NFL owners have decided to keep the “Tush Push,” the signature short-yardage play of the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, after a vote Wednesday at their spring meeting in Minneapolis.
Multiple media outlets are reporting that the vote was 22-10 in favor of the ban, falling short of the 24 votes it needed to go into effect.
The “Tush Push” is a version of a quarterback sneak in which two or three players line up behind the signal caller and help drive him forward in short-yardage situations.
The Eagles — who also call the play the “Brotherly Shove” — have been nearly flawless in executing the push since 2022, with two-time Pro Bowl quarterback Jalen Hurts carrying the ball. During that span, ESPN reports, the Eagles and Buffalo Bills have run the play more than the rest of the NFL combined, with a far greater success rate (87% for Philadelphia and Buffalo compared to 71% for the rest of the league).
Also during the past three seasons, the Eagles have scored 27 touchdowns and recorded 92 first downs using the play, according to ESPN.
“Push on,” the Eagles said in a graphic posted on X after the vote results came out. The team also posted a 26-minute video of “Tush Push” highlights on YouTube.
A proposal by the Green Bay Packers to ban the play was tabled at the NFL’s annual league meeting in April. The Packers submitted a revision this week to prohibit “an offensive player from pushing, pulling, lifting or assisting the runner except by individually blocking opponents for him.”
The initial proposal had called for those restrictions only to be in effect “immediately at the snap.”
The proposal cited “player safety” and “pace of play” as reasons for the ban, although many opponents of the play seem to focus on the former argument. Others have questioned the play’s place in football, suggesting it is more of a rugby move, and that its perceived automatic nature, at least when the Eagles run it, is bad for the game.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni defended his team’s use of the play while speaking with reporters in February.
“We work really, really hard, and our guys are talented at this play. And so it’s a little insulting to say just because we’re good at it, it’s automatic,” he said.
“The fact that it’s a successful play for the Eagles and people want to take that away, I think it’s a little unfair.”
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and retired Philadelphia center Jason Kelce addressed the team owners Wednesday before the vote. Kelce had explained on the most recent episode on his and brother Travis Kelce‘s “New Heights” podcast that he was going to Minneapolis “to answer any questions people have” about the safety of the play.
“I’m just going to offer, if anybody has any questions about the tush push, or whether I retired because of the tush push, I’ll tell you, I’ll come out of retirement today if you tell me, ‘All you gotta do is run 80 tush pushes to play in the NFL,’” Kelce said. “I’ll do that gladly. It’ll be the easiest job in the world.”
In the Tokyo Dome in March, you could almost hear the zip of the ball.
101 mph.
The pop of the catcher’s mitt sounded like a gunshot.
100 mph.
Roki Sasaki would lift his left leg almost to his head, stretch far down the front side of the mound, and let out a grunt as a blur of white leather came screaming from his hand.
100 mph.
For a brief moment, at the very start of his Major League Baseball career, it seemed like the Japanese phenom pitching prospect had already achieved one of his most important rookie objectives.
100 mph.
During his MLB debut in Japan, Sasaki hit those 100-plus-mph velocities on each of his first four big-league pitches. In the first inning of that March 19 game against the Chicago Cubs, he eclipsed 99 mph eight times in a 1-2-3 frame.
For a developing young pitcher who came to the majors this offseason fixated on improving his fastball speeds, it was a promising early sign — an apparent indication that, after suffering a slight drop in fastball velo during his last season in Japan, the 6-foot-4 flamethrower still possessed triple-digit life.
“The velocity,” manager Dave Roberts said that day, “was good.”
Roki Sasaki’s first four pitches of his MLB debut against the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome in March were at least 100 mph. He has not reached that velocity since.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Almost two months later, however, in one of the more confounding developments of the Dodgers’ otherwise successful start to the season, Sasaki hasn’t come close to even flirting with 100 mph again.
Instead, over a choppy seven-game sample following the team’s return from Japan, Sasaki has struggled to consistently throw the ball hard, averaging just 96 mph with his four-seamer on the whole this season while sometimes dropping down to the 92-93 mph range.
“It’s not an ideal situation,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “Clearly, the fastball is not gonna carry through the zone at 93 very effectively.”
For some pitchers, this wouldn’t be as pressing a problem. Even in an era of rising fastball velocities around the sport, sitting in the mid-90s is still safely above the major-league average.
Sasaki, however, needs premium velocity (plus consistent command) to make his heater competitive. Because, for all his other raw natural talent, there isn’t much natural deception to the pitch.
Unlike the best fastballs in the sport, Sasaki doesn’t throw his four-seamer with much spin or “vertical break” (pitch characteristics that can give fastballs a rising illusion as they barrel toward the plate). While others can miss bats at even below-average pitch speeds, Sasaki’s four-seamer has a flatter shape that’s easier to hit.
As a result, his fastball has always been predicated on eye-popping velocity — requiring elite radar-gun readings to blow opponents away.
“The velocity allows for that margin of error,” Prior said last week. “And clearly, that’s not there [right now].”
In evaluating Sasaki’s underwhelming start to the season — he has a 4.72 ERA and 1.485 WHIP in his first eight starts, logging just 34 ⅓ innings with only 24 strikeouts and a whopping 22 walks — the most glaring red flag has been the performance of his fastball.
So far, his trademark splitter has been an effective weapon, yielding just a .158 batting average to opponents while generating whiffs on 35% of swings. His lesser-used slider has been a fine secondary option, with opponents batting just three-for-12 against it while coming up empty on 33% of swings.
Sasaki’s fastball, on the other hand, has been susceptible to the improved level of hitting he has faced in the big leagues, resulting in a .253 opponent batting average, a .494 slugging percentage, almost as many home runs allowed (six, not even including two others that were robbed on leaping catches by Andy Pages) as strikeouts generated (eight), and a 10.1% whiff rate that ranks fifth-lowest for four-seamers among qualified MLB starters.
Granted, Sasaki’s lack of command has factored into such struggles, leaving him all too often in unfavorable hitter’s counts where opponents are better primed to square up mistakes.
“I think guys are on his fastball because it’s the one thing that’s probably in the zone more than anything,” Prior said. “This goes back to his ability to throw the other pitches for strikes, and be able to mix, probably balance with all three.”
Still, since that adrenaline-fueled debut in his home country, Sasaki hasn’t thrown even one fastball that has topped 99 mph. In that same span, he has chucked 27 that failed to eclipse 94 mph. Each week, his declining fastball velocity has become a bigger conversation point around his outings. But so far, few answers have materialized about how he can fix it.
“Just really still in this process of finding out what the root cause [is],” Sasaki said through interpreter Will Ireton this past weekend, after the Arizona Diamondbacks teed off on a heater that averaged 94.9 mph in a four-inning, five-run start that represented his worst outing of the year.
“[I’m] working with my coaches, talking to people about this,” Sasaki added. “I’m not quite exactly sure and can’t really state exactly the single reason.”
The Dodgers’ coaching staff has faced the same conundrum this year, struggling to identify exactly why an element so critical to Sasaki’s success — fastball velocity was such a point of emphasis during Sasaki’s free agency this winter, he gave interested clubs a “homework assignment” about how they planned to improve it — has been so far from advertised during the start of his rookie season.
Prior acknowledged that there are “clearly some delivery things” that Sasaki is “still trying to work through” right now. After struggling with wild command in his first few appearances, Sasaki and the team also discussed whether slightly dialing back on the intensity of his throws could help him more consistently locate pitches over the plate.
Mechanics alone, however, don’t explain why Sasaki’s fastball has dropped into the low 90s for some stretches of the year, Prior countered.
And though Sasaki’s command has somewhat improved while throwing with less velocity, both he and Prior insisted his velo hasn’t dropped this far on purpose.
“For us, it’s always been like, ‘If it’s 100 or if it’s 98, that’s fine, if it’s easier to control or something like that.’ We had that conversation,” Prior said. “But nothing to the degree of where it’s been.”
Given that Sasaki has shown no signs of any physical ailment, it’s possible he could be experiencing more of a pitch conviction issue in his new MLB surroundings, potentially lacking the internal confidence to let his fastball consistently rip at top speeds.
“We go back to the drawing board every week with him. We try to talk to him about some certain things, some ideas,” Prior said. “But ultimately, he’s working through his process, and we’re just trying to support him with everything we can.”
To this point, that process has not involved the addition of a different fastball variety more apt at generating soft contact, such as a two-seamer or cutter. Sasaki has said repeatedly that his primary goal is to first refine his primary fastball-splitter arsenal.
“There’s been a lot of conversations about a lot of different things,” Prior said. “Again, we go every week with him, and we’ve been trying to shed light on things where we think there’s gonna be some improvement. But ultimately, again, I think it’s just him trying to get his footing under him, and be comfortable in what he’s doing.”
Indeed, the Dodgers continue to argue that this is all part of Sasaki’s long-term development arc — inevitable growing pains for a superstar who, despite all the hoopla that surrounded his signing, arrived in the majors as an admitted work in progress.
“He’s certainly talented,” Roberts said. “But there’s finishing school. That’s something that we were prepared for. I know it’s harder for him to embrace not having complete success, but this is a tough league.”
When Sasaki’s fastball has ticked up, he’s gotten results, too. On heaters thrown at 97 mph or above, opponents are batting just .133 with a .333 slugging percentage, and swinging-and-missing almost twice as often.
“He will make adjustments given how the hitters respond,” Roberts said. “I think you learn that by doing that here.”
But until that happens, and Sasaki’s fastball starts returning to the upper 90s or 100-mph levels he flashed in Japan, more struggles could lie ahead. More growing pains might have to be endured.
SOCCER AM legend Andy Goldstein was handed an 8-0 win in the UK Open Pool Championship after his opponent failed to show up.
Goldstein, who now works for talkSPORT, is one of a 256-player field who entered the tournament for a chance at winning the £200,000 prize fund.
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Andy Goldstein won his second match at the UK Pool Open 8-0Credit: X/MatchroomPool
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It came after the talkSPORT presenters rival did not showCredit: X/MatchroomPool
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World Cup winner James Aranas of Philippines failed to show up in TelfordCredit: Getty
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It followed a 9-1 defeat against Ramazan Akdag earlier on
The presenter, 51, was due to face James Aranas in his second game on the opening day.
Aranas won the World Cup of Pool in 2023 as part of the Philippines triumphant side.
He partnered with Johanna Chua to become the first team to win the tournament despite entering as an unseeded competitor as they beat Germany 11-7 in the final.
However, today the 33-year-old failed to show for the clash in Telford.
Consequently, Goldstein was handed a bye into the second round, recorded as an 8-0 win.
After the game was officially declared in his favour, Goldstein wandered around the room celebrating his victory.
He was able to show the crowd some of his skills by playing on the table after the result was declared.
Earlier in the day he had been thrashed 9-1 by Ramazan Akdag.
For years, President Trump has blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents — from judges to educators — as threats to American identity, culture and values.
Why? Trump explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the presidential election.
“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club in August.
Trump did just that — branding Harris as “Comrade Kamala” — and he won in November. Though slightly more than half of voters cast ballots against him, he won the assent of more than 77 million Americans — 49.8% of the vote. And Trump is carrying that strategy into his second term.
Not actually ‘communism’
In 2025, communism wields big influence in countries such as China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. But not the United States.
“The core of communism is the belief that governments can do better than markets in providing goods and services. There are very, very few people in the West who seriously believe that,” said Raymond Robertson of the Texas A&M University Bush School of Government & Public Service. “Unless they are arguing that the government should run U.S. Steel and Tesla, they are simply not communists.”
The word “communist,” however, can carry great emotional power as a rhetorical tool, even now. It’s all the more potent as a pejorative — though frequently inaccurate, even dangerous — amid the contemporary flash of social media and misinformation. After all, the 20th century fear and paranoia of the Russian Revolution, the Red Scare, World War II, McCarthyism and the Cold War are fading into the past.
But Trump — 78 and famous for labeling his opponents, often insultingly — remembers.
“We cannot allow a handful of communist radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws,” Trump said Tuesday in Michigan while marking the first 100 days of his second term. The White House did not reply to a request for what Trump means when he calls someone a “communist.”
The timing of his use of “communist” is worth noting.
Trump’s Michigan speech came during a week of dicey economic and political news. Days earlier, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs published a poll showing that more Americans disagree with Trump’s priorities so far than agree with them, and that many Republicans are ambivalent about his choices of focus. After the speech, the government reported that the economy shrank during the first quarter of 2025 as Trump’s tariffs upend global trade.
On Thursday, senior presidential aide Stephen Miller stepped to the White House lectern and uttered the same c-word four times in about 35 minutes during a denunciation of past policies on transgender, diversity and immigration issues.
“These are a few of the areas in which President Trump has fought the cancerous, communist woke culture that was destroying this country,” Miller told reporters.
His collection of words offered a selection of clickbait for social media users, as well as terms that could catch the attention of older Americans. Voters over age 45 narrowly voted for Trump over his Democratic rivals in 2020 and 2024.
Smack in the middle of Miller’s sentence: “communist.”
“It tends to be a term that is loaded with negative affect, particularly for older Americans who grew up during the Cold War,” said Jacob Neiheisel, a political communications expert at the University at Buffalo. “Appending emotionally-laden terms to political adversaries is a way to minimize their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and paint them in a negative light.”
Red Scare figure influenced a young Trump
The perception that communists could influence or even obliterate the United States hovered over the country for decades and drove some of the country’s ugliest chapters.
The years after World War I and the Russian Revolution in 1917, along with a wave of immigrants, led to what’s known as the Red Scare of 1920, a period of intense paranoia about the potential for a communist-led revolution in America.
McCarthyism after World War II meant the hunt for supposed communists. It’s named for Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who conducted televised hearings at the dawn of the Cold War that drove anti-communist fears to new heights with a series of threats, innuendos and untruths.
Culturally, the merest suggestion that someone was “soft” on communism could end careers and ruin lives. Blacklists of purported communists proliferated in Hollywood and beyond. McCarthy fell into disgrace and died in 1957.
The senator’s chief counsel during the hearings, Roy Cohn, became Trump’s mentor and fixer in the 1980s and 1990s, when Trump rose as a real estate mogul in New York. The Cold War was more than three decades old. The threat of nuclear war was pervasive.
Communism started to collapse in 1989, and the Soviet Union was dissolved two years later. It’s now Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin — still authoritarian but no longer communist.
But communism — at least in one form — lives on in China, with which Trump is waging a trade war that could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States. By week’s end, Trump was acknowledging the potential consequences of his government stepping in: Americans might soon not be able to buy what they want, or they might be forced to pay more. He insisted China would be hurt more by the tariffs.
The real modern debate, Robertson says, is not between capitalism and communism, but about how much the government needs to step in — and when. He suggests that Trump is not really debating communism versus capitalism anyway.
“Calling people who advocate for slightly more government involvement ‘communists’ is typical misleading political rhetoric that, unfortunately, works really well with busy voters who do not have a lot of time to think about technical definitions and economic paradigms,” he said in an email. “It is also really helpful [to Trump] because it is inflammatory, making people angry, which can be addictive.”
