John Harbaugh called the move to release embroiled kicker Justin Tucker a “complex decision-making process,” but echoed the refrain from Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta that it was “a football decision.” 

Tucker was released by the Ravens earlier this month amid an NFL investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by 16 massage therapists from eight different spas and wellness centers around the Baltimore area. 

Harbaugh told reporters Wednesday that the decision — which included the head coach — to release Tucker was made in conjunction with president Sashi Brown, owner Steve Bisciotti and DeCosta. 

“You’re talking about arguably the best kicker in the history of the game. And like we said, it’s multi-layered. It’s complicated,” Harbaugh said. “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. I think if you step back and take a look at all the issues, 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. And that was the move that we decided to make. So in that sense, it’s a football decision.

“Now we have to spend all of our focus and our time to get these kickers ready. We’ve got a competition going on. We’ll get those guys ready to go make kicks. That’s all I’m thinking about, from my perspective, is we’ve got to have a kicker out there making kicks. And what’s the best way to get that done.”

The Ravens had previously indicated that they would wait until after the NFL finished its investigation into Tucker, but changed their stance after the organization made the decision to draft kicker Tyler Loop in the sixth round of the draft in April. 

DeCosta called the move a “football decision” in a statement at the time of Tucker’s release.

Tucker has denied the allegations, which were first reported by the Baltimore Banner, and called them “unequivocally false.”