Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

‘It’s a Fumble’ – Kelce Brothers Jason and Travis Weigh In on the Controversial Tush Push Play That Keeps Making Headlines!

The Tush Push's days may be numbered as another controversy hits the Eagles' famous play!

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The Philadelphia Eagles have made a living out of third and short and fourth and short by running their famous ‘Tush Push’ play over and over when they need it. The play has garnered severe controversy with the NFL Owners even putting it to a vote back in the offseason.

Since the play was not banned, the Eagles continue to use it with great success, but lately, it is under harsh scrutiny from the NFL community due to the officiating mistakes.

What Are the Problems with the Tush Push?

The overall community has a couple of different issues with the play, with some calling it a ‘non-footballing’ play, while others are strictly against it for its ugliness.

Some, like the Green Bay Packers, are also concerned with player safety, but of late, the issue has been the way the referees are officiating the play.

This season, there have been multiple instances of the Eagles jumping offside while running the play, but so far, they have seldom been caught doing so. That is because the officials aren’t able to see the offside movement with everyone huddled up so close to one another.

It appears there was a missed false start on an Eagles tush push.

Soon after, they scored a touchdown… On a tush push!

📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/5iozl3TKXn
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 21, 2025

In Week 8, the Eagles took on the Giants, and there was an instance with the same play that has stirred up controversy yet again. As Jalen Hurts tried to stretch the ball over the first-down marker, Kayvon Thibodeaux stripped the ball out of his hands, forcing what many felt was a clear fumble.

The referees, however, ruled it as forward progress and blew the whistle as they handed Philly the first down. This has caused uproar regarding the officiating once again.

Do you think this should have been a fumble on this tush push?

📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/hALwhUxdhx
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) October 26, 2025

Kelce Brothers’ Take on the Tush Push

The Kelce Brothers’ former Eagles’ center Jason, and Kansas City’s star tight end Travis discussed the play on their ‘New Heights’ podcast in which both seemed to be in agreement that the play should have resulted in a fumble.

Jason Kelce, who was the center for the Eagles when they first started using the Tush Push up until last season, when he retired, even advocated for the play during the owners’ meeting earlier this year.

However, he gave an honest account of the play and called it a fumble that the refs missed calling, even though he feels the play should not be banned.

“It’s a fumble. Like, they missed it.” Said Kelce before continuing. “Officials miss forward progress calls all the time, all the time. So, I know there’s been a lot of noise around false starts and now this play, and I get it. And if the tush push truly is hard to officiate, that would certainly be a reason to ban it. I’m not looking to make excuses. I just don’t know how these little things have to do with the actual pushing of tushes.”

On similar lines, younger brother Travis also felt the refs should have awarded the Giants the fumble as he said, “It’s one of those like you got to blow the whistle and say that his momentum stopped or you got to call it a fumble.”

“It’s a fumble, they missed it”

Jason shared his thoughts on the latest Tush Push controversial call pic.twitter.com/9tT5XQk6OL
— New Heights (@newheightshow) October 30, 2025

More and more analysts and experts of the game are leaning towards banning the play from next season, now more so than ever, especially with the officials missing a multitude of calls. The fate of the play could still be up in question, but till then, teams have only one option – keep trying to find a solution and stop it themselves rather than putting it in the hands of the officials.

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Jason Kelce

New Heights

NFL

Philadelphia Eagles

Travis Klece

Tush Push

Devavrat Kulkarni

nfl

I am a content writer for the NFL team, and joined The Playoffs after working with Sportskeeda and NFL Analysis as an NFL writer. After starting my professional career as a French-to-English translator, working as a content writer is a new adventure for me. I started out in the sports media field for two main reasons: my love for sports in general, especially the NFL, NBA, and Tennis, as well as my passion for writing. The best part of this job is that I get to write a variety of pieces with the freedom to explore content from various angles. It also enables me to stay up to date with the sporting world, which otherwise can be difficult to do in the day-to-day grind. In a world full of chaos, sports unite and entertain like nothing else!