The Ravens don’t have a zero-tolerance policy. And that’s completely fine.
While you might have been paying more attention to bigger Combine stories like coffee shop catfights, the Ravens quietly ended a policy that … never actually existed? (Other than when they said it did.)
Thanks to the prodding of The Baltimore Banner as it followed up on its Justin Tucker reporting, the Ravens confirmed via a spokesperson that the “zero-tolerance” policy that they (and specifically John Harbaugh) have alluded to regarding player conduct is not that at all. Instead …
“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.”
To be fair, we knew this. The Ravens never actually defined this policy, it was only loosely referenced. And it would be understandable to be cynical about the policy being seemingly disbanded amid the team and league investigation of Tucker. Perhaps the Tucker investigation is the prism through which the Ravens were forced to address it, but it doesn’t mean they got the wrong result.
Not every player conduct issue is the same. No one has ever believed that a one-off bar fight, for example, should immediately make a player ineligible to play for the Ravens. That would be extraordinary. But a reasonable hope for such a policy would be that the team would choose not to employ players who had committed sexual assault or domestic violence, for example.
No fan base should need its athletes to be perfect. None of us are. I’ve spoken publicly about how it’s easier for me to personally show grace to other humans after they are arrested for DUI. It’s not because I don’t understand the severity of the crime. Quite the contrary. I know better than most. I was arrested for DUI in Arizona in 2007. At least at the time, first-time DUI arrests in Arizona came with mandatory jail sentences. I served jail time and lost my license for a year. Ultimately, the costs associated with my arrest surpassed $30,000.
But those costs are far less than the potential cost of human life. I could have killed someone that night. I could have killed myself. I remain grateful to the officers who arrested me. And I made a commitment to ensure it would never happen again. But my own experience is part of the reason why I am more willing to show that grace.
There are undesirable discretions. I wouldn’t want a player I root for to, for example, assault someone at a Starbucks. But that type of action wouldn’t cause me to feel conflict about my ability to root for that player. The same can’t be said for players with sexual assault or domestic violence in their background.
I remember the genuine conflict my friends who root for the Cubs said they felt when Aroldis Chapman came into a baseball game carrying the hopes of a desperate city wanting to end a nearly century-long World Series drought. I don’t want to feel that when a player on my team makes a play. I was glad Antonio Brown — who famously admitted to sexual assaulting a woman in text messages — never donned the Ravens colors, no matter how talented he was.
But not every story is so obviously black and white. When evidence is lacking and stories conflict, it can be difficult to fully pass judgment. The Ravens dealt with this during the investigation of an incident involving Zay Flowers last offseason. With no strong evidence, it would be hard to argue that the team should have punished him at all. This seemed to be appropriate given the knowledge we had, but actual “zero tolerance” might have required a different result.
It is appropriate for the Ravens to view each situation individually and make the appropriate decision. But that does require them to actually make the most appropriate decision. It requires them to prioritize making the most appropriate decision, not the decision that best protects their asset. It is fair to question whether the Ravens (or any team) will always choose to do that. It is fair to have other opinions about which transgressions a team truly should have zero tolerance for. The Kansas City Chiefs have succeeded while having all of the tolerance for truly reprehensible behavior. I personally hope the Ravens never replicate that.
But the policy is correct. The application needs to be correct. The Justin Tucker investigation appears as though it will give the Ravens an opportunity to prove that it will.
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