The NFL’s annual league meetings have brought out the drama, and no storyline is juicier than the Green Bay Packers’ full-blown crusade to ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ unstoppable short-yardage play, the infamous “Tush Push.” Despite zero injury data and less than 0.3% usage league-wide, Green Bay pushed hard for the league to outlaw it. One of the reasons? Apparently, it looks too much like a rugby play.
It’s become the talking point of the week. While teams like the Eagles are focused on moving the game forward, some execs and owners seem adamant about eliminating a play they simply can’t stop—because it works too well.
“The Packers’ proposal to ban the push sneak, popularly known as the tush push, has support within the competition committee,” ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler reported. That’s how far this thing has gone.
And just when you think it couldn’t get any funnier… it does. Because while the Packers are out here yelling about rugby tactics in the Tush Push, guess where they could be going in 2025? Right into rugby’s backyard.
The Packers lead the charge against "rugby"… only to get sent to rugby country
The Packers say the Tush Push isn’t a football play. That it resembles rugby. That it’s dangerous and needs to go. The NFL, meanwhile, shrugs at the actual data (no injuries reported) and decides maybe it’s worth considering.
Now here’s where it gets rich.
Green Bay, the same team that’s been lobbying to scrub rugby-adjacent plays from the sport, just got awarded international marketing rights in Ireland—and they’re rumored to be heading to Dublin in 2025 to play the Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park, the crown jewel of Irish sporting venues… and the longtime home of Irish rugby.
You can’t make this stuff up.
This is the same Packers team that lost to the Eagles in Brazil and now may take its talents back to the international stage and into the heart of rugby culture to play a game while simultaneously crying that a quarterback sneak is too rugby-esque for football.
The Tush Push might not be pretty, but it’s legal. It’s strategic. And it’s become a symbol of excellence in execution. The Packers couldn’t stop it, couldn’t run it, and now want it erased. But while they’re trying to legislate away the Eagles’ edge, they’ll be spending the fall marketing their brand in a country where actual rugby scrums are worshipped.
The irony writes itself.
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