The NFL Has Seemingly Reached a Breaking Point With The Tush Push And Has Instructed Refs To Call These Plays "Tight" Moving Forward, Emphasizing Potential Blown False Starts

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For whatever reason it felt like last week was a breaking point when it came to the tush push. That sentiment appears consistent with league officials. Why? It's not because the tush push is necessarily unstoppable. It's not because the Eagles do it more than anybody. It has zero to do with it being an eye sore for the sport. It's because referees have no fucking ability to officiate the play properly. You regularly will see Philly commit penalties on the play because the refs can't see the ball. 

*I've seen people argue this snapshot both ways whether it's legal for the Eagles, Chiefs, or anyone. 

The real issue here involves the guards shooting forward before the ball is snapped. No shit it works nearly 100% of the time. The refs can't tell what the hell is happening at the LOS. 

Sirianni even admitted on Monday that they gotta be better about running into scenarios where refs could blow the whistle and derail their short yardage situation. Aka he knows they're getting away with murder. 

Things were so blatantly obvious this past Sunday against the Chiefs that the league had to send a training video to the refs, emphasizing that this shit has to be called tighter. Finally!

(Athletic) A league training video sent to NFL referees and teams on Wednesday noted officials should have flagged at least one of the Philadelphia Eagles’ “tush push” plays against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.

The instructional video is a regularly distributed package of plays from the prior week’s games that clubs are able to review for training purposes. In it, Ramon George, the NFL’s vice president of officiating training and development, told referees to be more attentive to pre-snap movement during plays like the tush push.

Is it lame to complain about the tush push? I think any time anyone becomes overly successful at something in sports that no one else can replicate it's definitely a soft move to bitch about it. It's also fair to say opposing teams gotta be better at getting into those short yardage situations. That being said, if the Eagles are allowed to get away with murder here that's fucking bullshit. If the play was officiated properly it wouldn't work as well as it does. Is it lame to complain about this? Again, I really don't care. The play can exist if the rules are followed. I think that's fair. 

I'm sure Eagles fans will argue the opposite until the play's death. Why would they be in support of banning a play that greatly helps them win close games? That's totally fine, but it does feel like we're living in the final year of its existence. They were so close to banning it in the offseason, with just a few more teams needing to come on board. Unless the refs start to really enforce the false starts you're gonna see this gone by next Fall. I'm fascinated to see how officials call this moving forward and if we'll see a change starting Sunday in Philly's game against the Rams.