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The Green Bay Packers may be the least popular team at the NFL's Annual League Meeting this year. Green Bay was revealed as the team that submitted a proposal to ban the Tush Push. The controversial proposal has the league up in arms, with players, coaches, and teams taking sides on the issue. One NFL GM believes the Packers are motivated by spite.
One anonymous NFL general manager told ESPN on Monday that Green Bay's proposal “feels like sour grapes” because of their Wild Card loss against Philadelphia.
“They're hiding behind player safety,” he said via ESPN's Kalyn Kahler.
The camp in favor of banning the Tush Push is arguing that it is a dangerous play that puts players' health in jeopardy. Meanwhile, those in favor of keeping the Tush Push seem to want NFL teams to find a way to defend against the play instead of banning it.
Outgoing Packers president Mark Murphy presented the proposal at the NFL's Annual League Meeting on Tuesday.
“Sills can speak for himself, but the angle of it and the nature and the makeup of the play really does lend itself [to injury],” Murphy told reporters. “The centers and the people right in the middle of it, you've got that much force on both sides. It is just a question; I think he is right.”
The Tush Push proposal has been tabled for the moment and discussion will resume in May.
NFL owners, executives split on Packers' Tush Push proposal
ESPN's article did a good job of showing both sides of this disagreement.
The NFL's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, made a presentation and talked about how the play could impact player health and safety.
“It's all about health and safety,” one NFL owner told ESPN. “[Dr. Sills said], ‘It's not if but when a catastrophic injury occurs.'”
Others were not moved by the argument, especially considering how dangerous football already is.
“If that's the argument, the whole sport is a matter of ‘if not when,'” one source in the sessions said. “That rubbed some people the right way, and some people the wrong way. When [Sills] said it at the combine meetings, I don't think it was intended to serve as the water carrier for Green Bay's proposal.”
It will be interesting to see what happens when the Tush Push is discussed again in May.
