Not Nick Sirriani or Jalen Hurts: This is who came up with the idea of the Tush Push

The Philadelphia Eagles have been Super Bowl champions for less than a month, and teams are already taking target at them. The Tush Push has been a back bone of the Eagles success over the last few years, but it wasn’t Philly’s offensive coordinator or even head coach who may have invented the play.

The Tush Push origins

Reports around the NFL said that one team, which was later named as the Green Bay Packers, have petitioned the league to ban the Tush Push. The unstoppable play has been coach Nick Sirriani’s go to on short yardage plays and goal-to-go situations.

Many have tried to imitate it, but no one has been able to duplicate it. While this is an Eagles trademark, it may not have originated in the City of Brotherly Love.

Over a half decade ago, then Minnesota Viking Anthony Barr, was sitting on the bench talking to a teammate when a microphone picked up him talking a little strategy while the offense was on the field. “I just think you should put someone big at QB, and another big dude behind him, and just like mush ‘em.”

Who is Anthony Barr?

Barr played eight seasons with the Vikings before heading to the Cowboys for a year, and finally retiring as a Viking in 2023. He never got to play under Sirriani, but he might go down as one of the visionaries that changed the game without getting the credit.

In 2020, couple years after Barr’s improved play design, Nick Sirriani’s Indianapolis Colts offense ran the first version of the Tush Push against the Tennessee Titans. Sirriani was the offensive coordinator for the Colts at the time.

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A year later, after being named head coach of the Eagles, he implemented the play for the first time with Jason Kelce as his center and Jalen Hurts as his QB. The play worked against the Carolina Panthers that day, and the Eagles haven’t stopped running the Tush Push. Hurts scored on a Tush Push for the Eagles first TD of Super Bowl LIX on his way to being named Super Bowl MVP.