President Trump wants tush push to stay, dynamic kickoff to go

The Eagles have found a fairly powerful ally in their effort to keep the tush push in pro football.

During the Super Bowl champions' visit to the White House, President Donald Trump said he wants the NFL to keep the maneuver in the game.

"The Eagles scored a touchdown on their signature play, the tush push," Trump said. "You know what that is? . . . I hope they keep that play, Coach [Nick Sirianni]. I don't know. . . . They're talking about getting rid of that play. I understand. They should keep it. What do you think, Saquon [Barkley]? I like it. We have guys like this, pushing you around a little bit? I like it. It's sort of exciting and different."

The comments come at a time when it seems as if the NFL is preparing to make a run at getting 24 owners behind a revised proposal to ban the play. Recent comments from Commissioner Roger Goodell point to a potential ban on all pushing of the player with the ball.

Trump used the occasion to mention another rule he has previously criticized.

"I'd like to go back to the regular kickoff, however," he said. "We don't like that kickoff where nobody's moving the balls in the air, nobody's moving, but I won't ask the Coach or Lane [Johnson] or any of the people about that, but as a fan, I don't know, I'm not sure."

While his view could, in theory, move the needle on the tush push, the dynamic kickoff is here to stay. And while he might not like the portion of the play where the ball is in the air and no one is moving (I like that part because it looks like old-school electric football before flipping the switch), the reality is that the prior version of the kickoff involved little or no activity after the ball came down, because the percentage of returns kept getting lower and lower.