Saquon Barkley Sent Ruthless Message to NFL Teams Trying to Ban the Tush Push

One day after the controversial tush push ban proposal failed to pass at the NFL owners' meeting this week, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley weighed in with a ruthless message for those who wanted to get rid of the play.

The tush push stays alive in 2025 after the ban proposal received 22 votes in favor and 10 votes against, falling two votes short of the 24 needed for the proposal to pass. The play's critics have often brought up concerns about player safety, though no one reportedly got injured from the tush push last season.

The Eagles are by far the NFL team that has found the most success with the play—since 2022, Philly has run 124 tush pushes for 106 first downs including 33 touchdowns for a whopping 85.5% conversion rate.

Amid ongoing buzz surrounding the tush push, Barkley seems to be among those who think the rest of the league might simply be jealous of the Eagles' overwhelming success with the play.

The Eagles star opened up about what he really thought of the tush push ban during a recent appearance on the Exciting Mics podcast hosted by his teammates Cooper DeJean and Reed Blankenship.

"The banning thing of it, I think it's soft, to be honest," Barkley said. "'Cause everybody can do it. It's not like a play that we only can do, everybody can do it. It's just, we happen to have one of the best and biggest o-lines and Jalen Hurts can squat 600 pounds. That's not our fault."

"Josh Allen is super big, [the Bills] aren't successful with it. Lamar Jackson is one of the best running quarterbacks of all time, [the Ravens] aren't successful with it," continued Barkley. "It's not something that everyone can't do, so them trying to eliminate it, I think that's kind of lame."

Barkley doesn't stand to benefit too much from the tush push, given that he lost a sizable number of potential rushing touchdowns to Jalen Hurts last year. But, it's no secret that the play remains one of the Eagles' most tried-and-true weapons, and it'll likely stay that way moving forward.