INDIANAPOLIS — Given enough time, the truth has a way of coming out.

It took years for 16 massage therapists at eight different Baltimore-area spas to find a space to tell their accounts of Justin Tucker, who they say behaved in sexually inappropriate ways at their sessions.

These explosive allegations, which Tucker has called “unequivocally false,” have forced the Baltimore Ravens to reckon with another truth that has taken three years to come to light.

The team does not have a definitive zero-tolerance policy when it comes to misconduct issues, domestic violence or otherwise. It never did.

After general manager Eric DeCosta and coach John Harbaugh took the podium at the NFL combine and handled thorny questions about their kicker, the team issued a statement to local media outlets: “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.”

The policy clarification isn’t unreasonable in and of itself.

Assuming the NFL follows in the footsteps of The Baltimore Banner’s investigation by talking in good faith to the massage therapists who have accused Tucker of similar behavior, it’s reasonable to assume the Ravens will eventually cut ties with him even though Tucker has denied the allegations. While The Banner’s findings point toward that being inevitable, it’s fair for the NFL and the Ravens to determine the truth through their own process.

The timing of the Ravens’ statement is the issue.

DeCosta was asked to define the zero-tolerance policy on Tuesday morning, admitting: “I really can’t because we look at every case differently, and the facts in every single case.”

It turns out he cannot define a policy that does not exist. Not even the best general manager in the world can do that.

The biggest indication that a policy existed was admittedly thin — a quote from John Harbaugh in 2022 when he talked about the NFL suspending quarterback Deshaun Watson after he was accused of sexual assault by more than two dozen women.

“I respect what [Ravens owner] Steve Bisciotti has created here, and [team president emeritus] Dick Cass, really, almost 10 years ago,” Harbaugh said. “Basically, we’re kind of zero tolerance.”

Perhaps Harbaugh overstepped in that moment. He couched it in the same session, adding, “You have to know the truth. You have to try to understand the circumstances.”

In reality, the Ravens had been walking back the idea of a “zero-tolerance policy” years before that.

Back in 2014, owner Steve Bisciotti admitted he had made a mistake by not requesting to watch the elevator video of Ray Rice assaulting his future wife. Without it, the NFL gave Rice a two-game suspension; when it became public, the Ravens cut Rice and the league suspended him indefinitely.

Bisciotti pledged that the Ravens and the NFL would be better in the future: “I’m willing to apologize forever, but my point is, apologies of where I fell short or our team fell short, aren’t getting us anywhere. The question is, ‘What are we going to do?’ What are we going to do next year as a team, and what is the league going to do the next year or the next time this happens?”

But just one year later, president Dick Cass said in 2015 that the Ravens would “look at each case individually” and that they were “still going to be willing to take second chances on people if they deserve it.” (Bisciotti, for what it’s worth, has not spoken publicly to the media in the last few years.)

Allowing Terrell Suggs, who was accused of domestic violence multiple times during his Ravens tenure, to remain was a sign of the team’s wiggle room that was less-than-zero tolerance. In the 2023 season, the team signed running back Dalvin Cook, who was in an active legal dispute with an ex-girlfriend about an alleged case of domestic violence (the suit was settled in April).

In practice, the team’s “policy” takes effect when there is a legal judgement against a player — or, in Watson’s case, there is overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing leading to a lengthy suspension. That approach, which makes them essentially passive actors, puts them on the same footing as every other franchise except the Browns, who gave Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract.

But Harbaugh’s 2022 quote indicated a team that held itself to a higher standard.

“When we draft players, when we sign them as free agents, we just haven’t dealt with it,” Harbaugh said about Watson, whose case now bears uncomfortable similarities to Tucker’s. “That’s Steve’s decision, and I’m glad that we have that policy.”

Not only did the Ravens allow team decision-makers to answer questions about a policy that did not exist in Indianapolis, but they’ve allowed questions about the policy for years. They could have issued the clarification at any point, but allowed the perception to linger that they were somehow more concerned with character than their NFL peers.

The Ravens’ lead decision-makers (except Bisciotti) were asked multiple times about the policy in the wake of a Baltimore County Police investigation into Zay Flowers. Team president Sashi Brown was asked about the policy, and said there was “no change.”

At the time, I wondered what “zero tolerance” actually meant, and asked the Ravens about it before publishing a column on the policy. They declined to comment, and they never corrected the record.

When The Banner contacted the Ravens before publishing the first findings of its Tucker investigation, the Ravens didn’t answer any direct questions about the policy rather than acknowledge it was not a definitive piece of team code.

Now, with Tucker under NFL investigation, the truth comes out — and only at a moment when it became clear the illusion of a zero-tolerance policy did the Ravens more harm than good.

While it’s not that surprising to learn that the policy doesn’t exist, it’s a frustrating juncture for the Ravens to finally clear up the picture. By addressing it before DeCosta and Harbaugh spoke, the team could have avoided a barrage of questions from the media about a policy that is not codified in any meaningful way.

It’s as much of an indictment of Harbaugh, who spoke it into consciousness, as an organization that allowed a policy — one that sounded so absolute and clear — to actually be murky in practice. The Ravens could have corrected the record at any time for three years. The delay speaks to how they hoped they would be perceived.

It is disorienting that the Ravens’ admission about the policy came after DeCosta and Harbaugh seemed at least somewhat open to the idea that Tucker may need to be held accountable, pending the NFL’s findings.

DeCosta called the allegations, and specifically the number of accusers, “serious and concerning.” Harbaugh said of The Banner’s findings: “It’s not what you want to wake up and read. You don’t want to read about it. 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.”

But the Ravens’ backtracking on the idea that they were “zero tolerance,” to be frank, overshadows the hints of human reaction from some of the organization’s top brass. The policy was the subject of stories, of questions, of needless tussling for meaning — all over something that never actually existed.

Right before stepping off the combine podium — notably before the team issued its clarification — Harbaugh was asked if he regretted saying the team had a zero-tolerance policy three years ago.

“Absolutely not,” he said.

The Ravens’ biggest regret shouldn’t be what Harbaugh said. It should be the years it took for them to actually tell the truth.