With a 34-17 defeat at MetLife Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles are now 4-2 after consecutive losses. The New York Giants‘ rookies Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo proved to be too good for Philadelphia with their breakout games. And whether the Eagles’ iconic tush push was of any help in this game or not, it certainly caught Micah Parsons’ attention.

The Birds used four consecutive “tush push” quarterback sneaks, and the Green Bay Packers linebacker did not seem to enjoy the play. Hot-headed Parsons, known for making blunt remarks, wrote, “This is not football! 🚮🚮,” using trash can emojis to showcase his repulsion.

The tweet is growing a wave of opinion about the league that the play is against the fundamental values of the game and permits an uneven degree of advantage to be bestowed upon teams who elect to utilize it. The sequence of tush push plays entirely contributed to the Eagles’ 17-13 lead.

On fourth down, Hurts converted two more pushes. Slow-motion review later confirmed guard Tyler Steen jumped early, but officials failed to catch the false start.

Two additional push plays afterward, Hurts crossed the goal line, completing a 13-play, 74-yard drive. Hurts was subsequently 12-for-14 for 146 yards and a score, with A.J. Brown recording three catches for 55 yards. There was additional drama when the Eagles repeated in the same way later, closer to the New York goal line.

The Eagles have frequently used tush-push in their favor. Even during the Chiefs’ game this season, they made tush-push an important part of their strategy to gain an edge in short-yardage situations.

Replays again showed Steen leaped off prematurely, but again no penalty was applied. Prime Video rules analyst Terry McAulay noted, “He was early in super-slow motion. If we show it in real time, I bet it wasn’t quite as obvious.”

The difficulty of refereeing such plays has also been ammunition for the argument that the tush push is fundamentally flawed and has spurred some players and commentators to demand its across-the-board prohibition. It is also to be noted that these four consecutive plays ate up nearly two minutes of the clock.

Before a potential vote to ban the play, the Green Bay Packers made a revised proposal to the NFL.

The Packers move against the tush-push before Micah’s outrage

The rule was meant to restore the league to pre-2005 regulations on assisting the runner. The owners of the NFL had already deferred voting on the initial proposal of the Packers at the Palm Beach session in April and put it on the agenda for reopening at the Minneapolis meetings.

Even though the tush push was observed in merely 0.28% of overall games throughout the league last year, the Eagles and Bills have employed it more than any other team.

The two teams together have 163 tush pushes over the last three seasons, an 87% first-down or touchdown success rate, vs. the league average of 71%. The New York Giants, themselves repeatedly victimized by the play, also favor the ban. In April, 16 favored the Packers’ original proposal and 16 opposed it, and the motion fell two votes short of the 24 needed for passage.

The reworded proposal tries to get wider acceptance by addressing the charge that the initial wording was directed solely at the Bills and Eagles. With its high success rate and use almost regularly against teams like New York, the tush push remains one of the most controversial plays in modern-day NFL football.

Parsons’ words are a statement of wider frustration by players with a play that defies the traditional view of fairness.