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NFL officials appear to miss blatant false start on Eagles 'Tush Push' vs. Rams

ProfilePhotoby: Nick Geddes09/21/25NickGeddesNews
Eagles
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Sunday portion of the Week 3 NFL slate is underway, and we already have some controversy in the Philadelphia Eagles-Los Angeles Rams game. Yes, it involves the “Tush Push.”

The Eagles went to their bread and butter at the goal line on their opening drive. Their second attempt of the Tush Push resulted in a one-yard score for quarterback Jalen Hurts. The Tush Push two plays before, however, had some controversy behind it. Replay of that one showed that Philadelphia might have gotten away with a false start on the play.

It looks like it could be another week of Tush Push conversation after it dominated the headlines for much of the week leading up to Week 3. The Eagles dialed up the controversial play seven times throughout their Week 2 win over the Kansas City Chiefs and were successful in doing so, much to the chagrin of fans outside of Philadelphia, who felt that Philadelphia should have been called for a false start on multiple occasions.

Per Mark Maske of The Washington Post, the NFL said in its officials’ training tape sent to teams this week that the Eagles should have been called for a false start. Maske said the NFL is instructing officials to call “these plays tight and make sure that every aspect of the offensive team is legal.”

The Tush Push has been a hot topic since last offseason. In May, NFL owners came up two votes shy of banning the play. The proposal to ban the Tush Push was created by the Green Bay Packers, who lost to the Eagles in the NFC Wild Card Round of the 2024 playoffs.

ESPN insider believes NFL has a ‘big test’ officiating ‘Tush Push’ play for Eagles

In what could be the final season for the Tush Push, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported officials would be cracking down on the Eagles, and whoever else runs it, during Sunday’s slate. If it’s still difficult, that could signal the end of the play once and for all.

“Okay, so league officiating sent a memo to all 32 teams this week letting them know that the Eagles’ Tush Push play featured some false starts from the guards, and that that play needs to be officiated tightly moving forward,” Fowler said earlier this week on SportsCenter. “So, I checked in with two different teams, executives and teams who watched the film and read that memo, they said that what’s clear is this play could be truly hard to officiate moving forward, and that this is a big test for the coming weeks for the league. 

“And then one exec pointed out, if you can’t officiate this fairly moving forward, it probably hurts the chances of the tush push getting approved for another year because the league voted on it back in May. It was nearly banned. It was a 22 to 10 vote. They didn’t get the majority. So, the play moves on, lives for another year. I don’t know, it’s gonna be a crucial couple weeks for the Tush Push for momentum moving forward.”