Broncos coach Sean Payton is back on the Competition Committee. And he's not afraid to share his opinions about league rules.
During his Tuesday press conference at the Scouting Combine, Payton was asked about last year's opposition to the tush push, which came within two votes of ending it.
“I don’t think the push sneak — I think if that ever goes away, it’s not a health and safety thing," Payton told reporters. "We discussed that last year for two hours and we just adopted a thousand more kick returns. Which play do you think is more of a health risk? A thousand more kick returns. So I think if we choose to ever move on from that, it won’t be because of health and safety. It will just be like, ‘We don’t like it.’ Which is OK.”
Why was returning to the rule-recommending body OK with Payton?
“I like the pain," Payton said with a laugh. "I like our league. I like talking about stuff like that. Like when I bring up that, we literally spent two hours on the health and safety of a quarterback sneak. . . . Literally a half an hour prior, we passed a rule that allowed for over a thousand more kick [returns]. So every once in a while your B.S. meter goes up. I’m passionate about the game and being involved in it."
He's referring to last year's decision to move the touchback point for a kickoff from the 30 to the 35, which resulted in a significant increase in kickoff returns.
And he's right about the tush push. The opposition came from, we believe, the reaction by someone in the league office to the scene that played out in the 2024 NFC Championship, when Washington jumped offside multiple times as the Eagles tried to use the formation to score a touchdown. It happened so many times that referee Shawn Hochuli eventually warned the Commanders that, if it happened again, the Eagles would be awarded a touchdown under the never-before-used "palpably unfair act" rule.