tush push

What does tush push mean?

Tush push refers to a play in American football in which players on offense line up behind their quarterback and then push him toward the first down marker. By design, the play is usually called when the team is very close to a first down.

Examples of tush push

The tush push, a play beloved by Philadelphia Eagles fans and hated by most everyone else, has been more than 90% successful in fourth-and-1 scenarios, according to ESPN.
—Dillon Dodson, WHYY (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), 20 Dec. 2025

The Atlanta Falcons, protecting a 7-3 lead, faced a fourth-and-1 at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 47 with 9:03 left in the first half of their Week 1 matchup. For the Philadelphia Eagles, the playcall would have been automatic: the tush push. … But Falcons coach Raheem Morris is no fan of the tush push, questioning its legality and wanting it banned.
—Stephen Holder, ESPN, 16 Sept. 2025

Where does tush push come from?

The tush in tush push, used to refer to the buttocks, is thought to perhaps be a modification of the Yiddish word tokhes, which in turn comes from the Hebrew word taḥath, meaning “under, beneath.”

Use of tush push to refer to the American football play is fairly recent—it has only been used in print for the last (cough) handful of years. However, this latest recreational tush push craze is not the first to sweep the States.

The tush push is the “in” country-Western dance, according to new fans Mary and Henry Ritter, who are pushing their tushes around the dance floors of Sun Valley, where they’ve taken a place for the winter.
—Pat Steger, The San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Mar. 1990

How is tush push used?

Use of the tush push in American football is controversial, and there are even a few NFL teams who have yet to call the play. As the Atlanta Falcons coach Raheem Morris told ESPN:

There’s just no other play in our game where you can absolutely get behind somebody and push them. I never really understood it, why that was legal. So, I’ve definitely been one of those guys voting against that.
—Raheem Morris, quoted at ESPN, 16 Sept. 2025

Use of the word tush push is not controversial at all, however, but rather perfectly apt.