Jason Kelce explains why other teams simply can't do the 'Brotherly Shove' like the Eagles
If other teams want to have success with the "Brotherly Shove," Eagles center Jason Kelce said the key is to get your reps up.
Until then? The Philadelphia Eagles can confidently say, "Nope! I betcha can't do it like me."
Kelce spoke with Steve Wyche and James Palmer on NFL Network's "The NFL Report" and explained to the veteran reporters some of the finer points of the play. It has been hotly debated about whether the play should be banned, but Kelce says it's all about sweat equity and power.
It doesn't hurt that Kelce is used to playing lower than his defender as a smaller center or that quarterback Jalen Hurts can squat 600 pounds. Those components only add to the reasons the Eagles are virtually unstoppable — they're 41 of 44 since 2022 — when they run the play versus the knockoff editions done by others.
"There's a lot of details and minute things that, quite frankly, we have a leg up on because we run the play so much," Kelce said Wednesday. "It's a play that you get to rep a lot in practice, so each one of these reps in a game is a pretty substantial rep above the next opponent in terms of running the play in general.
"So I think all of these chances we get to run it in a game, and to run it at full speed, ultimately make us more detailed and more efficient at running the play in general."
Other teams, such as the New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers may think the play otherwise known as the "Tush Push" is their ally ... but they've merely attempted to adopt it. And thus far, not all have been successful. Or in the Giants' case, it ended with a pair of injuries in the aftermath.
Philadelphia, conversely, was molded by it. The team used countless practice reps to get the mechanics just right. Now, they're cashing that currency in with first downs and touchdowns whenever they want.
The personnel running the play has to be perfectly in sync with one another, including the people pushing Hurts from behind. By running the play so many times, Eagles players can sense where the soft spot is in the defense and help correct Hurts if he's even a little off.
"We've repped it a lot," Kelce said. "As soon as that ball is moving, you're moving forward or changing your leverage and bending down. The quarterback is already moving forward to be able to start pushing. If you do not rep that exact mechanism, and all of a sudden in the first time in a game you're doing it for the first time, it's going to feel weird.
"It's important even in practice — especially before you run it in a game at all during the season or with a new quarterback — to really get that feeling down with the guy," he continued. "It's not just the center-quarterback, it's everybody across the board. How we're hitting the blocks, where we're starting, who's working with who."
Team after team has been beaten by the "Brotherly Shove," and instead of joining the Eagles in learning how to perfect it and make the play work for them, many around the NFL want it out of the game.
In response to that, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni stated the quiet part loudly as the argument around the play wages on.
"You've seen it across the league, that people can't do it like we can do it," Sirianni said. "They can't do it like we can do it. ... I'm making my plug right there: Don't ban this play.
"If everybody could do it, everybody would do it."
