By DAN GELSTON AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The tush push is still legal in the NFL — and about as unstoppable as it was in an ill-fated push to ban it for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Even with Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts and the bulk of the Philadelphia starters sitting out the preseason opener on Thursday night against Cincinnati, the Eagles went straight to their favorite short-yardage play on the opening drive.
Tanner McKee, the backup QB in the regular season, was indeed pushed in for the score on a fourth-and-goal from the Bengals 1-yard line late in the first quarter.
The Eagles ran the play the first chance they could after a contentious offseason around the NFL that saw the possibility of the popular play — at least, in Philly — nearly get banned. McKee’s score tied the game at 7-all.
“People have a hard time stopping it,” McKee said after the Eagles beat the Bengals 34-27.
League owners narrowly failed to pass a proposal in May to prohibit the polarizing tush push at their spring meetings in Minnesota, keeping the rulebook as is, and keeping fans in happy in Philadelphia.
There was a thinned out crowd at the usually sold-out Lincoln Financial Field. Eagles fans started buzzing on fourth down when the home team ran into the familiar formation. McKee, a sixth-round pick out of Stanford in 2023, scored with the ease of Hurts.
The ban on offensive players from pushing, pulling, lifting, grasping or encircling a runner was supported by a 22-10 vote, only two votes short of the three-quarters majority required by league bylaws to pass it.
The health and safety committees for both the players and the owners and the league’s competition committee all unanimously recommended the proposal, which was formally brought forward by the Green Bay Packers at the previous league meetings in Florida earlier in the offseason and tabled for further discussion. Such a ban previously existed and was lifted 20 years ago because it was deemed too difficult to consistently enforce.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said he didn’t take a stance and was instead simply focusing on fostering a “full discussion” of the issue of aiding quarterbacks in their plunges into the line.
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