With the NFL owners meetings wrapping up, there was a flurry of activity this morning as it came to voting on proposed rule changes for the 2025 season and beyond. One of the biggest proposals was banning the tush push, a play the Philadelphia Eagles have frequently used that has been mimicked across the league where an offensive player shoves the quarterback from behind to gain additional yardage. The proposal was tabled until May, but owner Art Rooney II revealed which side of the tush push proposal Steelers were on in Florida.
“We were in favor of the rule as proposed. It’s a fairly narrow proposal in terms of just eliminating the ability to push the quarterback on a quarterback sneak. So we were in favor of that,” Rooney said via video posted by Steelers.com.
The Steelers haven’t embraced the tush push like some teams around the league, and it’s a play that’s drawn scrutiny for giving offenses a clear advantage. The Green Bay Packers proposed the change to ban it, but Rooney said that some owners want more data and thought there were other issues to address before voting on the tush push, hence why it was tabled.
Rooney also said the Steelers are not in favor of the Detroit Lions’ proposal to seed teams in the playoffs by record, with division results not playing a role in the process.
“We think division rivalries are one of the more important parts of competition and don’t want to do anything to upset that,” he said.
The AFC North has always been a division where teams beat up on each other and it’s a lot harder to win against divisional opponents. If the rule change had passed, division titles wouldn’t matter as much, and teams that play in more difficult divisions could be seeded lower than they otherwise would be if they win the division with a worse record.
It’s another proposal that got tabled, but it’s not surprising at all that the Steelers and Rooney aren’t in favor of it, and they likely will maintain that stance when the proposal gets brought back to the table.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the tush push when that gets voted on again, and as a team that hasn’t utilized the play, it’s not entirely shocking that the Steelers are against it.
