The Philadelphia Eagles have created a stir in the NFL by employing a play similar to a rugby maul — and they’ve brought in a former Scotland coach to help them take it to the next level.
The move is known as the ‘brotherly shove’ because it is best performed by the team from the city of brotherly love. It involves two players lining up behind their quarterback and pushing him into the line during the play.
The tactic — also known as ‘the tush push’ — is commonly used when a team wants to gain a yard or so. It is proving to be very effective.
Some people want it banned because they believe the way the Eagles play it is illegal. When done well, it is impossible to stop — and the effectiveness of the play is currently dominating headlines in the United States.
The Eagles’ coaching staff views such criticism as professional jealousy, and they’ve gone to great lengths to boost the team’s potency even further, which is where Scots-born coach Richie Gray comes in.
Gray is well-known to rugby fans for his time as a member of Vern Cotter’s backroom staff with Scotland, as well as successful stints as an assistant coach with the Springboks and the South Africa sevens team.
Gray, from Galashiels, recently signed a three-year contract extension with Toulon in France, and he also owns a training equipment company that supplies rugby clubs and NFL teams.
His popularity has skyrocketed in recent days, thanks to sports programs debating “the brotherly shove.” The play has been discussed in podcasts, TV shows, and radio broadcasts. It has always existed, but since Gray began advising the Eagles on how to perfect it a few months ago, it has become a highly contentious issue.
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In total, the Eagles have converted a first down or a touchdown on the ‘brotherly shove’ 53 out of 60 times in the last year or so — they were using it before Gray got involved. That is a success rate of 93 percent, which is much higher than any other play in football.
It’s the closest thing American football fans have seen to an unstoppable play in the NFL.
Gray, who has been working with various NFL teams on tackling since 2016, revealed in an exclusive interview with Mail Sport that he was brought into the Eagles over the summer by legendary coach Jeff Stoutland to pass on his advice.
‘Jeff is an absolute legend, one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL,’ Gray said. ‘He sent me a video of the quarterback sneak, which the Eagles frequently use to gain an extra yard on fourth down and are very good at.
‘He brought me in to look at it, and we ripped the move apart for a morning. I told a room of coaches that stopping a well-organized mass of players is extremely difficult. I had some work to do with their defensive group on the second day, then I went home.
‘It all started when Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles, whose brother Travis plays for the Kansas City Chiefs, started talking about ‘this Scottish guy’ on their podcast, which has millions of listeners, and that was me. They kept talking about it for a few weeks, and suddenly, the entire country is trying to figure out who the Scottish guy is!
‘Then a podcaster with half a million listeners picked it up, and interest skyrocketed. The NFL has made it a major talking point.’
Gray is tight-lipped about what little tricks of the trade he learned in rugby — first as a second rower for Gala, then as a coach — have been passed on to the Eagles.
‘I can’t and won’t tell you what I actually said or did, but I can say a lot of it is down to technique, personnel, and tactics,’ he said. ‘I expressed my thoughts on what I would do defensively and how I would improve the attack.
‘Everyone does it,’ Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said of the “brotherly shove,” but we do it better than anyone else.
‘It was a signature move for the Eagles before I arrived, but like any good coach, they wanted to improve by 1%, which is why they brought me in.
‘American football is like human chess played at 100 miles per hour with the biggest human beings on the planet, and what I told them was only a small part of their playbook,’ he says.
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