In September 2014, two weeks after the release of running back Ray Rice, Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti was asked whether the team would be adopting a zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence.

The Ravens and the NFL were reeling from surveillance footage TMZ had published of Rice punching a woman who is now his wife in an elevator, leading to his indefinite suspension. A bipartisan group of women senators had called on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to institute a “real zero-tolerance policy” in domestic violence cases. Fans and local politicians, including then-Gov. Martin O’Malley, were appalled by Rice’s conduct.

”I give you my word that some things are going to change,” Bisciotti said in a 45-minute news conference that addressed the team’s handling of Rice’s situation. “I give you my word. I think that’s pretty safe [to say].”

Now, with the NFL looking into accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior against kicker Justin Tucker, the Ravens have clarified they never formalized a hard-line approach. After general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh spoke Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine, where each answered questions about how the team’s policy would apply in Tucker’s case, a team spokesman spelled out the organization’s stance.

“The Ravens do not have a defined, written, zero-tolerance policy,” the spokesman told reporters in Indianapolis. “Each situation stands on its own. Actions will be determined after the facts are known.”

The wording echoed DeCosta and Harbaugh’s comments at the combine on Tucker, but it marked a notable change in rhetoric.

In 2022, Harbaugh was asked about Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson’s initial six-game suspension following accusations of sexual misconduct with massage therapists.

Harbaugh cited the Ravens’ zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence, which he said went into place around the time of the Rice incident.

“I respect what [Ravens owner] Steve Bisciotti has created here, and [team president emeritus] Dick Cass, really, almost 10 years ago,” Harbaugh said in 2022. “Basically, we’re kind of zero tolerance. You have to know the truth, you have to try to understand the circumstances, but we’ve stayed away from that particular situation. When we draft players, when we sign them as free agents, we just haven’t dealt with it. That’s Steve’s decision, and I’m glad that we have that policy.”

Bisciotti pledged in 2014 to raise the team’s standards for player conduct, but he stopped short of committing to a black-and-white approach to off-field incidents.

“Can we avoid situations like Ray Rice’s? Absolutely not,” Bisciotti said. “Will we handle it differently? One hundred percent, I guarantee you we will. But will it be the minute it happens? Do we cut him? Because we are so close to bordering on a slippery slope the other way with this whole scarlet-letter thing. ... You’re going to get to a point where some people are going to be very, very falsely accused. Where we end there, hopefully, it’s fair on both sides.”

In the Ravens’ first offseason after Rice’s release, then-general manager Ozzie Newsome said the team would have to “take a hard look” at players with a history of domestic-violence allegations.

“It will be tough for us to bring a player to Baltimore ... [who] has domestic abuse in their background,” Newsome said in 2015. “Other than that, we will exhaust every character aspect of a player. But we believe in allowing the information to lead us to a decision.”

Over the past decade, the Ravens have largely steered clear of players with red flags. But their personnel approach has proved flexible. After the Ravens released three players in 2015 soon after offseason arrests, none of which involved domestic violence, Cass, then the Ravens' team president, told ESPN that the organization didn’t have a zero-tolerance policy.

“We have to look at each case individually,” Cass said. “We look at a number of factors and make a decision based on those factors. It’s not a zero-tolerance policy at all. We’re still going to be willing to take second chances on people if they deserve it. I think it’s a mischaracterization to say it’s a zero-tolerance policy.”

In 2018, the Ravens kept cornerback Jimmy Smith on their roster after he was suspended four games for what the NFL found to be “threatening and emotionally abusive behaviors” toward a former girlfriend that “showed a pattern of improper conduct.” The Ravens acknowledged in a statement that Smith’s behavior was “inappropriate and wrong.”

In January 2024, before the Ravens’ playoff run to the AFC championship game, the team signed running back Dalvin Cook to its practice squad and, later, its 53-man roster. At the time, Cook was facing allegations from an ex-girlfriend that she was the victim of assault, battery and false imprisonment at Cook’s Minnesota home in 2020. Cook later said he was the “victim in this situation,” and this past April, he settled the lawsuit with his ex-girlfriend.

Last offseason, wide receiver Zay Flowers remained eligible to participate in all team activities after he became the subject of an investigation into an alleged domestic assault. Baltimore County Police later closed their inquiry into Flowers without charges, and the NFL found that there was “insufficient evidence” that Flowers violated the league’s personal conduct policy.

In March, Ravens team president Sashi Brown was asked whether the team had changed its zero-tolerance policy for domestic violence.

“No change in terms of our philosophy and our approach,” Brown said. “Very hard circumstances, always complicated for us, for the league that investigates it, for law enforcement. And we’re not at a point yet ... where there’s been anything [regarding Flowers] to act on. ... And if and when we get there, we’ll manage. But no change on it.”

After The Baltimore Banner reported allegations last month from massage therapists accusing Tucker of sexually inappropriate behavior, a team spokesman did not respond to a question regarding the team’s policy. As the number of allegations more than doubled, with 16 massage therapists across eight spas and wellness centers in the Baltimore area now accusing Tucker of misbehavior, the team did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.

The allegations against Tucker include claims that he repeatedly and intentionally exposed his erect genitals, brushed two therapists with his exposed penis and, in several cases, left what appeared to be ejaculate on the massage table. Two spas said they banned him from returning. The women all said these actions occurred from 2012, his rookie year with the Ravens, to 2016.

Tucker has denied any wrongdoing, issuing a lengthy statement last month in which he called the allegations “unequivocally false.” Tucker’s attorneys, Thomas A. Clare and Steven J. Harrison of the firm Clare Locke, also denied that he had been banned from any spas.

On Tuesday, in his first comments on the allegations against Tucker, DeCosta couldn’t outline the team’s zero-tolerance policy, saying the Ravens “look at every case differently and the facts in every single case. We do this for a living. We study players. We look at background. We consider all these different things. Every case is entirely different — different facts, different situations — so we’ll wait for the investigation to take place, and we’ll make a decision based off of that.”

Harbaugh said the Ravens’ policy was “to be determined.”

“That’s what the review is for, to gain an understanding of what we’re even talking about,” he said. “You can’t take an action without understanding. You have to get the facts and understand what happened as best you can. ... Maybe we’ll come out and make a definition of that at some point in time. That’s something that would be interesting to me. I think everybody understands the idea there, and let’s see where the review takes us.”

Asked whether he regretted saying the team had a “zero-tolerance policy” in 2022, Harbaugh looked taken back.

“No, no,” he said. “Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”