A Tush Push ban would be an incredibly weak move by the NFL

Good morning, Winners! This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Here’s Mike Sykes.

If you can't beat it, ban it.

That's the message the NFL appears poised to send with a potential tush push ban. The Green Bay Packers, who originally pushed for the ban back in March during the league's owners meetings, are bringing their cause back for the league's spring meetings. Except, this time, they've updated the language to ban all teammate pushes for ball carriers, for the tush or otherwise.

ESPN's Adam Schefter dropped the details on X. It doesn't specifically ban the Eagles' signature play. It's far broader and would ban what they call "interlocking interference."

I hope you all understand how uncool this is. Players wouldn't be able to push a pile at all. For context, this was an established rule before. Before 2005, the NFL outlawed pushing and pulling ball carriers, so it's not entirely unprecedented.

But the rule change opened up the league for some of the most fun plays we've seen over the last two decades. Plays like Marshawn Lynch dragging a pile of dudes with him into the endzone would draw a 10-yard penalty instead of a touchdown. Every "push the pile" moment that transformed plays from nothing to something would be ruled illegal. And it's not because those players were particularly problematic, but rather because the league couldn't figure out how to stop one play.

What makes it worse is that the Packers cite player safety and pace of play as reasons why these plays need to be banned, but neither is a real problem. We haven't seen significant injuries as a result of pushing the pile. As far as the pace of play goes, the clock doesn't stop. These plays don't go out of bounds. The tush push is one of the quickest plays in football — just a few seconds and it's over. There's no pace problem with it. The only problem seems to be that nobody has figured out a way to stop it outside of a straight-up ban.

If that's the case, then fine. But the Packers and other supporters of this ban should say it gives teams like the Eagles a competitive advantage instead of talking around it. The Commanders' Frankie Luvu did. He called the play a "cheat code" and argued that it's a rugby scrum based on the Eagles' cadence, giving them an advantage over the defense. That's still wack, but I can respect that more than anyone saying a potential ban is for health and safety reasons. At least it's honest.

We don't know how this will turn out. There seems to be momentum for a ban, but the Eagles are "lobbying" for the play not to be banned, according to The Athletic. We'll see how those efforts go.

But if this is the end of the tush push, at least we got to see the play win a Super Bowl. I'm sure they'll take that.

Trouble in paradise

Things were all good a couple of months ago for the Mets when the season started. They were the best team in baseball and Juan Soto seemed just fine.

Now, he's a bit moody and the Mets are 5-5 in the last 10 games. Soto's slump seems to be a big part of that.

So what's the problem? Well, according to Michael Kay, Soto wanted to be a Yankee and he isn't happy he's a Met. Details from Charles Curtis:

"But the attention on him got ratcheted up over the weekend when he returned to Yankee Stadium and heard all kinds of things yelled at him by Pinstripes fans. There were also questions about his hustle that popped up there and on Monday when he stared down a ball he thought was a home run and had to settle for a single.

Which brings us to a report from Michael Kay, who said this on his radio show on Monday (via Awful Announcing): "People that I talked to on the Mets side, and they can deny it publicly, because, of course, that’s what they have to do, he is very, very glum around the clubhouse. He does not have a hop in his step. He does not smile much. I’m not gonna say he is unhappy. Because how can you be unhappy with a $765 million contract? But money is not a guarantee that you are gonna be comfortable somewhere.”

If I'm being honest, this is a bit hard for me to believe. He signed a $765 million deal with the Mets. That's a massive commitment. I don't think he does that if he doesn't want to play for that team.

But there definitely seems to be something going on with Soto right now. We have no idea what it truly is. But the good thing for Mets fans is that it's still fairly early in the season, the Mets are good and there's still time to turn this around.

A new era

The NBA Conference Finals start tonight with the Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder tipping things off in the Western Conference.

I'm normally pumped about the Conference Finals in the NBA playoffs, generally speaking, because this is the best time for pure basketball. The two best teams in each conference square off for a chance to go to the NBA Finals. It's the perfect time because we don't have to worry about the narratives attached to the players and whatever legacy is on the line — we just get to watch elite basketball.

But this year is a bit more exciting for me because somebody is going to win their first championship. We've got four elite guards on each side with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC), Anthony Edwards (MIN), Jalen Brunson (NYK) and Tyrese Haliburton (IND). None of them have won a championship before. In about a month, we'll be crowning one of these dudes. I still cannot believe it.

This is only the second Conference Finals without the Warriors, the Celtics or LeBron James (lol) in the last decade. And, what's more, three of the teams competing have never won an NBA title. The Knicks have a championship, but they won it 52 years ago.

We've been asking for the future of the NBA to arrive. It's finally here. Let's enjoy this basketball, folks.

Quick hits: Don't blame Leafs fans ... White Sox x Pope Leo ... and more

— Mary Clarke says everyone should stop blaming Leafs fans for the team's Game 7 misery. It ain't their fault.

— The White Sox have already built a nice tribute for Pope Leo. Cory Woodroof has the details.

— Christian D'Andrea says Shedeur Sanders didn't take a pay cut to get to the Browns.

— Caitlin Clark is denouncing hateful acts at Fever games. I can't believe we have to do this again.

— Here's Meg Hall with WNBA power rankings. The Liberty are still at the top.

— Nikola Jokic has already diagnosed the Nuggets' biggest problem heading into the offseason. Robert Zeglinski has more.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️