CHARLOTTE – Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott spent the majority of his postgame news conference Friday addressing the civil lawsuit filed against rookie punter Matt Araiza on Thursday.
Araiza, along with two of his former San Diego State football teammates, has been accused of gang raping a 17-year-old girl last October in California.
Here is the transcription of McDermott’s news conference, with questions that have been edited for clarity:
The coach speaks to reporters after Friday's game.
Opening statement: Understand there was a game just played, but I want to talk about something that’s more important, which is what we have going on with one of the members of our team right now, Matt Araiza. It is a situation that is extremely serious, just hard to go through and it’s not a situation that I or we take lightly whatsoever, and it’s very serious. I understand the sensitivity of the situation, and it’s clear we have work to do to continue to figure this thing out here and we’re going to do that.
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Q. When were you made aware of this situation?
SM: “I’m not going to get into details right now, hope you can appreciate that. I respect your question. I know we made the statement we did last night and I’ll leave it at that.”
Q. Given the severity of the allegations, what makes you believe that general statement is an adequate response by the organization?
SM: “Again, I’m not going to get into details right now. So I hope you can respect that.”
Q. What makes him a great kid, which is what you called him this week?
SM: “Again, not going to get into who Matt is and his character and all that type of stuff. I don’t think that’s right right now. I can tell you this, my heart and thoughts and prayers go out to the people involved. Right. And that includes Matt, it includes both sides here, and the victim and everyone involved. Our prayers go out to them.”
Araiza did not play Friday night against the Carolina Panthers and was not in uniform at Bank of America Stadium.
Q. Have you been satisfied with the organization’s response to these allegations?
SM: “We have work to do. We have work to do.”
Q. Why didn’t Araiza play tonight?
SM: “It was my decision. At the end of the day, I didn’t feel like it was right to do that.”
Q. What are the spirits in the locker room?
SM: “Where do you want to start? It is something that I and we take very seriously and that’s where we’re at.”
Q. When did you make the decision he wouldn’t play?
SM: “At some point today I just felt like that was the right thing to do. And that’s what I’m after is doing the right thing.”
Q. Do you anticipate him being on the roster Tuesday?
SM: “Yeah, I’m not going to go into that. Again, respectfully. I’m not going to go into that right now. It’s clear, like I said, it’s clear we have work to do here and figuring this thing out.”
Q. What does that work involve? How thorough was the investigation?
SM: “There’s work to be done. I’m not gonna go into details on that. We’ve got more work to do.”
Q. What’s your message to the female fans?
The woman who accused Bills punter Matt Araiza of raping her when she was 17 wrote recollections in a journal entry immediately after telling San Diego police that she was gang-raped.
SM: “Again, it’s not a situation we take lightly. I’m hurt, I understand they’re hurt. It’s emotional. It’s not easy to hear about some of the things that I’ve heard about over the last, several hours, say. Haven’t slept a lot to be honest with you because this is a game, but there’s other things that are more important than this.”
Q. Are you aware his agent made a statement during the game?
SM: “I’m not gonna get into that. I’m not gonna go down that road right now. Again, we’ve got some work to do here and we’re gonna figure this thing out.”
Q. Do you have a reaction to that statement?
SM: “I’m aware of that statement since the game and I’m not going to comment on that.”
Q. What work has to be done?
SM: “It’s just a matter of trying to find the truth at the end of the day, right? That’s the goal is find the truth and do the right thing. And that’s what I keep coming back to in my mind and my heart is find out the truth to the best of my ability and do the right thing.”
Q. At what point can you share details of the timeline about exactly what you knew and when?
SM: “I’ll see. I mean, like I said, we got a lot of work in front of us here, a lot of work and we got to figure this thing out.”
Q. What did you say to the team?
SM: “They know that this was going on here and with all this stuff that’s out there about this. We talked about the seriousness of the situation and the sensitivity of the situation and that’s real.”
Q. Would you like to share any thoughts on the game?
SM: “Respectfully, I don’t think it’s the right time to do that. Other than I appreciate the players effort. I don’t take that lightly either. It’s on a whole separate scale, but I don’t think it’s the right time to talk about it. Respectfully, trying to be respectful of the situation here and I think that’s the right thing to do.”
Q. Is not addressing this and letting it fester a concern?
SM: “Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, all of it all. That’s one piece, but I’m concerned about all of it. And again, people involved on both sides. People are hurt, people are hurting, fans are hurting. I understand that and again, we want to find the truth and figure this thing out the right way and do the right thing. And that’s what I know to do. And that’s what we’re going to work on.”
Q: Did Araiza lie to the team?
SM: “I’m not gonna get into that again, respectfully. It’s just working on finding that truth. And that’s where we’re at with it.”
Q. Do you have a timeline on when that process will take place?
Why Bills punter Matt Araiza not subject to potential discipline under NFL's personal conduct policy
Araiza cannot be disciplined by the NFL because the reported incident predates his time in the NFL.
SM: “I don’t. Obviously I hope sooner than later. I’ve been working on it, we’ve been working on it. It hasn’t been easy. And again, I just want to get to that answer as soon as we can. But you know how things sometimes work with these situations. There’s things on both sides with legal and attorneys and everything like that. So again, just trying to put this all together and do what’s right.”
Q. Do feel misled by any of the parties?
SM: “I’m not gonna get into that. Again, it’s getting into the details that I can’t get into right now.”
Q. How much did you learn in the last 24 hours that you didn’t already know?
SM: “I would say there’s been some, and I’m not going to deny that, and that’s why I have more work to do on this."
Q: Do you put the blame on that on Matt, on the organization? Who's responsible for you not having that information previously?
SM: "I’m more trying to be solution oriented right now. And that’s where I’m headed. And that’s where we need to be headed."
