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Dean Blandino Responded to His “Done With the Tush Push” Comments in His Own Smug Way
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
God Dean Blandino is so smug:
I’ll respond to every one of his claims.
Health and safety remains the funniest argument from detractors, especially because they always preface it with, “Well I know the data doesn’t say it’s there, but…“. If Blandino wants to get ahead of an injury we should stop allowing players to sack the QB. Joe Burrow’s out with turf toe for potentially the entire season. Football is a rough game. There will be injuries when giant specimens are crashing into each other 100 times a game. If you want to get ahead of injuries, shut the entire sport down.
Next, we have unfair competitive advantage. You know what else was an unfair competitive advantage? The West Coast offense, the Wildcat, and Tom Brady’s QB sneak. On the defensive side, the Tampa 2 gave offenses fits until someone figured out a way to beat it. Every single team in the NFL can run this play. They just don’t have the personnel to do it. Don’t penalize the Eagles because Howie Roseman drafts better than your guy does.
Then we have the tush push being a hard play to officiate consistently…on both sides of the ball:
That’s one thing people might’ve forgotten in all of this. It’s always how much other teams are screwed by the officiating when it comes to the Tush Push. It’s never that maybe officiating has always kind of sucked in the NFL and human error is prevalent, which, for better or worse, makes people love the game even more. Imagine policing a pitcher in baseball because he’s working the corners too well. The Statcast shows it’s a ball every time, but the umps give it to him consistently. We’re lucky to get consistent umpiring in a series around balls and strikes let alone an entire season. Plenty of baseball fans love the human error aspect.
Teams could’ve been running this play since 2006 you say? And since the Eagles know the rule book better than most, they should be penalized for that? I’m not even giving a rebuttal to “it’s a rugby play”. That’s just become an argument guys who’ve never played rugby love to use. It doesn’t matter how much Jordan Mailata, former rugby player, says it’s not a rugby play. They’ll never stop using that as a reason why the play should be banned.
It’s not a fun play to watch. THEY RAN IT SIX TIMES AGAINST THE CHIEFS! There are 150+ plays during an average NFL game. We’re mad at a play that accounts for 4% of them. If you’re bored with the Tush Push, then there is no reason to continue field goals, XPs, or punts. No more kneel downs or spikes either. How exciting are those plays? Wouldn’t we rather watch Saquon Barkley jump over a guy? Why don’t they use Saquon more?!?!? *checks 2024 stats* I mean, what’re we doing here? The acidity of Blandino’s hair gel is seeping into his brain. What does he think will happen if they ban the Tush Push? It’s just going to be Jalen Hurts QB sneaking it on any short-yardage situation (good for Rich Eisen pushing back on this). Blandino is an iPad kid that wants the fourth quarter of the Giants vs. Cowboys game. Don’t get me wrong, that game was electric, but it was also dumb fucking football played by both sides. Both defensive coordinators should’ve been looking for jobs after that game. More scoring isn’t always the answer. Ask the NBA how that’s going for them. I think my favorite part is Blandino contradicting himself about his first point. The original rule that was changed in 2006 was never being officiated, so in retrospect it’s your official’s fault why we’re in this mess. The circle of life.
Dean Blandino hates the Tush Push. Maybe because he’s hearing it from his referee friends or maybe he just has an ax to grind because his favorite team sucks:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com