The fate of the tush push will be up for discussion again when NFL team owners converge in Minneapolis this week for the Spring League Meeting.
One rival of the Philadelphia Eagles indicated on Monday that he's in favor of ownership removing the play from the rule book.
"I think they should ban it," Washington Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu said Monday on NFL Network's Good Morning Football. "I know the argument is going to be about you guys have to stop it, don't get us in short yardage, and what not. It's kind of a cheapo play."
Luvu was called for encroachment penalties on back-to-back plays when attempting to thwart the tush push during the Commanders' loss to the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game in January. The multiple infractions -- Washington was called for an additional offsides penalty in the sequence -- prompted referee Shawn Hochuli to threaten to award a TD to the Eagles if the Commanders continued to jump offsides. It became one of the more noteworthy moments regarding the play.
"It's pretty much a scrum in rugby," Luvu said. "That's how I kind of look at it. We've got a scrum, too, on the other side. The scrum is we have a cadence where we all go at once. It's not like a hard count, this and that. Now you getting us or myself jumping over the pile thinking they're going to snap the ball."
Philadelphia's famous play has been a topic of conversation for years, reaching a new level when owners agreed to consider a proposal from Green Bay to ban a short-yardage scheme.
Owners were set to vote last month but instead tabled the topic for more discussion of a play where Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts takes the snap while two or three players line up behind him to try to push him past the first down line or into the end zone as he sneaks forward.
The Eagles began using the play in 2022. Buffalo was among several teams that started using it, but no team has matched Philadelphia's success rate.
"There are definitely some people that have health and safety concerns, but there's just as many people that have football concerns," NFL Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay said last month at the Annual League Meeting. "So I wouldn't say it was because of one particular health and safety video or discussion. It was much more about the play, the aesthetics of the play, is it part of what football has been traditionally, or is it more of a rugby play?"
It has been a virtual guarantee that Philadelphia uses the play on fourth-and-1, and sometimes even when needing 2 yards on fourth down.
"There's no data that shows it isn't a very safe play, or else we wouldn't be pushing the tush push," Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said last month.
The Spring League Meeting begins Tuesday and runs through Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
