A Tush Push ban in the NFL would be such a loser move

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Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. It looks like the NFL is about to make a serious run at finally banning the tush push.

According to reporting from ESPN's Kalyn Kahler, the proposal to ban the play initially pushed forward by the Green Bay Packers has support within the NFL's competition committee. It's not clear that the proposal has the 24 votes necessary to move forward on it, but it does seem to be clear that more teams are open to the idea that the play needs to be banned. Why? The two reasons teams are citing are safety and pace of play.

I'm here to tell you that those two reasons are nonsense.

Supporters are citing safety. But the tush push hasn't proven to be more unsafe than any regular NFL play. No team has presented any injury data backing up any concern they might have. Any discussion about injuries is purely anecdotal at this point, which, after three full seasons of running the play, doesn't feel like it should hold any weight.

But, hey. What do I know?

Then there's the pace of play argument. Teams question if the fans want to see the play run "50 times down the field," Kahler writes. But that doesn't happen. It's generally only used by two teams — the Bills and Eagles. And, according to ESPN, it was only run 101 times out of 35,414 plays run last season. That certainly doesn't sound like a sample that could impact the overall pace of the game.

You could argue that the pace issue arose in the NFC Championship game when the Eagles continuously ran the play against the Commanders on the goal line. The defense tried to time the snap to stop the play over and over again but couldn't. Yes, it's fair to describe that as a dumpster fire. But that wasn't the play's fault — that was more about the Commanders' ineptitude.

And that's kind of what this all comes down to. What's happening here is so obvious. It's been three years now and the league still hasn't figured out how to stop the tush push. The real problem is that not everybody is as good at doing it. Teams (like the Packers!) have tried and failed to do their own versions.

Now, to be clear, not every team is for banning this. Some coaches, like Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles and