The Tush Push may be on a farewell tour, but the Eagles will use it until its last breath: 'It's a life well lived'

Jeff Neiburg, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 18, 2025

Published in Football

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PHILADELPHIA — In the Season 11 premiere of HBO’s "Curb Your Enthusiasm," Albert Brooks decides to host what he calls a “live funeral.” Brooks, in the episode, says attending five “real funerals” in a three-year span sparked a “different way of thinking about” the funeral. “The idea that people get together and friends get together and say wonderful things should be done to a person who can hear it,” he says.

Because this is Curb, Brooks’ live funeral starts with him upstairs at his home watching on television as people gather downstairs and say nice things about him and later devolves into chaos when it’s revealed that Brooks is a COVID-19 cleaning supply hoarder.

But the original idea, the living funeral, started because Brooks couldn’t “stand that all this praise is going to somebody in a box.”

Welcome, then, to the living funeral for the Tush Push. Except not all speakers at this live funeral are here to say nice things about the soon-to-be-deceased.

Months after the play the Eagles invented and mastered — the one that has helped them dominate in short-yardage situations — survived an attempt to have it whacked from the rules, the debate over its use and its future is back after the Eagles used it seven times Sunday against Kansas City. Six, officially, since one of them was deemed no play after the Chiefs jumped offside and the Eagles accepted the 5-yard penalty.

The Chiefs and slow-motion video say the Eagles guards jumped early. The Eagles say the defensive linemen constantly line up in the neutral zone to try to stop it. Nick Sirianni said this week that the Eagles will have to continue to be “perfect” at the play they use more than anyone else and, therefore, practice more than anyone else. Don’t be surprised if Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner who doesn’t seem to be a fan of the play, has officials watching the play even closer than normal.

“I don’t know what to say,” Eagles center Cam Jurgens said. “It’s just kind of a moot point at this time. We run a play and then somebody will clip one thing and take a photo and be like, ‘They do this every time!’ or something like that. Whatever.”

Said Siranni: “We don’t have to deal with it right now. We got enough things that we have to deal with now. Obviously, you’re always working to improve the play. You’re always working through different things to complement it. You’re always working through different things if you don’t have it. Right now we do, and that’s that. I try to only control the things that I can control, not anything that’s out of my control.”

The Eagles, of course, have no plans to stop using the play that, according to ESPN, they have used 116 times since 2022 until they have to. Why would they? The league average success rate on fourth-and-1 situations where a Tush Push isn’t used is 67% since 2022, according to ESPN. The Eagles are converting nearly 97% of their fourth-and-1s with their signature play. Other teams have tried to replicate it, but only the Buffalo Bills have found success.

Just Monday night, the Houston Texans found themselves second-and-goal from the 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter. The next three plays went like this: Nick Chubb rush for no gain; C.J. Stroud incomplete pass to Nico Collins; Stroud incomplete to Collins. Turnover on downs. They eventually lost the game by a point.

Jason Kelce, one of the more impassioned speakers at this living funeral, took the microphone on his podcast this week to defend a play he helped perfect and also had some back-and-forth social media exchanges on the topic.

“You are out of your mind if you think players jumping the snap and lining up in the neutral zone doesn’t happen on other plays,” Kelce wrote. “People complain about tackles leaving early on pass plays all the time. How much has [Chiefs tackle Jawaan Taylor] done the exact same thing in his pass set?”

ESPN’s Adam Schefter, who works for a company the NFL has a stake in, starting beating the drum against the Tush Push on television earlier this week, prompting Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata to say, “I don’t give a [expletive] what Adam Schefter says, to be honest,” when asked about it Wednesday.

What’s clear is that the play that survived by just two votes during league meetings in May likely will face another round of voting that may not yield the same result in 2026, even if the contrived concern of injury risks continues to be unfounded. The Tush Push, when it passes, will be just 4 years old.

“It’s a life well lived, if I might add,” Mailata said. “It’s like a sad day, but at the same time, I’m going to live it up. What do you do when you have six months to live? I’m going to live it up. Hell, we might even call it 18 times this game. We’ll see.”