play unless you can jump faster than the offensive side and/or hope your defense has the stamina to keep the ball from reaching its goal.

Good luck with that.

This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: The NFL’s Tush Push Problem: Refs Can’t Keep Up

Reporting by Tyler Erzberger, Touchdown Wire / Touchdown Wire

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect