NFL VP Vincent says officiating tush push remains 'difficult' - ESPN

NEW YORK — Officiating the famed tush push play remains a challenge for the league office.

Vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said Tuesday that the play is not a frequent topic of discussion at league headquarters but acknowledged it's «very difficult to officiate in real time» despite intensified efforts to spot potential false starts in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles continue running their signature play to near-perfection.

«When the guard is in the neutral zone or someone else is in the neutral zone, it's really hard for that line judge to identify based on what he's looking at down the line of scrimmage,» said Vincent from the NFL's fall meeting at the InterContinental New York. «At the end of the day, there's a team that still does it well. And we've seen other people have versions of it. But from an officiating standpoint, we're gonna try to get better at identifying when someone is in the neutral zone or when someone leaves a little early.»

In Week 3, the NFL instructed officials to call the controversial play «tight» going forward after the Eagles should have been flagged for at least one false start in a Week 2 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. An officiating training tape distributed to all 32 teams showed Philadelphia running the quarterback sneak on third-and-short late in the eventual 20-17 win over the Chiefs. After that game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid told reporters that Philadelphia «got off a little early on» multiple quarterback sneaks.

«Anytime we have this situation 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,» NFL vice president of officiating training and development Ramon