INDIANAPOLIS — For 13 seasons, coach John Harbaugh has stood by kicker Justin Tucker. But now that Tucker is facing allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior from 16 massage therapists, Harbaugh is trying to reconcile the serious accusations with the player he’s coached for more than a decade and expressed “love” and admiration for on multiple occasions.

Ravens officials are at the NFL combine evaluating prospects in the 2025 draft class, and they will be looking at the kicking prospects this year, as they would any year. Great kickers can play into their 40s, and Harbaugh said he expected the 35-year-old Tucker to be around for a while. But now, between his kicking struggles during the 2024 season and the allegations against him, Tucker’s future is uncertain.

And Harbaugh, who has called Tucker a friend, must wrap his mind around the fact that the Ravens’ special teams unit may have to step into a new era.

Tucker has denied all wrongdoing, and the Ravens said they plan to await the results of an NFL investigation before making a decision about his future. As he took the podium Tuesday to talk about Tucker for the first time since the allegations became public, Harbaugh reverted to the words he’s spoken over and over again when he was asked about the kicking situation.

“I’d say the kicker position would have been a priority no matter what because Justin is our kicker, we love him, and I expect him — always would have expected him — to keep going forever, but nobody goes forever,” Harbaugh said, correcting himself in real time.

Over the past season alone, when Tucker finished with a career-worst field goal percentage, Harbaugh never wavered in his support. He called him a “good guy, a mature guy, a thoughtful guy.” He said “there’s nobody as good as Justin Tucker.” He said, “I just love him, I respect him. He’s everything that you want in a player, in a friend.”

Harbaugh is also the one who, after being asked about quarterback Deshaun Watson’s suspension following accusations of sexual misconduct from massage therapists, said the team is “kind of zero tolerance.”

While he added Tuesday that they need all the facts before taking action, he also said he “absolutely [does] not” regret saying the team has a zero-tolerance policy. The Ravens, who have previously declined to answer questions about the policy, clarified their stance after Harbaugh spoke, saying: “The Ravens do not have a defined, written zero-tolerance policy. Each situation stands on its own. Actions will be determined after the facts are known.”

Harbaugh said he first heard of the allegations against Tucker when he read the initial investigation The Banner published on Jan. 30. The report detailed allegations from six massage therapists who claimed Tucker had behaved inappropriately during sessions, exposing his genitals, brushing two of them with his exposed penis, and leaving what they believed to be ejaculate on the massage table after three of his treatments.

“It’s not something you want to see. I don’t care what it is in terms of things that are hurtful and harmful to people,” Harbaugh said. “There are too many headlines like that; there are too many stories that you hear that make you just sad and disappointed. And you don’t ever want to see a circumstance, a situation, especially as if it relates to your world where anybody is made to feel less than great when they are involved in a work experience somewhere.”

In a lengthy statement posted on X following publication of The Banner’s first story, Tucker called the allegations “unequivocally false” and said they were “hurtful to both me and, more importantly, my family.”

Ten more massage therapists have come forward since then, bringing the number to 16 women at eight different spas. Representatives for Tucker have referred back to Tucker’s statement when asked for comment on the new accusations.

In his first remarks on the allegations, general manager Eric DeCosta on Tuesday called the claims “serious and concerning,” especially with how many of them there are. Harbaugh agreed.

Harbaugh also said the league has an the investigatory process “to come to an understanding, if you can, of what happened.”

Both DeCosta and Harbaugh have spoken with Tucker. DeCosta declined to provide details. But Harbaugh said he checked in to see how Tucker was handling everything.

“A week-and-a-half, two weeks after [the story ran], I gave Justin a call on a Sunday morning, and we had a conversation about it and talked about it,” Harbaugh said, “more from a perspective of being together for all these years and kind of what he was going through and what he was dealing with that and kind of how he’s handling it with his family, and that’s really what we talked about.”