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A8 SPORTS
Wednesday 29 January 2025
Tush push could play a prominent role in the Super Bowl if

championship Sunday was any indication

By ARNIE STAPLETON It’s right there in Rule 12,
AP Pro Football Writer Section 3, Article 2 of the
If the conference champi- league’s rule book. Titled
onships are any indication, “Fouls To Prevent Score,” it
some of the highest drama states, “The defense shall
in the Super Bowl in New not commit successive or
Orleans in two weeks could repeated fouls to prevent
come on the tush push per- a score.” Further, the rule
fected by the Philadelphia reads that “if the violation
Eagles and decrypted by is repeated after a warn-
the Kansas City Chiefs. ing, the score involved is
The Eagles (17-3) are so ad- awarded to the offensive
ept at their vaunted short- team.”
yardage plays that the The Commanders finally
Commanders committed stayed onside, the flags fi-
four penalties with Jalen nally stayed tucked into
Hurts & Co. at or inside the officials’ pockets and Hurts
1-yard line in the fourth finally scored, giving Philly a
quarter of Philadelphia’s 41-23 lead.
55-23 rout of Washington In Kansas City, where the
on Sunday. Bills were eliminated by the
Kansas City’s 32-29 squeak- Chiefs for the fourth time
er over Buffalo that sent the in five years, Buffalo rallied
Chiefs (17-2) to their third Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, center, and teammates run the tush push play during to take a 22-21 lead and
consecutive Super Bowl the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. faced a fourth-and-1 at the
turned early in the fourth 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. Associated Press Kansas City 41 early in the
quarter when they stuffed fourth quarter.

Bills quarterback Josh Allen touchdown via an obscure stopped Hurts once put “Washington has been ad- Allen was stopped on a
or did they? on fourth-and- regulation in the unsports- the ball within an inch of vised that at some point, sneak even though it ap-
inches at midfield while manlike conduct section of the goal line, and Hurts fi- the referee can award a peared one official marked
trailing by a point. the NFL’s rule book. nally plowed into the end score if this type of behavior the ball past the line of gain
Although it initially ap- Sandwiched around Jona- zone to give Philadelphia a happens again,” Hochuli before another placed it
peared to millions of view- than Allen lining up in the three-score lead. said during his in-game an- short. Replay review up-
ers and at least one official neutral zone and getting After Luvu’s second ille- nouncement. held the call because there
that Allen got the nose of flagged for encroachment, gal leap, Hochuli warned “Simply put, a team can’t wasn’t clear evidence to
the football across the line, linebacker Frankie Luvu Washington that he’d call commit multiple fouls in an overturn it.
the call on the field was mistimed his jump over unsportsmanlike conduct. effort to prevent the score,” “It looked to me like he got
no gain and a turnover on both lines for encroach- After Allen jumped offside Hochuli told a pool reporter to it,” Bills coach Sean Mc-
downs, and replay con- ment penalties on succes- again on an Eagles hard after the game. “So, No. 4 Dermott said, “and that’s
curred. sive plays in a desperate count, Hochuli had seen (Luvu) jumped the ball a all I can say.”
In Philadelphia, referee attempt to keep the Eagles enough and, like a scolding couple of times, that was CBS rules analyst Gene
Shawn Hochuli admon- out of the end zone. parent, announced that when the warning came in. Steratore agreed, saying
ished the Commanders to The four flags in a five- referees can indeed award Again, if it’s meant to pre- on the broadcast, “I felt
stop their shenanigans or play sequence the Com- a team a touchdown for vent a score, we can es- like he gained it by about a
he’d award the Eagles a manders legitimately repeated penalties. sentially award the score.” third of the football.”q

Jake, Logan Paul suggest their next fight is against each other on

HBO Max

By The Associated Press the Pauls, who have had their bouts aired
Brothers Jake Paul and Logan Paul made on platforms such as DAZN, Showtime,
social media announcements Tuesday Fanmio, ESPN+ and Netflix.
that suggested their next fight will be Jake Paul and Tyson, the former heavy-
against each other and aired on HBO Max. weight champion, broke records. Promot-
Calling it the “moment you’ve waited a ers said in November that the Tyson-Paul
decade for,” the posts featured a head- fight was the highest-grossing combat
to-head shot of the brothers with a March sports event ever in Texas, pulling in $18.1
27 date and the HBO Max logo. Further million. BetMGM said the bout was by far
details were not included in the posts. its most-bet boxing or mixed-martial arts
Jake Paul, 28, and Logan Paul, 29, are fight, taking three times the number of bets
both YouTube stars who know how to cre- and four times the money of any combat
ate a buzz. Their exhibitions have drawn sport in its history.
the interest of the biggest names in com- Logan Paul is a part-time performer for
bat sports. Jake Paul defeated Mike Tyson World Wrestling Entertainment. He has
in November in an eight-round unanimous been wildly successful in WWE, having Logan Paul, right, and Jake Paul appear in Emancipation Hall at
decision. Logan Paul went the distance in claimed the United States Championship the 60th Presidential Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, at the
an exhibition against Floyd Mayweather in and participated in several premium live U.S. Capitol in Washington.
2021. An HBO Max fight would be a first for events. q Associated Press