Looks like Baltimore Ravens players, coaches, and fans are all in the same boat right now when it comes to kicker Justin Tucker’s future with the franchise: the S.S. Hold.
As in, on hold.
Sashi Brown, the president of the franchise, spoke briefly at the NFL owners meetings in West Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday, and basically said it was a case of hurry up and wait.
The National Football League is investigating the allegations against Tucker by 16 massage therapists in eight different spas in the Baltimore area, and the Ravens are under playing the waiting game just like everyone else.
Brown said, basically, there are two sides to every story.
“From our standpoint, I think we want to make sure that we have a great understanding of the facts, an actual understanding of the facts, hear both sides of the situation, and that we allow the investigation to properly be conducted and concluded, and make decisions based on the full information,” Brown said.
For his part, Tucker, 35, has denied all of the allegations on at least three occasions, including most recently through a statement in January. He is allowed to be in and out of the Ravens’ facilities for their offseason conditioning that starts in April, and if the allegations are still being investigated, he would also be allowed to participate in practices in May and June.
Purely from the business standpoint, it could be a very costly move for Baltimore to release Tucker. Doing so as a post-June 1 release would allow them to keep $4.2 million in cap space this league year.
The Houston, Texas native who played at the University of Texas, signed with the Ravens as an undrafted free agent back in 2012. In his 13-year career in JUST the regular season, he’s hit just over 89 percent of his kicks – 417-of-468, over the course of 13 years and 212 games. He’s had nine blocked all-time.
Tucker owns the record for the longest field goal in the history of the league (66 yards) and is 98.5 percent in kicking extra points (524-of-532). Of his 1,162 kickoffs, 63 percent of them (755) have been touchbacks. And he has 1,770 career points.
In playoff games, he’s 20-of-24 (83 percent), a long of 53 yards, 39-of-39 in extra point kicks, and has 99 career points.
Interviews with Tucker’s accusers began last month, and to say that investigations such as the he said-she said-type cases aren’t settled overnight is a drastic understatement.
“We would love for this to happen a lot faster than it does. So, from our standpoint, we need to allow the investigation conclude. The NFL understands the urgency that surrounds these types of situations and allegations, and so we need to allow them time,” Brown said. “I don’t think they’re going to take as long as possible, but we certainly know that they’re working prudently and to try to get to what is a number of people who need to provide evidence before they come back to us. And they have been making progress, we know that.”
