PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The tush push is still legal in the NFL — and about as unstoppable as it was in an ill-fated push to ban it for the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Even with Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts and the bulk of the Philadelphia starters sitting out the preseason opener on Thursday night against Cincinnati, the Eagles went straight to their favorite short-yardage play on the opening drive.
Tanner McKee, the backup QB in the regular season, was indeed pushed in for the score on a fourth-and-goal from the Bengals 1-yard line late in the first quarter.
The Eagles ran the play the first chance they could after a contentious offseason around the NFL that saw the possibility of the popular play — at least, in Philly — nearly get banned. McKee's score tied the game at 7-all.
“People have a hard time stopping it,” McKee said after the Eagles beat the Bengals 34-27.
League owners narrowly failed to pass a proposal in May to prohibit the polarizing tush push at their spring meetings in Minnesota, keeping the rulebook as is, and keeping fans in happy in Philadelphia.
There was a thinned out crowd at the usually sold-out Lincoln Financial Field. Eagles fans started buzzing on fourth down when the home team ran into the familiar formation. McKee, a sixth-round pick out of Stanford in 2023, scored with the ease of Hurts.
The ban on offensive players from pushing, pulling, lifting, grasping or encircling a runner was supported by a 22-10 vote, only two votes short of the three-quarters majority required by league bylaws to pass it.
The health and safety committees for both the players and the owners and the league’s competition committee all unanimously recommended the proposal, which was formally brought forward by the Green Bay Packers at the previous league meetings in Florida earlier in the offseason and tabled for further discussion. Such a ban previously existed and was lifted 20 years ago because it was deemed too difficult to consistently enforce.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said he didn’t take a stance and was instead simply focusing on fostering a “full discussion” of the issue of aiding quarterbacks in their plunges into the line.
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Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee (16) celebrates his touchdown with teammates during the first half of an NFL preseason football game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Johnny Wilson (89) and Eagles offensive tackle Matt Pryor (79) celebrate a touchdown by teammate quarterback Tanner McKee (16) during the first half of an NFL preseason football game against the Cincinnati Bengals Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
