Early fan reactions to Araiza accusations lean toward cutting punter

And some fans have been swift to respond that if the Bills don’t take action, they will.

Bills rookie punter Matt Araiza and two former college teammates at San Diego State University have been accused in a California civil lawsuit of gang raping a 17-year-old girl, then a high school senior, at an off-campus party in the fall.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Diego County Superior Court and first reported by the Los Angeles Times, accuses Araiza, then 21, of having sex with the minor outside of a home where he had been living and then bringing her inside to a room where she was repeatedly raped in the early hours of Oct. 17.

The case remains under review by the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether to pursue charges.

One woman on Twitter who’s an attorney in Buffalo wrote that she has already contacted her season ticket representative, expressing her disgust with the organization and encouraging others who feel the same to call or email the Bills.

Araiza, 22, was a fifth-round draft pick of the Bills in May. He earned the nickname “Punt God” for his prolific punting in college. He won the Ray Guy Award as the outstanding punter in the nation during the 2021 season. Araiza won a competition to be the team’s punter over veteran Matt Haack this week and is slated to be in uniform tonight as the Bills play at the Carolina Panthers in the their final preseason game.

if you're not going to cut him, let's hear about why he's not guilty @BuffaloBills

— Bills_Chick (@Bills_Chick) August 26, 2022

“Cut Matt Araiza @BuffaloBills do not play him in Carolina,” @Bills_Chick wrote.

“This is sick, I’d rather go for it for every fourth down for the whole year than have this guy punt for us,” another woman wrote in response.

Those coming to Araiza’s defense are short in supply to this point. Most of these commenters on social media are trying to give Araiza the benefit of the doubt, saying a person is innocent until proven guilty and asking that the legal process play out.

Meanwhile, others criticized the Bills for their lack of an explanation about the circumstances surrounding Araiza.

The Bills released the following statement: “We were recently made aware of a civil complaint involving Matt from October 2021. Due to the serious nature of the complaint, we conducted a thorough examination of this matter. As this is an ongoing civil case, we will have no other comment at this point.”

Many commenters want to know when Bills leadership – including their general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott – knew about the complaints and what their investigation entailed.

All of the good feeling and good will of the Beane/McDermott stint is thrown out the window in a matter of minutes. When this news broke, so should the news of the Bills cutting ties with Ariaza.

— Timothy Majka (@tmajic52) August 26, 2022

“All of the good feeling and good will of the Beane/McDermott stint is thrown out of the window in a matter of minutes,” one male fan wrote on Twitter. “When this news broke, so should the news of the Bills cutting ties with Araiza.”

And finally, some have called the Bills and some of their fans hypocritical for being critics of the Cleveland Browns trading for and signing quarterback Deshaun Watson to the league’s most lucrative contract even as more than 20 civil complaints were filed against him for sexual assault. Watson, who did not play for the Houston Texans last season before being traded, has been suspended for the first 11 games of the 2022 season. All the while, he has maintained his innocence.

“The Bills have the opportunity to set a precedent across the league,” a woman on Twitter wrote. “To show the fans, especially female fans, that these serious allegations should not be swept under the rug for the sake of winning a game. The evidence is damning. The reports are nauseating. Cut him.”

The suit claims the then-high school senior identified as "Jane Doe" went in and out of consciousness, but remembers moments as the men assaulted her. The others named in the complaint are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko. Leonard is on the San Diego State fall roster as a redshirt freshman. Ewaliko was on the team last year, but is not on this fall’s roster.

According to the complaint, the woman already had been drinking with friends when she arrived at the home and was "observably intoxicated." The woman said Araiza handed her a drink at the party that she believed “not only contained alcohol, but other intoxicating substances,” the suit noted. She also said she told Araiza that she was in high school. He then led her to a side yard where he asked her to perform oral sex and then had sex with her, before leading her inside, according to the suit. 

The complaint said that she went to the police the next day and waited for about five hours before an officer spoke to her. She was then taken a hospital for a rape exam.

Araiza’s San Diego-based attorney, Kerry Armstrong, told the Los Angeles Times that the rape accusation is false, also noting an investigator spoke to witnesses from the party who contradict the accusations against Araiza.

“It’s a shakedown because he’s now with the Buffalo Bills,” Armstrong told the Times. “There is no doubt in my mind that Matt Araiza ever raped that girl.”

Dan Gilleon, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, released a statement saying: "This was a horrific crime, the kind of which happens all too often. What makes these crimes different is not only that they were committed by self-entitled athletes. Just as awful as the crimes, for months, multiple organizations – SDSU, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego District Attorney, and now the Buffalo Bills – have acted the part of enablers looking the other way in denial that my client deserves justice even if the defendants are prized athletes."