The Wheels are in Motion for the NFL to Ban the Brotherly Shove Because of Player Safety
The NFL competition committee has their sights lasered in on the “Brotherly Shove” and will apparently study the injury data related to the play, according to Adam Schefter:
Brotherly shove: The controversial play has the attention of the competition committee, and the NFL and the NFLPA plan to study all the injury data related to the play, as is customary, during the off-season, per a league official, especially after two Giants were injured on the… pic.twitter.com/Ivwse05FGL
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 8, 2023
This is such bullshit and exactly what Kinker said was going to happen.
prediction: the tush push / Brotherly Shove will be banned at the end of the year under the guise of “player safety” because other teams can’t run it properly: pic.twitter.com/B8k97H1Tfx
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) October 4, 2023
The NFL knows if they came right out and banned it because coaches and owners behind the scenes are complaining, they would get killed. So instead, to take the heat off their backs, they mask it as a player safety motive. Chess, not checkers. They didn’t care about concussions all those years or care when the Super Bowl was played on a slip-n-slide in February, but they care about player safety now!
Schefty specifically mentions the Giants play where two players were injured. What he fails to bring up, and what probably won’t be included in the player safety data report at the end of the year, is that Brian Daboll admits they never practiced the play during the week. He just threw his guys to the wolves and said go ahead.
Here’s the thing –
The Eagles aren’t the only ones good at it. Yea they run it the most and are the most effective, but it’s not like the rest of the league, who practices it, isn’t converting the Brotherly Shove as successfully.
The play is a glorified sneak where the quarterback is pushed forward by teammates lined up behind him. It has been wildly successful for the Eagles since they made it a regular part of their offense in 2022. They have run it 37 times in the regular season, per ESPN Stats & Information, and have gotten a first down or scored a touchdown on 34 of those attempts for a success rate of 92%.
Other teams are following suit — there have been 36 attempts through four weeks, up from five at this point in 2022 — with mixed results. Four teams are 0-for-1, but the overall success rate is 81%.
It’s an advantage that teams with the best O-lines and strongest QBs are exploiting.
The competition committee was split on the vote last year and I wouldn’t be shocked if they vote in favor to eliminate it cause I’m sure Jerry Jones is behind the scenes pulling for its demise. So go ahead. Ban it. It’s not like the Eagles aren’t going to run a QB sneak just as effectively. No one else in the NFL has an O-Line like we do with a QB can squat 600 pounds.
But until then VIVA LA BROTHERLY SHOVE !