The birth of the Tush Push, the Aaron Nola conundrum, and the latest from the NBA

First and final thoughts …

The greatest blessing of the Eagles’ bye week was not that their absence from the scene allowed everyone to focus more on Kelly Oubre’s bid for the NBA’s most improved player award or Morgan Frost’s status on the Torts Toughness rankings. No, the greatest blessing of the Eagles’ bye week was that, for a short while, everyone stopped talking about — and, mostly, complaining about — the Tush Push. It was a welcome respite from a public conversation that had grown tiresome.

Well ... RESPITE OVER!

There of course has been plenty written and said about the Eagles’ unstoppable iteration of the quarterback sneak. Should it be banned? Is it a “football play”? Is it a rugby play? How come it’s pretty much an automatic first down or touchdown for the Eagles and a fiasco for every other NFL team that tries it? Could the Eagles run it without Jalen Hurts? Could they run it without Jason Kelce? Could they run it in a house? Could they run it with a mouse? Can they run it here or there? Can they run it anywhere?

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Here’s one question that rarely gets asked, though: Why did the Eagles start running the Tush Push? Their first use of the play, according to an ESPN report last month, came in Week 1 last season against the Detroit Lions. But if that’s true — and there’s no reason to doubt it is — Nick Sirianni, his staff, and his players had to be planning and preparing to try the sneak well before then. And they had to have cause to think they needed the play or something like it.

Which brings us to Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021. The Eagles lost to the 49ers that day, 17-11, at Lincoln Financial Field. You might not remember that game. You should. It was Sirianni’s second as head coach. The Eagles led, 3-0, with 5 minutes, 54 seconds left in the first half. They had first-and-goal at the 49ers’ 1-yard line. Here was their play-call sequence:

First down: Hurts, looking for Zach Ertz, threw an incomplete pass.

Second down: Miles Sanders lost three yards on a handoff.

Third down: Out of the shotgun, Hurts scrambled for one yard.

Fourth-and-goal from the 3: Hurts handed off to … DeVonta Smith, who pitched the ball to … Greg Ward, who tried to throw a pass to … Hurts. Incomplete. The 49ers then drove 97 yards in 12 plays to score a touchdown and take the lead.

After the game, Sirianni was asked why he didn’t have Hurts sneak on first-and-goal. He said that the line of scrimmage was too far away from the end zone.

“I don’t think I called good plays in that area,” he said. “There are going to be times when you’re going to look at it and be like, ‘Yeah, I want those calls back.’ When they work, it was a good play. They didn’t. It was my fault.”

Now they have a play that works all the time, and they’re never afraid to use it. Makes you wonder: If Hurts had found Ertz on that first-down throw or if Ward had somehow completed that Philly Special ripoff, would the Tush Push have been born?

John Middleton has already put it on the record, more than once, that he will never have any hesitation about spending whatever it takes to win the Phillies a World Series. “How much money did the ‘27 Yankees make? Or the ‘29 A’s? Or the ‘75-76 Big Red Machine?” he asked The Inquirer’s Scott Lauber in February. “Does anybody know? Does anybody care?”

It’s time again for Middleton to prove as much. There is an Aaron Nola-size hole in the Phillies’ pitching rotation at the moment. And while there would be uncertainty in trading for a replacement or signing any of the comparable and available starters on the free-agent market to a long, expensive contract — Blake Snell, Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery — the Phils can mitigate some of that risk by refusing to be outbid for Nola. Re-signing him is the move that makes the most sense. He is already comfortable here, and he has been durable enough to have made at least 32 starts in each of his last five full major-league seasons.

If Middleton wants to stay true to his word, the money shouldn’t matter. Making sure Nola doesn’t get away should.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said something the other day that was laugh-out-loud funny, though he didn’t mean it to be. During a podcast interview with former Sixers guard JJ Redick, Silver bemoaned the coverage of the league, claiming that it was too rudimentary and personality-based.

“I think where we can all do a better job — and again I’m not just pointing to the media here — is talking more about the game,” Silver told Redick. “Sometimes the color commentary in our games gets reduced to ‘This team wanted it more’ or ‘This team tried harder.’ …

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“There is this sense [in the NFL] where the coaches are viewed as these field generals, going out there with these complex schemes. Then, in basketball, it’s just about athleticism — that somehow the coach’s job is just to get the guys to play hard rather than these incredibly sophisticated defenses and offenses.”

Talk about a lack of self-awareness. The NBA has marketed itself for years on its stars and their soap-opera-like drama, has embraced social media and its accent on individuality, and has created an atmosphere in which its most powerful players — LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, James Harden, Anthony Davis — can dictate terms, strong-arm franchises, and flip their middle fingers to teams’ fan bases. And the commissioner can’t figure out why people don’t want to talk about the pick-and-roll more.