Why The “Brotherly Shove” Should Not Be Banned
Photo Credit: David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer
The debate on whether or not the Philadelphia Eagles’ “Brotherly Shove” play should be banned, continues to loom this season. Let it be known that as per Eagles’ center Jason Kelce, the name of the play is the “Brotherly Shove” and not the “Tush Push”, as the Eagles look to trademark the former. It is a play that is used in short-yard situations, usually on third or fourth downs, where multiple players line up behind quarterback Jalen Hurts and help push him past the line of scrimmage. So far this season, the Eagles have successfully run the “Brotherly Shove” at an 85% success rate, while the rest of the league is successful 72.7% of the time.
The “Brotherly Shove” is an adaptation of the “Quarterback Sneak”, which every team already runs. The play is just the QB being under center and the offensive line pushing forward. One of the best at executing the “QB Sneak” was Tom Brady. Brady, widely recognized as one of the greatest of all time in Football, played for both the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady was never known as a mobile quarterback but was smart when using it, especially in goalline situations. He accrued 28 rushing touchdowns in his career and many came from the “QB Sneak”. Brady dominated the league with his “QB Sneak” just as Hurts dominates with the “Brotherly Shove”.
The key similarity between the “Brotherly Shove” and the “QB Sneak” is how the defenses knew what was coming and still mostly failed to stop it. Now here is where the controversy comes to play. You have two teams in the Eagles and for the most part the Patriots with Brady that are dominating at using the play. Other teams try to replicate it and cannot succeed at the same rate, while the defenses trying to stop it are still failing to do so. When Brady was succeeding with the “QB Sneak”, soon more mobile quarterbacks were following suit and it became the true norm in the NFL. Loosely based on the same notion, things should follow suit for the “Brotherly Shove”.
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As different offenses try their version of the “Brotherly Shove” and defenses try different methods, within time the effectiveness of the play will lower. Now the Eagles have already shown one different version. In Week 8 against the Washington Commanders with 1 minute 53 seconds left in the 4th quarter up 31-24, the Eagles were in a 3rd and 2 at the Commanders 8 yard line. They went into the “Brotherly Shove” formation and Hurts instead of keeping and pushing forward, turned around and handed the ball to running back D’Andre Swift who ran up the left hash for a touchdown.
Banning the “Brotherly Shove” would take away aspects that make the game of Football so interesting. The pure physicality of both the offense and defense battling for a few inches, as well as the mental duel coming with how to one up the other team. The “Brotherly Shove” is leading in an interesting brand of Football and for the sake of the organizations, the business and most importantly the fans, it must be run.
