David Ferguson

Football’s wild and violent origins

Imagine an alternate universe featuring football games in which.. the ball carrier could be pushed, pulled, carried, thrown, or dragged by teammates to gain extra yardage. A universe where… the ball carrier could be knocked to the ground, but continue to crawl for more yardage on all fours, with his forward progress not deemed stopped until he literally could not move another inch forward because of the heaps of bodies piled on top of him.

What most NFL fans don’t realize is that there was a time when you wouldn’t have had to imagine such a game — you could have witnessed it with your own eyes. In football’s infancy, it was perfectly legal for players to drag, carry, and push the ball carrier forward for extra yardage. In decades past, football contests looked more like semi-organized professional wrestling matches… than the beautiful game we’ve all come to love. The gory details of early football are painted in vivid detail by author Timothy P. Brown in his book How Football Became Football-150 Years of the Game’s Evolution (fascinating reading for anyone interested in the origins and development of the sport).

The magical and horrible days of pure mayhem evaporated as rule changes were implemented to make the game safer and more exiting. Eventually the rugby-like game of yore evolved into football as we know it.  For example, in 1906, the forward pass was legalized in college football –> 14 years before the NFL was formed.

Here’s a clip from a NFL game in 1924 (2:21):

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By 1933, adding hashmarks to the field and centering the ball from a hashmark became standard practice. Before then, the ball was placed wherever on the field the ball carrier happened to be tackled… and, eventually, pushing, pulling, and carrying the ball carrier forward were outlawed.

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Philadelphia Eagles go old-school in 2022

In what some would call a step backwards, the NFL in 2005 revoked the ban on offensive players pushing the ball carrier forward. Pulling and carrying remain illegal. The rule change wasn’t much heralded, and for almost 20 years the re-legalization of pushing the ball carrier forward was a little-known, little-discussed quirk of the NFL rulebook. All of that changed during the 2022 NFL season, however, when the Philadelphia Eagles decided to use that quirk to their advantage.

The Eagles, much to the delight of their fans, resurrected a small bit of old-time football in 2022, employing a play that would have been quite familiar to fans of the game in the early 1900s: a pile of humanity shoving their quarterback forward on short yardage plays. The Eagles strategy includes the creative use of players assisting Jalen Hurts on quarterback sneaks by pushing him forward, often gaining their leverage by pushing on Hurts’ behind. This rugby-like maneuver has been colorfully dubbed the “tush-push,” “butt-push,” or “two-cheek sneak.” The Philadelphia offensive line and their powerful young quarterback were already a potent combination in short yardage situations. In 2022, however, the two-cheek sneak made them almost invincible.

The two-cheek sneak has been wildly successful for the Eagles. During the 2022 regular season, the Eagles ran 33 quarterback sneaks, 13 more than the next closest team, and were successful on 29 of them. In 2022, the Eagles ran the most sneaks of any team in more than two decades. To cap their season off, they repeatedly (and with great success) ran the two-cheek sneak against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII (0:05).

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The Chiefs seemed powerless against the play, giving up first downs (and a touchdown) when Philadelphia employed the two-cheek sneak. The play failed only once, and even then it was only because one of the Eagles offensive linemen committed a false start.

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Future of the two-cheek sneak

What does the future hold for the two-cheek sneak? Given the Eagles overwhelming success with the play and the NFL’s well-known proclivity for being a copycat league, chances are that the Eagles and a lot of other teams will employ the two-cheek sneak in the 2023 season and beyond. It isn’t hard to imagine a league where teams facing third-and-two or even third-and-three routinely elect the two-cheek sneak as their strategy of choice to gain first downs, running the play twice in a row if needed.

The Eagles 33 quarterback sneaks in 2022 could end up being a low-water mark for years to come.

Some commentators have derided the two-cheek sneak. Among its most notable critics is Peter King, who has gone so far as to say that, “it’s not a football play.” Here’s Peter King (0:37).

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Despite complaints from some quarters, no action has been taken to make pushing the ball carrier illegal once again. It may be that the play is not yet prevalent enough to be considered a “problem” for the NFL. The Eagles seem uniquely suited to run the two-cheek sneak because of their offensive line and 600-pound-squatting beast of a quarterback.

It is also possible the league will adopt an “if you don’t like it, then learn to stop it” attitude that so many fans have expressed. And who knows? Maybe defenses will figure out an answer to the two-cheek sneak, rendering it no more effective than a traditional sneak. That said, a serious quarterback injury or two sustained during a two-cheek sneak might persuade all, but the most stubborn of teams to abandon the strategy, and possibly lead to a rule change in the future.

The Eye of the Beholder

From a fan perspective, there’s a chance that the game stepping backward to a “less beautiful” version of football will grow old. Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. The outpouring of support for keeping the two-cheek sneak legal, especially from fans of teams who have perfected the play, might convince the NFL to leave the current rule as is. The NFL has grown and prospered mightily over the decades due, in large part, to the excitement generated by wide-open passing attacks. If the two-cheek sneak is perfected to the point where teams routinely run that play back-to-back after getting to third-and-two or third-and-three, it is conceivable that fan infatuation with the two-cheek sneak will wane, with fans demanding a return to the more high-flying version of football they’ve become accustomed to. Only the future will tell.

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For the time being, fans and players alike should buckle up for a lot more of the two-cheek sneak in the 2023 season by the Eagles and probably by a significant number of copycats. Given the league’s failure to reinstate the ban on pushing a ball carrier, Philadelphia will keep running their now infamous version of the quarterback sneak, and Eagles fans can rest easy knowing their squad can still get cheeky for another year.

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David Ferguson — ArrowheadOne

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