New York (AFP) – Seven more massage therapists have accused Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker of sexually inappropriate behavior, a report said Sunday, bringing the total number of women making allegations against the player to 16. The Baltimore Banner newspaper said the latest wave of allegations against the 35-year-old Super Bowl winner were similar to statements made by nine other massage therapists who had already spoken out about the kicker.
Tucker has strongly denied wrongdoing both in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and in a formal statement via his attorneys. In the latest claims, Tucker is accused of repeatedly exposing his genitals and brushing some of the therapists’ thighs with his fingers. The 16 women who have made claims against Tucker worked at eight different spas in Baltimore. The Banner reported that two of the spas involved deemed Tucker’s behavior so egregious he was banned from using the facility again.
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The women involved say the allegations span from 2012, Tucker’s rookie season with the Ravens, to 2016. In a statement on January 30, Tucker said the allegations against him were “unequivocally false.” “I have never before been accused of misconduct of any kind, and I have never been accused of acting inappropriately in front of a massage therapist or during a massage therapy session or during other bodywork,” he said on X. “I have never received any complaints from a massage therapist, have never been dismissed from a massage therapy or bodywork session, and have never been told that I was not welcome at any spa or other place of business,” he added, dismissing the Banner’s reporting as “desperate tabloid fodder.”
The National Football League has so far taken no formal action against Tucker. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said before the Super Bowl the league was looking into the claims. “They are obviously serious issues and (Tucker) is taking that seriously as are we,” Goodell said. Tucker’s case echoes a similar scandal involving Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by more than two dozen female massage therapists in 2021. Watson, who was with the Houston Texans when the claims emerged, denied wrongdoing but later settled most of the civil lawsuits brought by his accusers.
The allegations led to him missing the entirety of the 2021 NFL season before he was eventually formally suspended for the first 11 games of the 2022 campaign and fined $5 million.
© 2024 AFP
