The Green Bay Packers‘ proposal to ban the push sneak, popularly known as the tush push, has support within the competition committee, a source with direct knowledge told ESPN on Sunday.
Another source with direct knowledge of competition committee thinking said the proposal would be “hotly contested” among the coaches, general managers and owners as they gather for league meetings this week.
The league office staff presented the rules proposals during the football operations meeting Sunday afternoon, and two sources in the meeting described the back and forth as “heated” regarding the proposal to “prohibit an offensive player from pushing a teammate who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap, immediately at the snap.”
During the Sunday afternoon session, Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, assistant general manager Jon Ferrari and two head coaches on the competition committee, Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and Sean McDermott of the Buffalo Bills, gathered in a hallway outside of the ballroom to have a private and animated side conversation about the Packers’ proposal.
Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has not spoken publicly about the team’s proposal, and declined to comment on it when approached by ESPN on Sunday afternoon. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst also declined a question from ESPN on Sunday. “I’ll leave that for someone else to talk about,” he said.
Teams putting forth a proposal will often save their argument for the day of voting, which in this case, will be Tuesday morning.
