BALTIMORE — Justin Tucker’s Ravens career came to a shocking end in May when Baltimore released him amid an NFL investigation into voluminous sexual misconduct allegations brought against the kicker earlier this year. Now, the league has delivered its verdict on that investigation.

Tucker, 35, has been suspended for 10 games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, the league announced Thursday.

Under the league’s personal conduct policy, six games was the minimum suspension that Tucker could receive. He can serve his suspension while a free agent, according to the NFL. He’s also “free to try out and sign with a club; if he is signed during the offseason, he may attend training camp and participate in preseason games,” the league said in a news release. Tucker’s suspension will take effect on Aug. 26, the league’s roster cut down. He will be eligible for reinstatement on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

The ruling comes five months after The Baltimore Banner first reported that six massage therapists said Tucker exposed his genitals, brushed two of them with his exposed penis and left what was believed to be ejaculate on the massage table following three of his treatments. In all, more than a dozen massage therapists made similar allegations, with all of the alleged incidents having taken place between 2012 and 2016.

Tucker, who spent his first 13 years in the NFL with Baltimore, has repeatedly denied the allegations.

He is also coming off the worst season of his career, having made a career-low 73.3% of his field-goal attempts and missed two extra points in 2024.

“It was a complex decision-making process, and I’m a part of it,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in late May, just over three weeks after Tucker’s release on May 5.

Harbaugh added that owner Steve Bisciotti, president Sashi Brown, executive vice president Ozzie Newsome and general manager Eric DeCosta were also involved in the decision, though DeCosta’s statement at the time made no mention of the allegations.

“You’re talking about arguably the best kicker in the history of the game, and like we said, it’s multilayered. It’s complicated, but in the end, it all comes back to what you have to do to get ready for your team to play the first game,” Harbaugh continued. “I think if you step back and take a look at all the issues and all the ramifications, you can understand that we’ve got to get our football team ready, and we’ve got to have a kicker ready to go. That was the move that we decided to make, so in that sense, it’s a football decision.

“If it was just a black and white, simple thing, then it would be easy to understand, but I think anybody can look at the whole thing in perspective and say, ‘OK, we’ve got to have a kicker ready to go, and there’s a whole lot of moving parts of that deal.' It’s just the reality of it, and you’re faced with that.”

Even before releasing Tucker, the Ravens drafted his possible replacement in April, selecting Tyler Loop out of Arizona in the sixth round. They also signed John Hoyland, an undefeated rookie free agent out of Wyoming, after the draft and the two are expected to compete for the starting job when training camp opens July 22.

Whether another organization is willing to sign Tucker, though, remains to be seen.

Even if his suspension is reduced through appeal, he will miss at least some time. There is also a potential public relations headache to deal with should another team sign him.

Still, it’s possible.

In 2022, quarterback Deshaun Watson was suspended by the NFL for 11 games and fined $5 million after more than 20 women alleged that he committed sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions. He was traded from the Houston Texans to the Cleveland Browns amid that investigation, which began in 2021, but signed a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract with the Browns before it was completed and has remained with the team since.

Also in 2022, punter Matt Araiza, who was drafted by the Bills in the sixth round that year, won the starting job as a rookie but was released by Buffalo before the start of the season after being named in a lawsuit accusing him and two former San Diego State players of rape became public. In December 2023, Araiza was dropped from the suit, however, and two months later signed with the Kansas City Chiefs and went on to play in last season’s Super Bowl.

Whatever Tucker’s future entails, it has been a stunning fall for perhaps the best kicker in NFL history and one of the faces of the Ravens franchise for more than a decade.

An undrafted free agent out of Texas who signed with Baltimore in 2012 then won the job as a rookie during training camp, beating out veteran Billy Cundiff, Tucker went on to make 417 field goals, the most among active kickers and a franchise record. His 1,775 points scored are also a franchise record and rank 16th all time.

He was also responsible for many indelible images during his tenure. Among them were the game-winning field goal in the team’s “Mile High Miracle” playoff victory over the Broncos in Denver as a rookie and a 38-yard field goal that proved to be the margin of victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47 that season. In 2021, he also set the NFL record for the longest field goal with a 66-yarder as time expired to lift Baltimore to a 19-17 victory over the Detroit Lions.

Off the field, Tucker was featured in advertisements for Royal Farms throughout the Baltimore area and The New York Times Magazine and “60 Minutes” profiled his opera singing.

Tucker was named an All-Pro five times and selected to the Pro Bowl on seven occasions. He also remains, for now, the most accurate kicker in league history, having converted on 89.1% of attempts during his career.

Now the only question is whether that career has come to an end, or if it will eventually continue elsewhere.

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