Tag: NFL

As allegations emerge that Ravens kicker Justin Tucker engaged in inappropriate behavior with six massage therapists in the Baltimore area, any possible punishment could depend on what a potential NFL investigation finds and how team officials interpret a long-held “zero-tolerance” personnel policy.

Six massage therapists at four high-end spas and wellness centers told The Banner that Tucker, one of the Ravens’ most popular players and perhaps the NFL’s greatest kicker ever, repeatedly exposed his genitals and, in two instances, touched therapists with his penis. Two of the spas said they banned him from returning.

Lawyers for Tucker denied the allegations, calling them “false” and “spurious.” The attorneys, Thomas A. Clare and Steven J. Harrison of the firm Clare Locke, said Tucker had never been banned from the two spas and that all of the therapists’ claims about his behavior were speculative and unfair.

The Ravens and the NFL declined to comment.

Under the league’s personal conduct policy, players can be disciplined if they’re found to have engaged in conduct that poses a “genuine danger” to the safety and well-being of others or that “undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL.”

The NFL prescribes a six-game unpaid suspension for more serious violations of the policy, including “sexual assault involving physical force or committed against someone incapable of giving consent.” In the league’s inquiry into allegations of misconduct against quarterback Deshaun Watson, an investigator for the NFL defined assault in 2022 as “unwanted sexual contact with another person.”

Factors such as a “pattern of conduct” and “offenses that involve planning” could also increase the punishment.

Because the NFL’s investigative process can take months, if not longer, Tucker’s immediate future could be left to Ravens officials. The allegations could pose a unique test of a decade-old team policy.

In 2022, Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked about Watson’s six-game suspension following accusations of sexual misconduct with massage therapists.

Harbaugh referred to the Ravens’ zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence, which the organization put in place after running back Ray Rice was shown on video punching a woman who is now his wife in an elevator in 2014. The NFL initially suspended Rice for two games, but the Ravens released Rice and the NFL indefinitely suspended him on the same day video of the punch was published by TMZ. Nearly three months later, Rice won an appeal of the suspension and was reinstated.

“I respect what [Ravens owner] Steve Bisciotti has created here, and [team president emeritus] Dick Cass, really, almost 10 years ago,” Harbaugh said. “Basically, we’re kind of zero tolerance.”

Cass told reporters in 2015, after a series of offseason arrests unrelated to domestic violence, that the Ravens would “look at each case individually” and that they were “still going to be willing to take second chances on people if they deserve it.” The Ravens declined to comment on several questions related to The Banner’s investigation, including whether Tucker’s alleged conduct violated team policy.

Harbaugh added in 2022 while discussing Watson: “You have to know the truth, you have to try to understand the circumstances, but we’ve stayed away from that particular situation. When we draft players, when we sign them as free agents, we just haven’t dealt with it. That’s Steve’s decision, and I’m glad that we have that policy.”

In January 2024, before the team’s playoff run, the Ravens signed running back Dalvin Cook to their practice squad and, later, their 53-man roster. At the time, Cook was facing allegations from an ex-girlfriend that she was the victim of assault, battery and false imprisonment at Cook’s Minnesota home in 2020. Cook later said he was the “victim in this situation,” and this past April, he settled the lawsuit with his ex-girlfriend.

Also in January 2024, Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers was the subject of an investigation into an alleged domestic assault but was not suspended by the Ravens.

Baltimore County Police closed their investigation into Flowers without charges in February, and the NFL later found that there was “insufficient evidence” that Flowers violated the league’s personal conduct policy. He remained eligible to participate in all team activities throughout the investigation.

In March, Ravens team president Sashi Brown was asked whether the team had changed its zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence.

“No change in terms of our philosophy and our approach,” Brown said. “Very hard circumstances, always complicated for us, for the league that investigates it, for law enforcement. And we’re not at a point yet … where there’s been anything [regarding Flowers] to act on. … And if and when we get there, we’ll manage. But no change on it.”

The timelines of recent NFL investigations into potential violations of the league’s personal conduct policy show the process can take months.

Buffalo Bills defensive end Von Miller’s four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, which was announced in October, came 11 months after allegations that he assaulted his pregnant girlfriend.

In 2018, the NFL levied a three-game suspension on then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston seven months after BuzzFeed News reported that he’d allegedly grabbed a female Uber driver’s crotch.

Watson’s initial six-game ban in 2022, which later turned into an 11-game suspension as part of a settlement with Watson’s representatives, the NFL Players Association and the league, came nearly 17 months after the first of over two dozen lawsuits were filed against the then-Houston Texans quarterback. Watson settled almost all the lawsuits.

Watson was found to have violated three provisions of the league’s personal conduct policy by engaging in unwanted sexual contact with another person, endangering the safety and well-being of another person and undermining the league’s integrity.

Watson issued an apology and said: ”I take accountability for the decisions I made.”

Watson was never officially suspended by Houston after allegations first emerged, but he did not play in 2021 because of “non-injury” reasons. In March 2022, he was traded to Cleveland and signed a five-year, $230 million deal, the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history.

The NFL revised its personal conduct policy following Watson’s suspension to allow for more serious penalties in cases of nonviolent sexual conduct. Under the league’s new policy, a second violation of offenses involving sexual assault with “threats or coercion” would result in banishment from the NFL.

Tucker, a five-time first-team All-Pro who’s the most accurate kicker in NFL history, is coming off his worst of 13 seasons in Baltimore. He missed eight of his first 27 field goal attempts and finished 2024 with the worst field goal percentage (73.3) of his career. But Tucker ended the season on an upswing, hitting all five field goals attempts, including two from 50-plus yards, and all 23 extra-point tries from Week 14 through the Ravens’ playoff loss in the AFC’s divisional round.

At last week’s season-ending news conference, Harbaugh acknowledged Tucker’s sudden fallibility: “Maybe we all saw that Justin Tucker is human.”