{"id":86914,"date":"2025-05-29T02:57:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T02:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/86914\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T02:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T02:57:09","slug":"john-harbaugh-explains-process-behind-cutting-justin-tucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/86914\/","title":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh explains process behind cutting Justin Tucker"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Harbaugh called the move to release embroiled kicker Justin Tucker a \u201ccomplex decision-making process,\u201d but echoed the refrain from Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta that it was \u201ca football decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tucker was released by the Ravens earlier this month<\/a> amid an NFL investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by 16 massage therapists from eight different spas and wellness centers around the Baltimore area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harbaugh told reporters Wednesday that the decision \u2014 which included the head coach \u2014 to release Tucker was made in conjunction with president Sashi Brown, owner Steve Bisciotti and DeCosta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BaltimoreRavens kicker Justin Tucker walks back to the locker room after the Ravens\u2019 win over the Chargers on Nov. 25, 2024. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re talking about arguably the best kicker in the history of the game. And like we said, it\u2019s multi-layered. It\u2019s complicated,\u201d Harbaugh said. \u201cBut in the end, it all comes back to what you have to do to get ready for your team to play the first game. I think if you step back and take a look at all the issues, all the ramifications, you can understand that we\u2019ve got to get our football team ready, and we\u2019ve got to have a kicker ready to go. And that was the move that we decided to make. So in that sense, it\u2019s a football decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have to spend all of our focus and our time to get these kickers ready. We\u2019ve got a competition going on. We\u2019ll get those guys ready to go make kicks. That\u2019s all I\u2019m thinking about, from my perspective, is we\u2019ve got to have a kicker out there making kicks. And what\u2019s the best way to get that done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ravens had previously indicated that they would wait until after the NFL finished its investigation into Tucker, but changed their stance after the organization made the decision to draft kicker Tyler Loop in the sixth round of the draft in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BaltimoreJohn Harbaugh talks to the media after a Ravens\u2019 rookie camp practice on May 4, 2025, in Owings Mills, Md. AP<\/p>\n

DeCosta called the move a \u201cfootball decision\u201d in a statement at the time of Tucker\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Tucker has denied the allegations, which were first reported by the Baltimore Banner, and called them \u201cunequivocally false.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Harbaugh called the move to release embroiled kicker Justin Tucker a \u201ccomplex decision-making process,\u201d but echoed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2052],"tags":[184,117,2282,7,2909,1084,6,169,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-86914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-ravens","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-ravens","10":"tag-baltimoreravens","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-john-harbaugh","13":"tag-justin-tucker","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-ravens","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114588879917276532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}