The Packers made a flawed proposal aimed at neutralizing the tush push. It nevertheless won support of half of the league.
Kalyn Kahler of ESPN.com reports that 16 teams supported Green Bay's submission, which would have banned players from "immediately" pushing the player who receives the snap. While that number fell eight votes short of the minimum needed to change the rules, the 50-50 split confirms that the debate is very real — and that, when the owners gather again in May, it could go either way.
Still, at least half of the teams that weren't prepared to vote for the Packers' proposal will need to change their minds for the status quo to be altered.
The problem could very well be the formulation of Green Bay's proposal. That rule would have cracked open a separate can of worms for the league regarding the proper way to officiate the play, introducing subjectivity and potential inconsistency from crew to crew regarding whether a push was, or wasn't, immediate.
And if, for instance, a flag is thrown to nullify a key tush push touchdown when the shove arguably wasn't "immediate," the league would have to deal with criticism of the officials that could morph into claims from the tinfoil-hat crowd that the fix is in.
The question becomes whether it makes sense to rewind the clock to 2005 and prohibit all pushing of a ballcarrier. The rule changed because downfield shoving of a player who was fighting for more yardage was never called. No one realized 19 year ago that this would eventually morph into the dilemma with which the stewards of the sport are now wrestling.
A complete ban on pushing the player with the ball would become much easier and cleaner to officiate. And while there could be instances where an offensive lineman rumbles to the pile and gives a healthy shove without a flag being thrown, it would eliminate the strategic use of pushing and shoving as an affirmative strategy at the line of scrimmage.
It all comes down to whether 24 owners will get behind the idea of keeping teammates from getting behind the quarterback and ramming him past the line to gain or the goal line. A complete ban on pushing would more directly and conclusively solve the problem, with no need for the officials to determine whether or not a shove was "immediate."
An answer is coming before Memorial Day. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is about as immediate as it could happen.
