Josh Allen has his say on the ‘tush push’ debate

The controversial NFL ‘tush push’ narrowly survived an effort to ban the practice at last month’s owners’ meeting but that has not stopped the conversation.

The Philadelphia Eagles, Super Bowl champions, popularized the move that sparked major disquiet in the league. At the owners’ meeting, 22 of the league’s 32 teams supported the proposed ban. That fell just short of the 24-team threshold needed to pass the ban.

The Buffalo Bills were among those teams that voted in favor of the ban, but team quarterback Josh Allen had a slightly different take on the ‘tush push’. Speaking this week, Allen said: “I’m a big believer in if you can’t stop it, keep running it, right?”

He continued: “I think that there’s a few teams that do it better than others, but then you look at a few teams that try to do it, and it doesn’t have the same success. Because, one, they maybe don’t practice it enough or, two, they don’t have the guys to do it. And just because a couple teams do it better than others, I don’t feel like it should be banned."

Allen’s point gets to the heart of the debate. Namely: does it give teams an unfair advantage, or does it simply advantage the teams that do it very well? The Eagles’ run to a Super Bowl certainly heightening the awareness of the tactic but few other teams have managed to achieve the same results.

Allen explained: “I understand the merit of what it brings and so I don’t really sway one way or the other. I try to play the game based on the interpretation of the rules. And if that was the rule that was passed, you know, we’ll find a different way. But I feel like if you can use it to your benefit, use it to your benefit. If you don’t like it, my advice is to stop it, you know?”

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