Someone is finally doing what the Packers have long wanted, but the decision is coming from outside the NFL
UFL is banning the tush push moving forward.
When the Green Bay Packers proposed a rule change in the NFL a year ago, it created a frenzy. Mostly doing what the NFL wanted, then Packers CEO and president Mark Murphy tried to ban the tush push.
“We had really good discussions,” Murphy said at the April league meetings, before the rule didn’t pass in May. “Talked a little bit about our safety concerns regarding the play, just kind of the style of the play. But good interaction with the league.”
This year, someone has finally decided the tush push play isn’t good for the game, but it’s not the NFL. The UFL, the top spring league in football, has decided to prohibit the play in its games.
UFL rules effort
Former NFL vice president of officiating and TV rules analyst Dean Blandino is UFL’s head of officiating. He leads an effort for the minor league to function as a hub of ideas. So beyond banning the tush push, the UFL is making several other rule changes for 2026.
That includes a four-point field goal for kicks of 60+ yards, one foot inbounds being considered a catch, red-zone penalties reverting to half the distance to the goal, no punting inside the opponent’s 50-yard line, and overtime rules with three alternating attempts per team from the five-yard line.
The UFL also has three options for the extra points after a touchdown: one-point kick from the 33-yard line, two-point try from the two-yard line, or a three-point try from the eight-yard line.
This is interesting because, as Dean Blandino mentioned, the entire world of football is looking at the results of these changes. The new dynamic kickoff rule adopted by the NFL is inspired by the XFL model — curiously, though, the UFL didn’t adopt the model when the XFL and the USFL merged into one big spring league.
For the NFL, things will stay the same. Nobody proposed banning the tush push this year, even though 22 teams voted for banning it in 2025 — the league requires two thirds to trigger a rule change, which means 24 votes.
The big problem is not the tush push itself, but how badly it’s officiated — false starts and offsides are frequent, but they are hard to call. It’s ok to keep the tush push alive if refs can call it like they do any other play — but if it’s impossible, Mark Murphy will have fought a good battle for the future of the sport.
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