Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR 550) – The Buffalo Bills announced on Saturday the release of rookie punter Matt Araiza.
In a civil suit that surfaced on Thursday in a Los Angeles Times article, Araiza has been accused of gang-raping of a 17-year-old high school student while attending San Diego State last October. No criminal charges have been filed against the punter.
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Following Saturday's practice, Bills head coach Sean McDermott and general manager Brandon Beane both addressed the media in Orchard Park. Of course both were very somber as they spoke.
“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," said Beane. "You really feel bad for that whole situation, and ultimately, this is a legal situation and we don’t know all the facts. 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 says when they were scouting Araiza, they knew nothing about this incident.
“In late July, [the victim's] representative spoke to [Bills assistant general counsel Kathryn D’Angelo] and laid out some of the things that they were accusing Matt and some others of," Beane said. "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 [McDermott's] a football coach 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 examination made by the team into the matter. Beane says 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,” he said.
The question was asked what changed in the last 48 hours from when they first heard about this incident in late July.
“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," Beane said. "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.
“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. Then around 48 hours ago, a civil case was filed, and we read through that and circled back with Matt. There’s a lot of things that we can’t close the loop on.”
Beane says nothing ever changed in Araiza’s version throughout this. As far as why releasing him now instead of in late July, Beane says matters were different then.
“When [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," he said. "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 says it would have mattered, as far as drafting him, had they had known about allegations beforehand.
“We did not know about this, and the league did not know about this," he said. "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.”
Some fans may want to know what Beane would say to them to restore confidence in the organization.
“I would ask that you don’t rush to judgement, and that’s all we tried to do is put the facts together," Beane said. "We don’t know what happened, we were not there for this incident. 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 [Sean] has 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.
