Donald Trump endorses the Eagles' embattled Tush Push

Olivia Reiner, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 28, 2025

Published in Football

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WASHINGTON — The Eagles’ campaign to prevent the Tush Push from getting banned is getting a boost from President Donald Trump.

At the Super Bowl ceremony on the White House steps leading out to the South Lawn on Monday, Trump touted the iteration of the quarterback sneak that the Eagles have popularized in recent years, which is currently under siege by some of the NFL’s owners.

Nearly 15 minutes into Trump’s remarks about the Eagles’ season, he went off on a tangent about the team’s first touchdown in their Super Bowl LIX victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, in which Jalen Hurts punched the ball into the end zone on a Tush Push to go up 7-0.

“I hope they keep that play, Coach,” Trump said, turning to coach Nick Sirianni.

Sirianni laughed and affirmed Trump before the President continued.

“They’re talking about getting rid of that play, I understand,” Trump said. “They should keep it.”

Trump then asked for the opinion of Saquon Barkley, who is a member of the rotating cast of players responsible for pushing Hurts across the line of scrimmage on the play. The star running back had spent the last day getting acquainted with Trump, flying to Washington on Air Force One after golfing at his course in Bedminster, N.J., on Sunday.

“I like it,” Trump continued. “You have guys like [Barkley] pushing you around. I like it. It’s sort of exciting and different.”

The Green Bay Packers have a different opinion. Ahead of the league meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., earlier this month, the Packers proposed a rule change that would “prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap.”

If approved, the rule change would effectively eliminate the Tush Push. NFL clubs discussed the proposal for roughly 40 minutes at the league meetings, with the conversation centering on the potential injury risk associated with the play and its overall aesthetics.

League data has revealed that the Tush Push led to zero injuries in 2024.

Despite skepticism about the play from members of the competition committee, including Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay and Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, the owners opted to table the rule change at the annual meetings.

NFL owners will reconvene in Minneapolis for the spring league meetings, where they could revisit and vote on the proposal. Out of the 32 clubs, 24 would need to vote “yes” on the proposal to enact a change.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at the end of the April league meetings that “there’s a lot of discussion” about going back to the original rule prior to 2005 that prohibited the pushing of an offensive ball carrier anywhere on the field. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie pushed back on the league’s attempt to eliminate the Tush Push at his annual news conference earlier this month.

“I don’t ever remember a play being banned because a single team or a few teams were running it effectively,” Lurie said at the league meetings. “So it’s part of what I think, I personally and I think most of us love about football is it’s a chess match. Let the chess match play out. And if for any reason it does get banned, we will try to be the very best at short-yardage situations.”

The discourse surrounding the Tush Push continued over the weekend during the NFL draft. Beau Allen, who announced an Eagles pick on Day 2, asserted on the draft stage that the play isn’t going anywhere.

On The Pat McAfee Show broadcasting on-site in Green Bay, Wis., Goodell confirmed that the Tush Push topic will be revisited in Minneapolis.

“The competition committee, we’ve been talking about it,” Goodell told McAfee. “The idea is to look back on our history, right? Since 1920 to 2005, you couldn’t push or pull a player anywhere on the field. Is that a football play is the question. A lot of coaches will tell you that’s not part of football, right? ‘It may be rugby but it’s not us.’”

In addition to complimenting the Tush Push on Monday, Trump lauded Hurts, the man partially responsible for the play’s success. Hurts was among the contingent of Eagles players not in attendance at the White House ceremony. A White House official told The Philadelphia Inquirer that players who could not attend had scheduling conflicts.

“Complementing Saquon’s historic season was an incredible year from star quarterback Jalen Hurts,” Trump said. “He had a great season, he had a great game. Finished with 32 touchdowns on the year, turning in one stellar performance after another. Terrific guy and a terrific player.”

Throughout Trump’s remarks, which lasted approximately 20 minutes, he gave the floor to a number of prominent Eagles figures, including Sirianni, Lurie, Dom DiSandro, and Lane Johnson. Sirianni used his airtime to express his appreciation for Trump’s support of the Eagles’ signature play.

“Thank you for having us, Mr. President, and thank you for endorsing the Tush Push,” Sirianni said.