Eagles

Shout Out to the Detroit Lions for Being on the Right Side of Tush Push History, and Pulling the NFL Away from the Slippery Slope (UPDATED)

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: May 21st, 2025 · 12:44 PM EDT

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According to reports, one of the nine teams that joined the Eagles in voting against the tush push ban was the Detroit Lions:

As the Lions said back during the owners meetings, they were not in favor of banning the tush push. https://t.co/kms1K744LN

— Pride of Detroit (@PrideOfDetroit) May 21, 2025

Lions head coach Dan Campbell on the tush push in March:

“If you’ve got something, we’ve gotta stop it. So, like, to me, leave it in.”

The Lions were one of the teams against banning the tush push. pic.twitter.com/47q6qebs4N

— Colton Pouncy (@colton_pouncy) May 21, 2025

Big time props to the Lions, not only for following through with what they’ve communicated from the beginning, but being an NFC rival and still siding with the Eagles. They’re a week 11 opponent this season, and they’re going to be one of the top teams in the NFC again, a major obstacle in the Birds getting back to the Super Bowl. They could have EASILY followed the cowardly Packers and voted against the play simply to give themselves a competitive advantage. But they stuck to their guns and voted on principle, not for the fake reasons that 22 teams hid behind.

Schefty mentions the Jets, Pats, and Ravens as other teams that sided with the Birds. All in the AFC and not an immediate competitor, but also on the right side of history. You’d think the Chargers were team #6 to support, based on Jim Harbaugh’s thoughts on the play. Both Harbaugh brothers are honest football guys. Todd Bowles was another who echoed Dan Campbell’s sentiment about finding a way to stop the play, and the Bucs are an NFC team, so if they voted against the ban, they deserve the same plaudits we’re giving the Lions. I’m sure we’ll get the full list of yes and no teams at some point soon.

EDIT – here it is, the Bucs did NOT help the Eagles:

NFL needed 24 votes today to ban the Tush Push, but got only 22. Here are the 10 teams that voted against the Tush Push ban, per sources:

🏈Eagles
🏈Ravens
🏈Browns
🏈Lions
🏈Jaguars
🏈Dolphins
🏈Patriots
🏈Saints
🏈Jets
🏈Titans

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 21, 2025

This vote was super-important in regard to precedent setting as the NFL moves forward.

What does that mean? Well, think of it this way –

If the Packers (and Roger Goodell) came out and said, “you know what, we just don’t like the concept of players pushing the quarterback forward,” then banning the play would have been much more palatable. Instead, the entire movement to ban was dishonest, based on pretenses that are demonstrably false, which football fans sniffed out in about two seconds, supported by hard NFL data. There was no injury concern and no pace of play problem, but the dissidents decided to just ignore that and forge ahead anyway. That brought us to the edge of the slippery slope, because now you’ve got a potential situation where you can get what you want while hiding behind a disingenuous set of concerns. 22 teams shamefully had no problem doing that, while 10 prevented the NFL from going down the wrong path.