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What took so long?
The Buffalo Bills finally sent punter Matt Araiza into the night without a job to face legal ramifications stemming from the alleged gang rape of a minor during his final year at San Diego State.
This move came on Saturday, two days after the woman filed a civil suit against Buffalo’s sixth-round pick and two of his former teammates, and the sordid case exploded on the national radar.
Shamefully, the Bills’ brain trust made the decision to detach themselves from a player accused of a heinous crime only after the lawsuit became public. Criminal charges have not been filed, pending an ongoing investigation that the San Diego police have turned over to the District Attorney.
To hear Bills GM Brandon Beane explain it, the team became aware of the allegations in late July, when the woman’s attorney, Daniel Gilleon, informed Buffalo’s counsel. Beane also said it was possible that the team first heard about the allegations from Araiza himself, who apparently learned earlier this summer that he was being investigated.
Beane maintained that he wasn’t sure whether he heard it first from Araiza or the attorney. But the GM was certain that they talked to the punter about it around the same time the attorney reached out.
So get this: The Bills put more stock in the word of an accused rapist than they did in the word of a traumatized girl apparently seeking justice, and kept the punter on their roster.
“We were trying not to rush to judgment,” Beane said during a news conference on Saturday night at the team’s headquarters. “Obviously, Matt’s version was different. You want to give everyone as much due process as you can. We’re not a judge and jury.”
That sounds a lot more cold-blooded when you consider details from the 11-page lawsuit that alleges Araiza coerced an apparently inebriated minor into oral sex last October at a party at his house near the San Diego State campus.
