Matt Araiza accused of rape, served with a lawsuit.

[RocCityRoller]

2 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

Before cutting Haack.  Not well before.  Well before is a boundless period.   

Fair point. I've seen some media saying late July, others just say weeks.

 

Thanks for the confirmation folks. Some sports shows/ news was making it sound different.

[Mango]

2 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

Yeah, that seems to be the case.

I generally agree here. The league and NFL teams employ all sorts former LEO, private investigators, federal agents, etc to scrub their player profiles. For 20 years players have been talking about how they have been caught off guard in pre draft interviews about how much personal information teams had. Stuff almost nobody knew. 
 

I don’t buy that the Bills just heard about this whole thing 6 weeks ago. Not even a little. 
 

They took a calculated risk. They spoke to the attorney and assumed Araiza would settle to keep his name out of it. SDSU has done their part to keep this quiet. But it’s all blown up in their face. 
 

The team is just putting on their best shocked face. 

[Malazan]

5 minutes ago, par73 said:

Exactly. Could we close this thread now?

 

I'm guessing the mods are leaving this open to contain it. Otherwise, you'd have someone making a new thread on it every 5 minutes and talking about it in other threads. People have very little self control and wouldn't be able to help themselves. So while, in theory, I'd agree that all that can be said about this has been said.. in practice, it's probably for the best that this thread keeps going. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Malazan

[Big Blitz]

Justice will be done by tomorrow or Monday 

 

Good work everyone.

 

We did it.  

[SectionC3]

13 minutes ago, gobills404 said:

Sorry but trying to deflect and change the topic won’t work. I could shovel horse ***** for a living and it wouldn’t  change anything.

No need to deflect.  I’m just trying to assess your expertise in this area.  Or lack of expertise, as the case apparently is. 

[WotAGuy]

What I don’t understand from the Bills’ perspective is - if they knew about this before the draft, why get involved in such a situation even if they believed he was not guilty of the charges?  The whole thing should have been avoided with a 10-foot pole.

 

And if he just disclosed this to the Bills after being drafted, it would seem he was withholding information that I’m sure the Bills ask all draft picks - “Is there anything you are involved in that we should know about?”  Withholding such an obvious problem is grounds for termination. 

[mannc]

6 minutes ago, par73 said:

Exactly. Could we close this thread now?

Why not just ignore it?

[hemma]

Just now, buffaloboyinATL said:

Did you hear somewhere that he was not there? Is that his defense?

I don’t know the defense.  None of us do, but @alphadawg7 commented that several people said Araiza wasn’t even there during the gang rape, among which were one or more of her girlfriends.

 

It’s hard to keep up with all of this stuff.

[Tanoros]

13 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

The goalposts of this thing will forever move for some folks. If he gets charged, there will be the "what about the trial" crowd. When the trial starts, there will be "what about the verdict" crowd, if a guilty plea comes down it'll be the "what about the appeal" crowd, and once all that's exhausted it'll probably be "deep state" or whatever.

The only way that this dude is 100% innocent is if he didn't have sex with her, didn't drug her and had ZERO idea anything suspect was going on. Any other scenario and he's some level of negligent to guilty. If he's got an alibi, now's the time, because I don't see it getting better for him.

By and large the vast majority on this thread are simply saying, a decision shouldn’t be made based on the court of public opinion. But instead, due diligence should be exercised in order to get as much facts as possible and then make an informed decision whether that be releasing him or not. 
 

There really is nothing worse than those who jump to conclusions based on emotion.  That’s a recipe for disaster not success! 

[cr02pica]

I think I can speak for all of us when I say I just hope this girl made the whole thing up. And not because I'm Bills fans and want to see Araiza punt (honestly would prefer to never see him punt and just hold Bass' balls) but because if this truly happened it is sick and I feel bad for this poor girl. As a new dad to a sweet baby girl it makes me sick to my stomach and terrified that there are people out there they could do this. Truly heartbreaking.

[PromoTheRobot]

12 minutes ago, WotAGuy said:

What I don’t understand from the Bills’ perspective is - if they knew about this before the draft, why get involved in such a situation even if they believed he was not guilty of the charges?  The whole thing should have been avoided with a 10-foot pole.

 

And if he just disclosed this to the Bills after being drafted, it would seem he was withholding information that I’m sure the Bills ask all draft picks - “Is there anything you are involved in that we should know about?”  Withholding such an obvious problem is grounds for termination. 

 

A lot depends on what they understood of the situation. Was it something they thought would be settled and go away? Cost/benefit for an uber talent?

Edited August 26, 2022 by PromoTheRobot

[Alphadawg7]

7 minutes ago, RocCityRoller said:

So I just worked a nearly 12 hour shift.

 

As I understand it, the Bills did not know about the allegations prior to drafting Araiza.

 

But they were informed about it well before cutting Haack.

 

Is that correct?

 

Correct, apparently not known by anyone prior to the draft, schools seems to have sat on the story too.  Bills apparently made aware of it around 6 weeks ago.  Also, the civil attorney representing here shared texts between him and Matt's attorney that show that her civil attorney had been in contact with the Bills and their attorney at the very least through emails.  

 

Bills also released a statement acknowledging they had previously been made aware of it and both conducted their own investigation into the matter but also will offer no further comment on the matter given its ongoing civil case at the moment.  

 

So, they knew for over a month before cutting Haack, conducted their own investigation, and clearly felt comfortable enough with what they found to be willing to stick with Matt and cut Haack at that time.  

Of course, at any moment that can change and they can be made aware of new info that leads them to cut Matt at any time too.  But for the time being, they seemingly were comfortable with their findings based on what they knew at the time they cut Haack.  Especially for an organization with women in leadership and coaching.  

[Big Blitz]

Just now, WotAGuy said:

What I don’t understand from the Bills’ perspective is - if they knew about this before the draft, why get involved in such a situation even if they believed he was not guilty of the charges?  The whole thing should have been avoided with a 10-foot pole.

 

And if he just disclosed this to the Bills after being drafted, it would seem he was withholding information that I’m sure the Bills ask all draft picks - “Is there anything you are involved in that we should know about?”  Withholding such an obvious problem is grounds for termination. 

 

 

 

Maybe....hear me out.....maybe this all escalated because he is now in the NFL.......maybe just maybe.....there are a lot more horror stories attached to prospects we'll never know about.  

 

Just a hunch on that tho obviously I believe they're all saints.  

 

[Alphadawg7]

2 minutes ago, mannc said:

Why not just ignore it?

 

Exactly, why do posters always want threads closed if they dont like that thread?  Like this isn't everyones personal message board, you don't like a thread move on to one you do. 

[WotAGuy]

3 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

A lot depends on what they understood of the situation. Was it something they thought would be settled and go away? Cost/benefit for a uber talent?

With the Watson debacle going on for a year?  If what you’re saying is true it reeks of poor judgment given the public perception the Bills have worked so hard to cultivate. 

Edited August 26, 2022 by WotAGuy

[Alphadawg7]

2 minutes ago, Tanoros said:

By and large the vast majority on this thread are simply saying, a decision shouldn’t be made based on the court of public opinion. But instead, due diligence should be exercised in order to get as much facts as possible and then make an informed decision whether that be releasing him or not. 
 

There really is nothing worse than those who jump to conclusions based on emotion.  That’s a recipe for disaster not success! 

 

Literally pin this to the top of this thread.  How this is so hard to grasp for some is beyond me.  

[Ta111]

2 hours ago, Yobogoya! said:

 

More than just a sleaze. 

 

He texted Araiza before any charges or lawsuits had been filed. An opposing lawyer texted a defendant directly. You can't tell me that's SOP by any means. 

That is really bizarre. I’ve handled many PI cases and I’ve never seen that before.

[BullBuchanan]

2 minutes ago, Tanoros said:

By and large the vast majority on this thread are simply saying, a decision shouldn’t be made based on the court of public opinion. But instead, due diligence should be exercised in order to get as much facts as possible and then make an informed decision whether that be releasing him or not. 
 

There really is nothing worse than those who jump to conclusions based on emotion.  That’s a recipe for disaster not success! 

I completely agree - that's why my solution from the very beginning was to release him regardless of guilt or innocence. You take all emotion and judgement out of the equation and you solve the problem. If he's innocent, you can try to re-sign him, and if he ends up getting picked up elsewhere, he's just a punter. Grab a new one next year.

[Yobogoya!]

2 minutes ago, BIGFOOTspaceman said:

Why would you come to my defense 🤔

 

You don't even know me.

 

But I'm willing to bet if I played for the Bills I'd be all aces in your book. Right? 

 

 

 

Buddy I'm about as objective as they come -- I don't care if you're the Bills punter or the fry cook at McDonalds, I give the benefit of the doubt until I get all the evidence and then I'll call it like I see it. 

 

And if you were being tried unfairly in the court of public opinion, yes I'd push back against that. Not for you -- but because I believe in the rights of the accused. 

[K D]

I hope the Bills don't have to point tonight. The crowd of 200 Carolina fans is really going to let him have it