Jerry Jones seemingly failed to convince the NFL to side with him during the most important league vote in years
The NFL just finalized one of the most important votes the league has seen in recent memory: To ban or not to ban the Tush Push.The quarterback sneak variation popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles barely survived being outlawed as the final tally was 22 against the play, 10 in favor. The NFL needed 24 votes […]
The NFL just finalized one of the most important votes the league has seen in recent memory: To ban or not to ban the Tush Push.
The quarterback sneak variation popularized by the Philadelphia Eagles barely survived being outlawed as the final tally was 22 against the play, 10 in favor. The NFL needed 24 votes to ban the Tush Push.
The two-vote margin wasn't the only dramatic characteristic surrounding the vote. The Eagles brought in future Hall of Famer Jason Kelce to talk about the play not being dangerous and several other speakers addressed the room to address the matter.
That includes Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, according to NFL insider Albert Breer. Though we don't know Jones' stance on the play for sure, breadcrumbs left behind throughout the offseason suggest he was against.
First of all, Stephen Jones said last March the competition committee was looking for consistency, and he pointed out the league doesn't allow pushing a player in every scenario.
"We're looking for consistency as a committee, and we don't allow pushing," Jones said. "We don't allow the linebackers to push the defensive linemen on extra points, and we're just trying to be consistent. These quarterbacks, I'm sure they would be wildly successful whether you're pushed or not. . . Green Bay really brought something to our attention that we felt like certainly needs to be vetted in the meeting room."
Though Stephen Jones didn't explicitly reveal which way the Cowboys were leaning, his comments heavily suggest they were onboard with the idea of banning it.
Additionally, Jerry himself discussed the rule proposal in May and even admitted it was about entertainment, not safety or even fairness.
“The reason we got the 2-point play is [we] said the extra point alone kicking it is not exciting enough,” Jones said in April. “That reminded me of how those things have evolved. It was more from the entertainment standpoint — which from my perspective, is a good discussion. The fact that fans could be interested in what we do with it. We do things, and if somebody does it really well or gets an edge, we might make defensive, offensive adjustments. . . That's the discussion."
With all that in mind plus the fact the Cowboys would be obvious winners from a Tush Push ban, you can call it an educated guess to say Jones was probably trying to sell the owners on banning the Eagles' signature play.
If that was indeed the case, the renowned salesman might've been close but he couldn't quite close the deal.
