PHILADELPHIA — The NFL voted against banning the Tush Push at the league meetings in April. That doesn’t mean the play has become any less controversial since.

On Monday, for the first time since the vote, the Birds will face the architects of the proposal to ban the play — the Green Bay Packers.

Coach Matt LaFleur said in the spring that he didn’t see the Tush Push as a “football play,” but ahead of Monday’s matchup, he’s focused on stopping the Eagles from getting in short-yardage situations in the first place.

“I think the best way to stop it is to not to allow it to happen,” LaFleur told the media on Thursday. “In regards to, you can’t allow them in those short-yardage situations, because you know exactly what they’re going to do, and they’ve been pretty successful at it obviously.”

So, has he changed his mind on the Tush Push?

“Guys, I’m not going to get into it. It is what it is. You know, the NFL made a decision, and we have to find a way to try to stop the play, and it’s a tough play to stop.”

In case you forgot, here’s everything that happened during the offseason, the latest controversies surrounding the play this year, and what the future may hold for the Tush Push …

Why did the Packers try to ban the Tush Push?

Former Packers president Mark Murphy wrote in a Q&A column on the team website in February after the Packers’ wild-card loss to the Eagles that he disliked the play and hoped to see it banned.

Murphy cited the string of penalties against the Washington Commanders in the NFC championship game as one of the reasons “the play is bad for this game,” as well as a desire for the game to return to the way it was during the Ice Bowl, nearly 60 years ago.

“I am not a fan of this play,” Murphy said. “There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less. … I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the runner [QB] on this play. There used to be a rule prohibiting this, but it is no longer enforced, because I believe it was thought to be too hard for the officials to see.

“The play is bad for the game, and we should go back to prohibiting the push of the runner. This would bring back the traditional QB sneak. That worked pretty well for Bart Starr and the Packers in the Ice Bowl” against the Dallas Cowboys.

Disapproval of the play and a desire to ban it had been bubbling for several seasons. The league had either tabled the vote or decided against ruling on it all together, but it boiled over after the Eagles Tush Pushed their way to a Super Bowl title, with one of the teams they beat along the way proposing the ban.

What happened when they tried to ban it?

The Packers wrote a rule-change proposal that would have functionally banned the play, and presented it at the league meetings last winter.

Originally, the team proposed an amendment to Rule 12, Section 1 that appeared to target the Tush Push directly. It hoped to add language to the previous rule stating that no offensive player may “immediately at the snap, push or throw his body against a teammate, who was lined up directly behind the snapper and received the snap, to aid him in an attempt to gain yardage.” The Packers claimed in their proposal that player safety and pace of play were the primary reasons for submitting it.

That proposal was eventually tabled. Before the vote at the spring league meetings in Eagan, Minn., the language was updated to be more broad and state that an offensive player may not “push or pull a runner in any direction at any time.”

However, despite the change, it ultimately fell short of the two-thirds majority required to change the rules. Twenty-two teams voted in favor of the proposal, two short of the required 24. The 10 teams to vote against it were the Eagles, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Tennessee Titans, according to ESPN.

Did Jason Kelce save the Tush Push?

Jason Kelce may have been the last-minute savior of the play. Comments he made on New Heights were misinterpreted and weaponized by team owners, including Bills owner Terry Pegula, who claimed that Kelce retired because of the Tush Push.

“I’ll tell you this right now,” Kelce responded on his podcast. “I’ll come out of retirement today if you tell me all I got to do is run 80 Tush Pushes to play in the NFL. I’ll do that gladly. It’ll be the easiest job in the world, and it’ll be like 80-some snaps.”

Kelce went to the May meetings to answer questions and defend the play, and other owners think his speech may have helped sway some in the room.

“The reason I was there was because there was a narrative out there that one of the reasons I was retired was because of the play — or that I somehow felt like the play led to more injuries or was injured because of it,” Kelce said. “So I was really just there to offer my perspective on that stuff not being true and the fact that I think it’s a relatively safe play.

“I did go up there and talk after Jeffrey Lurie kind of started things off. He kind of opened everything up. And then I kind of dispelled those rumors and then answered some questions about how the play was run.”

Kelce added that being in the room with all the owners felt like the “inner sanctum” of the illuminati, saying that Lurie was “pretty passionate about trying to get his point across” in defense of the play.

What’s happened since?

The Eagles have been as successful as ever running the Tush Push this season — and even got a name-appropriate sponsor. Of course, the play has again been the subject of controversy, most recently because of questionable officiating rather than injury concerns.

The Eagles offensive line came under fire for committing what appeared to be false starts on the play, including during a Week 2 win over the Kansas City Chiefs that featured seven Tush Pushes.

“We think he jumped multiple times,” Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones said after the Super Bowl rematch at Arrowhead. “An official didn’t see it, so it wasn’t called.”

The Eagles, of course, responded.

“I don’t know what to say,” Eagles center Cam Jurgens said. “It’s just kind of a moot point at this time. We run a play and then somebody will clip one thing and take a photo and be like, ‘They do this every time!’ or something like that. Whatever.”

Added Eagles coach Nick Sirianni: “I’m not sure you could see that to the naked eye.”

But the controversy lingered and became a national talking point again, propelled by one of the sport’s biggest media names, Adam Schefter, who went on ESPN that Monday and blamed the Chiefs’ loss on the league vote that took place six months earlier.

But the offensive line’s timing wasn’t the only Tush Push controversy this season. Against the Chiefs, a missed fumble caused rules expert Dean Blandino to rail on the play during the nationally televised game of the week on Fox.

“I am done with the Tush Push, guys,” Blandino said on the broadcast when asked what the ruling should be. “It’s a hard play to officiate, like we’ve been talking about, so they either ruled [forward] progress or that [Jalen] Hurts was down. Really hard to see what was going on with the football.”

Hurts’ forward progress again became a hot topic in the Eagles’ Week 8 win over the Giants, when a potential fumble was taken away because of an early whistle.

“They said they called the forward progress before he reached the ball out,” Giants defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux said after the Giants’ loss to the Birds at the Linc. “Sounds like some [B.S.] to me.”

Despite the concerns, several opposing coaches this season, including Sean Payton and Todd Bowles, praised the Eagles’ signature sneak play ahead of their matchups against the Birds.

What’s next for the Tush Push?

It’s likely a similar proposal will be up for consideration at league meetings in 2026, when it would once again need 24 yes votes to pass. In the meantime, the Eagles coach has been enjoying the discourse.

“I think it’s an exciting play,” Sirianni said earlier in the season. “Obviously there’s been a lot of discussion about it. I think when you bring more discussion about a play it brings more attention to football. I think it’s a cool thing how much people debate it, how much people discuss it.

“I’d be confident, too, in some of our other plays to run in that area on those situations. But this play has been working well for us, so you keep going back to it.”

If the renewed controversy converts the two remaining votes to ban the play at league meetings next spring, Jordan Mailata believes the Tush Push has had a “life well lived.”

“It’s like a sad day, but at the same time, I’m going to live it up. What do you do when you have six months to live? I’m going to live it up. Hell, we might even call it 18 times this game. We’ll see.”

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