It’s been a big week for tushes and pushes in the NFL. On Wednesday, during the NFL owners’ meeting, the league voted to uphold the tush push as a legal play.
The NFL needed 24 votes to ban the play made famous by Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, but it fell two votes short with a final tally of 22-10. That sound you’re hearing is Philadelphia fans pointing and laughing at the teams that wanted the nearly unstoppable play outlawed.
One player likely joining the fans in that regard is running back Saquon Barkley. On Thursday’s episode of the “Exciting Mics” podcast with teammates Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship, Barkley threw some shade on the teams that voted to ban the tush push.
“For me, personally, as a player, I know if I don’t wanna do a tush push on the 1-yard line, make sure I score. I think I got tackled at the 1-yard line like 11 times,” Barkley said. “But the banning thing of it, I think it’s soft to be honest, like the teams that want to ban it — because everybody can do it. It’s not a play that we only can do. We happen to have one of the best and biggest [offensive] lines, and Jalen Hurts can squat 600 pounds. That’s not our fault.”
