Orchard Park, NY (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Bills released punter Matt Araiza on Saturday. Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott met with the media on Saturday night.
In a civil suit, Araiza has been accused of a gang rape of a 17-year-old high school student while attending San Diego State last October. No criminal charges have been filed against the punter.
Of course both were very somber as they spoke and Beane said, “The last 48 hours has been very difficult for a lot of people and we sympathize with this whole situation, all the parties involved, this young woman, what she went through, you really feel bad for that whole situation and ultimately, this is a legal situation and we don’t know all the facts and that’s what makes it hard, but at this time, we just think it’s the best move for everyone to move on from Matt and let him take care of this situation and focus on that so we’re going to part ways.”
It’s been talked about a lot about when did the Bills find out about this. Beane said that when they were scouting Araiza, they knew nothing about this. He added, “In late July, her representative spoke to Kathryn (Bills assistant general counsel Kathryn D’Angelo) and laid out some of the things that they were accusing Matt and some others of and at that time, our process, we tried to be thorough and thoughtful and not rush to judgement.
“It’s not easy, you’re trying to put facts around a legal situation sometimes with limited information. We don’t have the means to put all the facts together and there’s multiple versions of what happened and he’s a football coach (McDermott) and I’m a GM and we don’t have access to everything, so that’s more important than playing football, so we want Matt to focus on that.”
In the statement the Bills put out on Thursday, it talked about a thorough investigation. Beane said that should’ve been different, “As thorough as we could be with what we were able to get our hands on. We probably should’ve said ongoing because it wasn’t completed.”
The question was asked what changed in the last 48 hours from when they first heard about this in late July. Beane said, “When you hear them you’re just trying not to rush to judgement. You’re trying to use as much time as you can to find out what you can find out and that’s the best I can tell you. We’re not perfect. We’ve tried to do everything to find out what’s factual and what’s an accusation and that’s the best we could do.” Beane added, “There wasn’t a civil case, there wasn’t a criminal case, it was accusations that could come forward and we were still piecing it together and then around 48 hours ago, a civil case was filed and we read through that and circled back with Matt and there’s a lot of things that we can’t close the loop on.”
Beane said nothing ever changed in Araiza’s version throughout this. As far as why now instead of in late July, Beane said, “When he (the accuser’s attorney) made Kathryn aware of this, I would say we had the boulders of what was going to be accused or alleged, but at that point, it wasn’t an actual case and one of the things you look at is where is this criminally, so we were just trying to look at everything because one of those things on there if true, would be a no-go for us.”
Beane said it would have mattered as far as drafting him had they known. He said, “We did not know about this and the league did not know about this and we’ve reached out to double-digit teams and no one had anything on this. These names were sealed wherever the investigation was at that point. You know how important that character and the culture is to Sean and me and anything that would’ve been lingering, that would’ve been off our board.”
Fans want to know what Beane would say to them to restore confidence in the organization. He said, “I would ask that you don’t rush to judgement and that’s all we tried to do is put the facts together. We don’t know what happened, we were not there for this incident and I would hope that what Sean and I have done here since we got here in ’17, that you know that we’re trying to do our best, we don’t have all the answers, we’re not perfect, we just tried to do what was right and has everything been perfect, no, but in my heart of hearts, I can lay my head down at night knowing I’ve tried to do it right and I know he has (Sean) too.”
McDermott said he spoke to Araiza Saturday morning and the punter understood why the Bills released him and agreed that this was probably best.
Beane said owner Terry Pegula was involved throughout this process, but Kim Pegula was not. Kim has been battling “medical issues” since mid-June.
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