ESPN’s Adam Schefter in heated radio interview over tush push
Philadelphia sports radio hosts are a bit sensitive about the tush push.
When talking to Adam Schefter as a guest on 97.5 “The Fanatic,” show host John Kincade got into a spirited debate about the ESPN reporter’s comments regarding how the Chiefs lost to the Eagles.
“The biggest thing here to me is this game was lost in March,” Schefter said during “Get Up” on Monday. “This game was lost when the NFL owners refused to ban the tush push. It wasn’t lost yesterday. It was lost in March!
“There might be a lot of games the Eagles play that are lost in March. Because this play is unstoppable. Not only does the defense not know how to handle it, even the officials don’t know how to handle it. You’re seeing the Eagles’ linemen jump offsides every play and nothing’s called! The officials have no idea, defenses have no idea, and the Eagles get to do whatever they want on every single play in the tush push.”
An agitated Kincade pushed Schefter on this topic, insisting that the tush push, which the Eagles ran seven times last week, was not the reason that the Chiefs lost 20-17 in Week 2.
“You know when that game was lost? The game was lost when Travis Kelce dropped a pass that became an interception that gave the Eagles the ball,” Kincade said to Schefter. “The game was lost when Andy Reid made the decision to go for it on fourth and one from his own 36 — it gave the Eagles a field goal, a gimme field goal in the third quarter. The game was lost when Harrison Butker missed a field goal that would have been a three-point [lead]. So that’s why the game was lost.”
“Okay, so John, why the sensitivity then?” Schefter replied.
Kincade then said that Schefter was stating as a fact that the game was lost because of the tush push and not because the Eagles made some timely plays while the Chiefs followed that up with some timely errors.
“Oh, okay. Well, you know what, John? I’m not going to go into ‘Get Up’ when I got 20 seconds: well, they did this, and they did that, and they did [this]. Weren’t there bigger factors than that interception?…. Again, people are mistaken. So okay, I’m not giving the Eagles flowers for making other plays. Okay, again, bravo. Excellent, they won the game. Great job,” Schefter said. “People feel cheated that I didn’t salute them for stopping on fourth and one or coming up with a big play. I’m just talking about the tush push and the ire it raised across the league and across the country. People [are] all worked up. I’ve never been one who’s been worked up about it or against a play.”
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The two appeared to end the conversation cordially, but it doesn’t mean the tush push conversation is any closer to over as tensions continue to boil.
NFL teams voted on the play’s legality last March, where numerous reports state that voters had changed their votes last second after being emboldened to do so, with Jason Kelce, among others, giving fiery speeches in support of it.
The Eagles are reigning Super Bowl champions and continue to run their quarterback sneak variation to great success.
It remains to be seen whether the play will make it through the competition committee after this season, but many have speculated it will again be a conversation topic.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
