Lindsay H. Jones

USA TODAY Sports

The Denver Broncos are sending practice squad safety Ryan Murphy home to Denver after he was questioned in a prostitution sting on Tuesday.

San Jose television station KPIX 5 reported that Murphy was questioned by police and released, but that his brother and a suspected prostitute received citations in the operation that occurred in a motel parking lot on Tuesday.

“We decided it was best if we continued our preparation for Super Bowl 50 without him,” head coach Gary Kubiak said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Murphy, who grew up in Oakland and played at Oregon State, was signed to the Broncos' practice squad in November.

In his statement, Kubiak said Murphy’s status as a practice squad player had not changed, only his participation in Super Bowl week.

Broncos players were off Tuesday in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl 50 against the Carolina Panthers. Practice squad players traveled with the team to serve as the scout team in three practice sessions that start Wednesday.

Kubiak’s final message to his team before it departed for California last Sunday was about accountability. Kubiak said he wasn’t going to micromanage his players once they arrived in Santa Clara, but he wanted them to be responsible about their down time.

“To get to this point in your football career, as a player and as a team, it’s hard to get there. You just want to know that everybody is doing everything they possibly can for next Sunday,” Kubiak said last week. “That’s accountability by players and everybody, but they know that. I talk to them about that all the time. We’re going into a real — it’s a week of heavy distractions, but you work to be in those distractions.”