During Eagles' White House Visit, Trump says NFL shouldn't ban the tush push
The Philadelphia Eagles have an unlikely supporter for their infamous tush push play: President Trump.
During the Eagles' visit to the White House on Monday to celebrate their Super Bowl LIX win over the Kansas City Chiefs, Mr. Trump said he hopes the NFL doesn't ban that play.
"I hope they keep that play, coach," Trump said on the South Lawn as he looked back at Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni. "They're talking about getting rid of that play, I understand. They should keep it. I like it, it's sort of exciting and different."
Mr. Trump's endorsement of the tush push comes as the NFL delayed a vote at the NFL owners' meetings to potentially ban the play. NFL team owners are set to vote on the play in May after teams reportedly had an informal 16-16 vote on the tush push. It takes 24 of 32 votes to approve rule changes.
Later during the ceremony, Sirianni said that he appreciated Mr. Trump's support for keeping the play in the NFL. In the offseason, Sirianni has pushed back against the proposal to ban the play and even encouraged some of his former assistant coaches on other teams to keep the play in the league.
After Philadelphia's Super Bowl win, the Green Bay Packers introduced a proposal to ban the tush push. The Packers were beat twice by the Eagles in the 2025 season, including in the playoffs.
Following the playoff loss, Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy called the tush push "bad for the game" in a message posted on the team's website.
The NFL said no injuries have been reported on the tush push, but teams opposing the play have cited player safety as a reason to ban it.
Eagles CEO and owner Jeffrey Lurie said during the NFL owner's meetings that he's all about player safety, but that "there's just been no data that shows it isn't a very, very safe play. If it weren't, we wouldn't be pushing the tush push."
"I don't ever remember a play being banned because a single team or a few teams were running it effectively. It's part of what I think that I love and we love most about football is it's a chess match. Let the chess match play out," Lurie said. "If for any reason it does get banned, we'll try to be the very best at short-yardage situations, and we've got a lot of ideas there."
The Eagles have run the tush push at a very successful rate. Philadelphia was 39 of 48 converting the tush push into a first down or touchdown in the 2025 season, including the playoffs.
