With the Philadelphia Eagles' tush push play at the goal line of potentially being banned, the club called an audible, inviting seven-time Pro Bowl selection Jason Kelce to the annual spring meetings in Minnesota to lobby against the ban proposal.

Evidently, Kelce's presence helped give the Eagles the push they needed, as the NFL ultimately voted not to ban the play. And, as it turns out, Kelce was not just lobbying against the play's potential banning at the meeting. The former Eagles center was also setting the record straight on claims from mutliple NFL owners that he stepped away from pro football due to "wear and tear" from the tush push. Kelce in March of 2024 announced his retirement after 13 NFL seasons.

Kelce explained his reasons for attending the meeting during the latest episode of the New Heights podcast he co-hosts with his brother and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

"I'm actually going to Minnesota," Kelce said. "So there were some things said at the last owner's meeting, essentially saying that some of the owners and coaches hinted that the reason I stopped playing is because of the tush push. And that I got hurt on the tush push frequently."

"I'm just going to answer any questions people have about my partaking in this play."

Kelce went on to add that—among other reasons he felt the play should not be banned—he believes a regular short-yardage play is "more unsafe than the tush push."

"If anybody has any questions about the tush push or whether I retired because of the tush push—I'll tell you this right now. I'll come out of retirement today if you tell me all I gotta 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-something snaps."

Buffalo Bills co-owner Terry Pegula, as well as Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy both insinuated that Kelce had cited the tush push as a "dangerous" play, claims that Kelce pushed back on. Neither the Packers, who proposed the ban, nor the Bills were among the teams that voted against the ban on Wednesday. In all, 10 teams voted against the ban with 22 supporting it, falling just shy of the 24 owner votes the NFL requires to enact a rule change.

Since 2022, the Eagles have ran the tush push, a variation of a quarterback sneak, to great success. Philadelphia boasts an 86 percent success rate on the play in '22 and '23, compared to the league average of 76 percent.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jason Kelce Explains Why He Attended NFL's Meeting for Tush Push Ban Vote .

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