Sean McDermott: NFL should ban Tush Push for 'health and safety' of players, despite lack of injury data

Sean McDermott is making his stance clear on the future of the Tush Push in the NFL. The Buffalo Bills‘ head coach is on the side of banning the modified quarterback sneak that the Philadelphia Eagles have perfected over the past few seasons.

According to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, McDermott believes the NFL would be acting proactively by banning the Tush Push to prevent injuries. It’s simply the best way to proceed, per the Bills leader, even if the data isn’t necessarily all there: “We’re going to always act in a way that’s best for the health and safety of the players,” McDermott stated.

It’s surprising to see McDermott of all coaches riding hard for the ban, as his team could benefit from the play with a player like Josh Allen at quarterback. Still, McDermott didn’t mince words, and there’s no misrepresenting what he said — he’s ready to take the play out of the game, no matter how it affects his team’s offense.

Time will tell if there’s enough momentum to ban the Tush Push. It’ll all come down to the NFL owners voting on the proposal this week at the annual league meeting in Palm Beach, Florida.

If the proposal goes to a vote, 24 of the 32 NFL owners would have to vote in favor for it to pass, per ESPN. The NFL competition committee has examined the play in previous years. No changes have been made since its inception, but there’s never been this much momentum against it.

Regardless, the Tush Push has helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl in February. Due to the violent nature of the play, there’s been some backlash from a few teams, specifically the Green Bay Packers, who filed the original proposal to ban the Tush Push. After the Packers filed the proposal last month, Nick Sirianni of the Eagles spoke to reporters about the move.

“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve practiced the snap, we’ve practiced the play — it’s not a play that’s easy to practice, so there’s different ways we’ve figured out how to practice it — the complements that come off of it that can create explosive plays,” he said, per ESPN.

“The fact that it’s [portrayed] as an automatic thing, we work really hard, and our guys are talented at this play, and so it’s a little insulting to say we’re good at it so it’s automatic. We work really hard at it.”

All told, there’s multiple reasons to be on both sides of the fence regarding banning the Tush Push. Will the banishment come to fruition? That remains to be seen, but Sean McDermott has made his opinion known on the matter, for sure.

— On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this article.