A league training video sent to NFL referees and teams on Wednesday noted officials should have flagged at least one of the Philadelphia Eagles’ “tush push” plays against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2.
The instructional video is a regularly distributed package of plays from the prior week’s games that clubs are able to review for training purposes. In it, Ramon George, the NFL’s vice president of officiating training and development, told referees to be more attentive to pre-snap movement during plays like the tush push.
“Anytime we have this situation where we’re in short yardage, we know we want to make sure that we officiate these plays — the offensive team has to be perfect in every aspect,” George said in the video, news of which was first reported by The Washington Post. “We want to officiate it tight. We want to be black and white and be as tight as we can be when we get into this situation where teams are in the bunch position and we have to officiate them being onsides, movement early.”
George pointed to one tush push play the Eagles ran with five and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia had the ball on third-and-1 on its own 25-yard line. As the Eagles so often do, they lined up to shove quarterback Jalen Hurts forward for the first down.
The play succeeded, but according to George, referees should have blown it dead or flagged it afterward. As he points out in the clip, there was an uncalled false start by Eagles right guard Tyler Steen before the snap. On the same play, officials also missed an illegal pre-snap motion by a Chiefs defensive lineman, who appears to try to punch the ball from the hand of Eagles center Cam Jurgens.
“Prior to the snap, looks like we have movement by the right guard. We also have movement coming across from the defensive side,” George said. ”This is a very hard play to officiate. I get it.”
Had officials awarded the penalty to the Chiefs, the Eagles would have been pushed back 5 yards and faced third-and-6. Despite the missed call, the drive did eventually end with an Eagles punt, and Kansas City drove down the field for a touchdown.
George, however, left a more consequential play, at least in terms of the score, out of the video. Fans and the Fox commentary team of Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt pointed out another false start on a tush push play at the 7:48 mark of the fourth quarter that resulted in an Eagles touchdown.
“The Philly shove is awfully impossible to stop, and when you get a false start penalty like that, it’s even harder to stop. And they missed that one pretty bad,” Brady said over a replay of Hurts’ 1-yard score.
Both Eagles guards, Steen and Landon Dickerson, jumped pre-snap during the play, but the referees did not throw a flag. Hurts’ score pushed the Eagles’ lead to 20-10, and they went on to win, 20-17.
A tush push earlier in the game also drew questions and criticism over whether Hurts fumbled the ball. Fox rules analyst Dean Blandino seemed exasperated by the situation.
“I am done with the tush push guys. It’s a hard play to officiate.” – @DeanBlandino pic.twitter.com/Qcg2jtx2I2
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 14, 2025
In a Monday news conference, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni acknowledged his team needs to make sure they aren’t creating opportunities for penalties on short-yardage plays. Still, he argued the backlash against the Sunday no-calls and others doesn’t account for the real-time factors at play.
“I think that the one clip I saw of it was slowed down so much that I’m not sure you can see that to the naked eye,” he said. “I mean, it was slowed down so much, and I get how we can manipulate things and show things like that, but it was slowed down so much, it was like, ‘Right!’
“But we have to understand that we have to be perfect on that play. And we’ll keep working on being perfect on that play.”
Sirianni went on to say the referees “have to make split-second decisions that are happening at this speed,” and added that there are plenty of non-tush push plays that people could rewind and examine for uncalled penalties.
Immediately after the game, Chiefs coach Andy Reid said he was frustrated by the uncalled false starts, but he noted he was looking forward to seeing how the league reviewed the plays.
“If guys are moving early, then you’ve got to call that,” Reid said Monday. “So they’ll go back and look at that and see what their evaluation is of it. It could be different than mine. Mine, I felt like the guys were moving. That’s why I was griping about it on the sideline there with the officials. But sometimes people see things different. So we’ll see where it goes. They’ll have a chance to evaluate it, and I’ll be curious to see what the response is.”
Philadelphia’s use of the tush push continues to be a source of controversy for the league. The Eagles ran seven tush push plays in their Week 2 game against the Chiefs, with varying results.
Multiple teams banded together to call for a ban on the play during the offseason. The Eagles have staunchly defended it, however, challenging opponents to stop it rather than remove it from the game. A vote on the proposed ban did not reach the necessary 24 votes from NFL owners.
The Eagles will host the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday for their Week 3 matchup. Both teams are undefeated so far.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs will travel to MetLife Stadium to take on the New York Giants. Neither has won a game yet.
(Photo of Jalen Hurts: David Eulitt / Getty Images)
