PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Banning the “tush push” is gaining momentum.
Still, it'll take 24 of 32 votes to eliminate a play that’s become a short-yardage staple for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
NFL team owners, coaches and general managers are considering several potential rule changes at this week's league meetings. Nothing has garnered more attention than Philadelphia's version of the quarterback sneak.
The Green Bay Packers issued the proposal to ban it, citing player safety and pace of play.
Although NFL executive Troy Vincent said last month there have been zero injuries reported as a result of the play, Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott, a member of the NFL's competition committee, is leading the push to get rid of it.
“I feel where I’m most concerned is, even though there is not significant data out there to this point, my biggest concern is the health and safety of the players, first and foremost,” McDermott said on Monday. "It’s two things. It’s force, added force, No. 1, and then the posture of the players, being asked to execute that type of play, that’s where my concern comes in. ... I’m not a doctor. I’m not going to get too deep into that situation there, in terms of how much data, how much sample. I don’t think that’s really always the best way to go. There is other data out there that suggests when you’re in a posture like we’re talking about, that can lead to serious injury. I think being responsible and proactive in that regard is the right way to go.”
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who watched Jalen Hurts score on a tush push to kick off Philadelphia's 40-22 rout of Kansas City in the Super Bowl, sounded as if he might be on board with McDermott.
“Tough play to stop but then you’re listening to that and the medical side and you probably could go either way with it," Reid said. “But I would say if it’s putting a player in a bad position, then you probably have to do something about it. But if it’s not, it’s a heck of a play.”
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who is also a member of the competition committee, wanted to hear more about the safety concerns.
“I think the first time I saw it, I couldn’t believe that it was legal because it was illegal on the field goal," Tomlin said. "That being said, you hate to be against it because when people are innovative, you want to respect that. And so there’s certainly been some teams that have been more innovative than the rest of us in that regard. And you hate to penalize them for that. But again, we got into the discussion on the field goal block because of player safety. And so that’s still remains to be a component of the discussion.”
Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans and Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said they don't want the play banned.
“It’s tough to punish a team for being really good at something," Ryans said.
Tampa Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles made it clear last month he wouldn’t support a ban, either.
Other changes include making the dynamic kickoff rule permanent and overhauling the playoff format.
The NFL competition committee has recommended sticking with the kickoff rule that was redesigned last year and tweaking it to move touchbacks to the 35-yard line in hopes of generating even more returns.
The Detroit Lions proposed that playoff seeding should be based on record instead of automatically placing division winners in the top four spots.
“I'm a division purist," Tomlin said.
The committee also proposed an expansion of instant replay to allow replay assist to consult on-field officials to overrule objective calls such as facemask penalties, whether there was forcible contact to the head or neck area, horse-collar tackles or tripping if there was “clear and obvious” evidence that a foul didn’t occur. Replay would also be able to overturn a roughing the kicker or running into the kicker penalty if video replay showed the defender made contact with the ball.
NFL executive Peter O'Reilly said the league is considering potentially playing a game in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
“We have more work to do there,” O'Reilly said.
The NFL will play seven international games in five countries this upcoming season. The league is returning to Brazil, Mexico, Germany and England while Ireland is set to host its first regular-season game. The NFL previously announced a multiyear commitment to play regular-season games in Melbourne, Australia, beginning in 2026.
NFL owners approved flexing Sunday games to Thursday night with 21 days’ notice. Only one game was flexed over the past two seasons when teams had to be informed with 28 days’ notice.
AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
FILE - Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) lines up for the goal line Tush Push play during the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, File)
Potentially deadly flash flooding, high-magnitude tornadoes and baseball-sized hail could hit parts of the Midwest and South on Wednesday as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged, forecasters warned.
There were already tornado warnings Wednesday morning near the Missouri cities of Joplin and Columbia — merely the opening acts of what forecasters expect will be a more intense period of violent weather later Wednesday, as daytime heating combines with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation's mid-section from the Gulf.
The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” starting Wednesday and continuing each day through Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge “is an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said in one of its flood warnings. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.”
The flood fears come as residents in parts of Michigan continued to dig out from a weekend ice storm.
Thunderstorms with multiple rounds of heavy rain were forecast in parts of Texas, the lower Mississippi Valley and the Ohio Valley beginning midweek and lasting through Saturday. Forecasters warned the storms could track over the same areas repeatedly and produce heavy rains and dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping cars away.
Rain totaling up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) was forecast over the next seven days in northeastern Arkansas, the southeast corner of Missouri, western Kentucky and southern parts of Illinois and Indiana, the weather service warned.
“We’re potentially looking at about two months of rain in just a handful of days,” Thomas Jones, a weather service meteorologist in Little Rock, Arkansas, said Monday.
Parts of Arkansas, west Tennessee, western Kentucky and southern Indiana were at an especially high risk for flooding, the weather service said.
At least one tornado was spotted Tuesday night in Kansas. “Take cover now!” the weather service’s office in Wichita warned residents on the social platform X.
No injuries were reported from the Kansas twister. Tornado warnings were also issued in Missouri on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries as a result of those.
Along with tornadoes, high winds with gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) were also expected across large parts of the Midwest.
The ominous forecast comes nearly two years to the day that an EF-3 tornado struck Little Rock, Arkansas. No one was killed but that twister caused major destruction to neighborhoods and businesses that are still being rebuilt today.
More than 90 million people are at some risk of severe weather in a huge part of the nation that stretches from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.
About 2.5 million people are in a rarely-called “high-risk” zone. That area most at risk of catastrophic weather on Wednesday includes parts of west Tennessee including Memphis; northeast Arkansas; the southeast corner of Missouri; and parts of western Kentucky and southern Illinois.
A tornado outbreak was expected Wednesday, and “multiple long-track EF3+ tornadoes, appear likely,” the Storm Prediction Center said. Tornadoes of that magnitude are among the strongest on the Enhanced Fujita scale, used to rate their intensity.
At a slightly lower risk for severe weather on Wednesday is an area that includes Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Kentucky, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Dallas, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Nashville, Tennessee, were also at risk.
In Michigan, crews worked to restore power after a weekend ice storm toppled trees and power poles. More than 135,000 customers in northern Michigan and 11,000 in northern Wisconsin were still without electricity Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
Schools in several counties in Michigan's the mitten-shaped Lower Peninsula have been closed as deputies used chain saws to clear roads and drivers lined up at gas stations. And more wintry weather was on the way: A mix of sleet and freezing rain could keep roads treacherous into Wednesday across parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, the weather service said.
Heavy, wet snow also was forecast into Wednesday across the eastern Dakotas and parts of Minnesota.
Associated Press Writers Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia; Ed White in Detroit; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
An aerial image of a barn that collapsed after a severe storm hit Sunday along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
Weekend storms that toppled the steeple at Grace Baptist Church in Franklin, Ohio, is seen Monday, March 31, 2025. (Nick Graham/Dayton Daily News via AP)
A tree lies on top of a damaged home where authorities say a man was killed during a weekend storm in Stockbridge Township, Mich., seen on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
An Antrim County Road Commission crew clears branches and trees hanging near Atwood Road from ice build up Tuesday, April 1, 2025, near Ellsworth, Mich., following weekend storms that deposited as much as one inch of ice over areas of northern lower Michigan. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
Sgt. Tyler Midyett of the Emmet County Sheriff's Department works along with Sgt. Mitch Wallin, not pictured, to clear fallen trees from along Eppler Road in Petoskey, Mich., Tuesday, April 1, 2025, as cleanup from the weekend's ice storm continues. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
Piper Kuzel, 5, watches her father, Jesse Kuzel of Charlevoix, Mich., fill gas containers at the Ellsworth Farmers Exchange Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Ellsworth, Mich., as his family has been using heat from their home's natural gas stove to keep warm with power outages widespread following the ice storm. (Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle via AP)
An uprooted tree leans on a home after a severe storm hit Sunday along Clear Lake in Barry County, Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
Storm damage from severe weather on Sunday at a farm along 84th Street near Hanna Lake Avenue in Gaines Twp., Mich. on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
A barn that collapsed from Sunday's severe storm along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)
A toppled tree with its roots showing on Woodworth Street in Linden, Mich., on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
A tree lies on top of a damaged home where authorities say a man was killed during a weekend storm in Stockbridge Township, Mich., seen on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)
