Chris Simms makes outrageous comment to stop Jalen Hurts' Eagles’ tush-push play - “Go crazy, try to kill the quarterback”
Jalen Hurts is one of the most prolific quarterbacks when it comes to scoring touchdowns. He is as likely to rush for a touchdown as he is to throw one. One of his favorite moves is the sneak, or the "tush-push", wherein he and a couple teammates sneak up directly under center. Then he sneaks in with said teammates pushing him either past the first-down marker or into the endzone.
This has served the Philadelphia Eagles star well, but how does one stop it? Former quarterback and current analyst Chris Simms put out a rather bold idea on NBC Sports' PFT Live:
“If I was a defensive coach, I'd be going with, go head hunting on the quarterback here. Go ahead, let them have it., dive over go crazy, try to kill the quarterback. That's what I would do… You know I don't mean kill but I mean, just make them pay make them think twice about doing it."
Jalen Hurts has no qualms about using his sneak
The statement from Simms has garned widespread condemnation from the NFL community, especially as the league is looking to improve player safety.
But to Simms' defense, there have allegedly been calls to ban the QB sneak for its possible physical and physiological risks. Hurts was actually asked about this in a recent media scrum, but he declined to give his stance, saying:
"I have no thoughts on it. We're the only people doing it as well as we are. There was a guy who even wanted me hurt for it, too." (referring to Simms)
A history of Chris Simms criticizing Jalen Hurts, Eagles
If basketball fans can easily recognize Skip Bayless as LeBron James' biggest hater, then Chris Simms-Jalen Hurts might be its football equivalent.
Back in the 2022 season, he said this about the soon-to-be first-time Pro Bowler's MVP chances:
“If you put [backup quarterback] Gardner Minshew [in for] the Eagles, they’d still be really damn good. There’s just no way he’s more valuable to his team than [Patrick] Mahomes, [Joe] Burrow, or [Josh] Allen. Those teams are not the same teams if they don’t have them at quarterback."
At that time, Hurts had gone down with an injury. Minshew would lose his two starts, before the starter returned healthy and brought the team to Super Bowl LVII.
But even in the week of the game, Simms did not cease his bashing and said:
“I understand the pocket passing is there, but you have to worry about so many other things to play Philadelphia. Of course, Jalen Hurts is a big part of that and he capitalizes on all of that and I’m certainly not trying to take anyway from that. But, how would I put this? Playing quarterback for the Eagles right now is set up to be one of the easier QB jobs in the sport.”
Of course, the Eagles lost, but not before a superhuman effort from their quarterback, who tied the record for most points scored by a single player in a Super Bowl.