Baltimore Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta has called the sexual misconduct allegations made against team kicker Justin Tucker "serious and concerning."
During a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, DeCosta reflected on the allegations that Tucker was hit with last month. The Baltimore Banner published a report where 16 massage therapists from eight spas in Baltimore alleged Tucker engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior, such as exposing his genitals and brushing his exposed penis on his accusers, during sessions held between 2012 and 2016.
"The allegations are serious, concerning," DeCosta said during the scouting combine. "The amount of allegations are serious and concerning. I think we're fortunate the league is doing an investigation. We'll wait as patiently as we can for as much information as we can. We'll make our decisions based on that."
DeCosta added that he met with the league and Tucker since the allegations were first made public and that the team knew about the allegations from the Baltimore Banner report. Head coach John Harbaugh mirrored DeCosta's statement about the severity of the situation and how the team is looking to "come to an understanding."
"It's not what you want to wake up and read," Harbaugh said. "It's not something you want to see…things that are hurtful, harmful, painful—there's too many headlines like that.
He continued, "That's what we're waiting to try to do is reconcile it," Harbaugh said. "That's what the process is for. That's why you've got to come to an understanding, if you can, about what happened. We've all got questions, but nobody knows exactly what happened. So, let's see where the review takes us."
The seven-time Pro Bowler has since denied the allegations and released a statement on social media that claimed the accusations were "unequivocally false" and that the Banner article "takes innocuous or ambiguous interactions and skews them so out of proportion that they are no longer recognizable. ... This is desperate tabloid fodder."