McDermott/Beane press conference 8/27: Matt Araiza released

[Starr Almighty]

6 minutes ago, Dr.Sack said:

The plaintiffs attorney comment yesterday on the Bills “putting their heads in the sand” is weird. Instead of using the news of Araiza’s release as evidence in his favor public opinion, he took a low blow at a standup Org. Meanwhile SDSU and local LE likely helped cover up the allegation. Misplaced anger is real. 

 

You mean this guy?  He contradicts himself every other post.  I don't know what did and did not happen but I know this guy is a bad lawyer.

[Shaw66]

15 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

Fair question, keeping in mind that they have a kid's career in their hands and the "Golden Rule" is "treat people as you want to be treated".  None of us wants to be at the "Choo! Choo!" end of a railroad op.

 

This is me using all the powers of 20-20 hindsight, but I think the Bills put all the Hosses they can on the investigation, and see what they can turn up between July 30 and August 23.  And if you haven't turned up anything definitive by the time the roster cuts to 80, you quietly cut Araiza and keep Haack and put out some performance-related reasons for the choice.  Haack is the more reliable holder, Haack is the more experienced and proficient directional punter and their analysis indicates that may be critical more often than a booming punt may be, Araiza is a fine player who can have a long career in the NFL but that's our decision today.

 

And if you're not happy with Haack, keep your eye on the cut-out bin, bring in FA/look for trades, and swap.

 

Why take the risk of having a major distraction break over the team during the season due to your punter?

 

 

I think that's a bit far fetched.  For one thing, friends and acquaintance who are attorneys tell me NO WAY that lawyer is going to allow his client to be deposed or even freely interviewed by the Bills.  The most they get is to listen to her read a statement, or just get a written statement emailed to them.  Why?  Because with a criminal case pending and a civil suit pending, anything she says to the Bills would be discoverable and could be scrutinized for contradictions to challenge her credibility, and experienced lawyers know that it's very very difficult for a witness to avoid anything that can be challenged in an open-ended interview.

 

I think the key point here is for the Bills to gain as much understanding as they can of this lawyer's intentions and motivations.  To do that, you keep the lines of communication open and just see what you can get.  Personally, from what he's presented on social media, he seems a guy that I'd want to keep a barrel of bleach handy to disinfect my ears after speaking to, but Ya Gotta do What Ya Gotta Do for the good of the club.

 

 

Pretty well where I am except I woulda done it this week, so that I can reach out to punter's agents and teams who might trade and schedule things.  Because I think it's pretty clear the Bills were not happy standing pat with Haack.  So unless you have a clear resolution for Araiza, you keep Haack and keep looking.

 

 

I think it's a very safe bet the league weighed in on this.  Good points.

 

 

Terry has a past history of not taking the stage when perhaps he should at difficult moments (the Rex Ryan firing).  But I think it's very possible that one or both of them weighed in strongly and drove the final decision.

 

I think Beane had trouble handling that press conference because he didn't plan to go out there.  Originally one chair in the original room.  I think they were both being prepped and briefed by lawyers, the communications people, and perhaps someone from the league office on what to say and how to say it, and McDermott balked and said "not going out there alone".  So I think Beane was less prepared than usual in a situation where sticking to the script was more important than usual, so he spent more time checking his notes.

Thanks.  This is excellent stuff.   I'll respond to a few things.  

 

Do you know the Bills at all the hosses at work?   It didn't sound that way to me.  Sounded like Beane said "we looked at it at the end of July, learned what we could, and then we waited."

 

We agree about running out to now with both punters on the roster.   I would keep Araiza only if the problem had been resolved (claim goes away, or Araiza settles); otherwise, if the problem was still just hanging there, I keep Haack. 

 

Far-fetched?  Probably.  But by talking to the lawyer every week, you may learn more about their intentions.  

 

Finally, one chair or two.   I think it was completely clear, both days, that McDermott was not comfortable delivering the agreed up messages.  He was really struggling to find words.   Someone in the organization, someone who was prepping McDermott or maybe McDermott himself, finally said no, we can't put him out there alone.   I saw somewhere that Beane was flying into Buffalo yesterday afternoon - probably stayed in Carolina to be with friends or family.   So, they rushed him back, because if it wasn't going to be McD and it wasn't going to be Pegula, it had to be Beane.  I think you're correct, that he wasn't as well prepared as we're used to.  He hadn't been in the room with people for the previous 24 hours, talking about it.  

 

I loved it when Beane said, "Look, Sean's a coach and I'm a GM, and we need help on stuff like this."

 

From a management point of view, it's been an incredibly learning experience for them.  They work so hard to be prepared for unexpected things, and part of the work is learning from your successes and failures when unexpected things happen.  Beane and McDermott will get better at this, because they work to get better at everything. 

 

 

[oldmanfan]

I don’t think the decision on Haack is related to Araiza’s case.  To me they didn’t think Haack was who they wanted regardless.  And they knew they could find a guy as good if not better if anything happened to Araiza whether that be related to his problems with law enforcement or not.

[Pokebball]

26 minutes ago, Dr.Sack said:

The plaintiffs attorney comment yesterday on the Bills “putting their heads in the sand” is weird. Instead of using the news of Araiza’s release as evidence in his favor public opinion, he took a low blow at a standup Org. Meanwhile SDSU and local LE likely helped cover up the allegation. Misplaced anger is real. 

I don't think he believed the Bills were going to release MA. But he's been most unpredictable, so who really knows what he does and doesn't think.

[Motorin']

21 minutes ago, Starr Almighty said:

 

You mean this guy?  He contradicts himself every other post.  I don't know what did and did not happen but I know this guy is a bad lawyer.

 

I don't think her attorney has contradicted himself, outside of people misinterpreting aspects of this posts. 

 

 

[Tiberius]

Those bruises on her neck and thighs look damning.  Some people are going to be doing some hard time for this. 

 

If there is a silver lining hopefully someone will learn from this and stop an incident or incidents in the future and victims will feel empowered to do what Jane Doe did and report it soon after 

[Doc]

37 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

That could be.  I'm not quite sure how confident they can be about the "no criminal charges" when the DA just got the file August 5th.  But it's possible.

From conferring with legal experts, former DAs, etc.  Or as was speculated, the DA declined to press charges. 

Edited August 28, 2022 by Doc

[Rico]

25 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Thanks.  This is excellent stuff.   I'll respond to a few things.  

 

Do you know the Bills at all the hosses at work?   It didn't sound that way to me.  Sounded like Beane said "we looked at it at the end of July, learned what we could, and then we waited."

 

We agree about running out to now with both punters on the roster.   I would keep Araiza only if the problem had been resolved (claim goes away, or Araiza settles); otherwise, if the problem was still just hanging there, I keep Haack. 

 

Far-fetched?  Probably.  But by talking to the lawyer every week, you may learn more about their intentions.  

 

Finally, one chair or two.   I think it was completely clear, both days, that McDermott was not comfortable delivering the agreed up messages.  He was really struggling to find words.   Someone in the organization, someone who was prepping McDermott or maybe McDermott himself, finally said no, we can't put him out there alone.   I saw somewhere that Beane was flying into Buffalo yesterday afternoon - probably stayed in Carolina to be with friends or family.   So, they rushed him back, because if it wasn't going to be McD and it wasn't going to be Pegula, it had to be Beane.  I think you're correct, that he wasn't as well prepared as we're used to.  He hadn't been in the room with people for the previous 24 hours, talking about it.  

 

I loved it when Beane said, "Look, Sean's a coach and I'm a GM, and we need help on stuff like this."

 

From a management point of view, it's been an incredibly learning experience for them.  They work so hard to be prepared for unexpected things, and part of the work is learning from your successes and failures when unexpected things happen.  Beane and McDermott will get better at this, because they work to get better at everything. 

 

 

Beane knocked it out of the park, it's over.

[Starr Almighty]

15 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

 

I don't think her attorney has contradicted himself, outside of people misinterpreting aspects of this posts. 

 

 

He didn't call the Bills lawyer a class act? And then said they had their heads in the sand? Please interpret that correctly for me.

[Beck Water]

19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Do you know the Bills at all the hosses at work?   It didn't sound that way to me.  Sounded like Beane said "we looked at it at the end of July, learned what we could, and then we waited."

 

I think you may have misunderstood my comment "This is me using all the powers of 20-20 hindsight, but I think the Bills put all the Hosses they can on the investigation, and see what they can turn up between July 30 and August 23.  And if you haven't turned up anything definitive by the time the roster cuts to 80, you quietly cut Araiza and keep Haack and put out some performance-related reasons for the choice.  Haack is the more reliable holder, Haack is the more experienced and proficient directional punter and their analysis indicates that may be critical more often than a booming punt may be, Araiza is a fine player who can have a long career in the NFL but that's our decision today.  And if you're not happy with Haack, keep your eye on the cut-out bin, bring in FA/look for trades, and swap."

 

I can see that I wrote ambiguously, but I meant "with 20-20 hindsight, this is what I think the Bills should have done: put all the Hosses they can...."

 

I would like to think that the Bills put all the hosses to work, but actually, no, I agree with you - I don't think they did.  The key was that initially they said "thorough examination".  I think that means D'Angelo and Brandon and maybe others in Raccuia's line reviewed the lawyer's communications, Araiza's lawyer's communications and perhaps exculpatory evidence he presented, reviewed their area scout's deep background pre-draft.  They may have (and should have) engaged an investigator in San Diego to talk to the people whose evidence Araiza was relying on, talk to contacts in the SDPD and DA's office, hang out and talk to people on the team.  But no, I don't think it was a full-court press and I think Beane was "kept in the loop" but getting summaries and not looking over primary documents; I think McDermott was getting "high level summaries" other than maybe talking directly to Araiza again.

 

I don't think anyone was monitoring the Interwebs or social media to see what was out there, which is bizarre to me but I've personally run into bigger communication gaps in large organizations so....

 

 

19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

Finally, one chair or two.   I think it was completely clear, both days, that McDermott was not comfortable delivering the agreed up messages.  He was really struggling to find words.   Someone in the organization, someone who was prepping McDermott or maybe McDermott himself, finally said no, we can't put him out there alone.   I saw somewhere that Beane was flying into Buffalo yesterday afternoon - probably stayed in Carolina to be with friends or family.   So, they rushed him back, because if it wasn't going to be McD and it wasn't going to be Pegula, it had to be Beane.  I think you're correct, that he wasn't as well prepared as we're used to.  He hadn't been in the room with people for the previous 24 hours, talking about it.

 

I hadn't read that Beane was flying into Buffalo yesterday afternoon.  I think that explains the press conference delay right there.  Perhaps he had a flight delay or missed a connection, and then when he arrived he needed to regroup and get prepared.

 

19 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I loved it when Beane said, "Look, Sean's a coach and I'm a GM, and we need help on stuff like this."

 

And that's a very fair point

11 minutes ago, Doc said:

From conferring with legal experts, former DAs, etc.  Or as was speculated, the DA declined to press charges. 

 

If the SD DA has declined, they certainly haven't said so officially.  To the contrary, they say charges are still under consideration.

 

Legal experts and former DAs are fine people, but without the details of exactly what the SDPD has in that file, are their opinions of great value?

[Motorin']

Just now, Starr Almighty said:

He didn't call the Bills lawyer a class act? And then said they had their heads in the sand? Please interpret that correctly for me.

 

Oh, I see what you mean. I read it as a sarcastic dig at the Bills attorney for denying that the team had any knowledge of the accusations when Araiza's lawyer stated that they had already informed the Bills. 

 

Like -- What a class act, she starts off by lying to me that she doesn't know anything about this...

 

I'm not saying his style isn't bombastic and unorthodox. But I've seen more contradictions from Araiza's lawyer. Like going on TV and saying "you better believe" Araiza informed the NFL pre-draft. 

 

[Malazan]

2 minutes ago, Motorin' said:

I'm not saying his style isn't bombastic and unorthodox. But I've seen more contradictions from Araiza's lawyer. Like going on TV and saying "you better believe" Araiza informed the NFL pre-draft. 

 

Both lawyers seem to be pushing the bounds of decency. Araiza's lawyer is an arse. 

[Augie]

30 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

I don’t think the decision on Haack is related to Araiza’s case.  To me they didn’t think Haack was who they wanted regardless.  And they knew they could find a guy as good if not better if anything happened to Araiza whether that be related to his problems with law enforcement or not.

 

That’s how I saw it. Make sure the kid can play, and if he can’t we’ll find somebody else. There is always someone out there who can give you about what Haack provides. When it all hit the fan, they went to their list of guys who could be passable placeholders. Rumor has it they caught wind of @BringBackFergy’s dedicated holder idea and they knew they could have that part covered. 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, maybe not that last part, but you know how rumors are. Easy to start, strangely hard to ignore…..like car wrecks. 

[UKBillFan]

Regarding Araiza not being issues criminal charges, it was a belief posted by a defence attorney on here on the basis that a civil case has been raised, as putting the alleged victim in front of a civil court raises the risk of testimony which undermines the criminal case.

[Sierra Foothills]

2 hours ago, SectionC3 said:

Someone is going to take the fall for this.  

 

This is a great point and I was wondering when it would be made (I haven't bothered going into the 272+ pages in the other topic).

 

Someone is going to take the fall. It will be a test of the Buffalo Bills organization to see what the fallout will be from this situation and how much damage it might cause internally.

 

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

So, what were they supposed to do?   Believe me, I'm not arguing.   

 

Let's play out the scenario.  So, the Bills circle back five or seven days later and ask if there's anything new?   The Bills are told "no, we continue to work on our civil complaint."    Now what?   Bills ask if they can interview the woman, and the lawyer says either no or yes, but on the following condition: NOTHING she says in your interview can be used as part of your defense if she chooses to sue you.  At which point the Bills say, "whoa, you're thinking of suing US?  We're out of here, and you'll be hearing from our lawyers." 

 

And if they just get nothing when they circle back, what then?   Circle back in another week?  And the week after that?   How long do the Bills hang in limbo, wondering what to do?   Worst case, I suppose, is that with everything still in limbo in November her lawyer says, "Okay, we intend to commence the litigation in two weeks, unless Araiza settles right now."  Maybe they try to hold up Araiza - and the Bills - by threatening to make them the number story in their market.  I guess that would be a pretty bad outcome.    

 

We can create a lot of possible scenarios, but they wouldn't have been materially better.  Well, yes, a better one goes like this:  Suppose the Bills got serious corroborating evidence on, say, August 7 (there apparently was no such evidence available then, but just assume there was).  Bills waive him then.  They keep Haack.  There's a flurry of news coverage that is over by now.  That's the best possible outcome.  Not sure it really matters all that much.  Bills will have a Haack-equivalent punter into another few days, and it will be out of the news in a week.  

 

So, I think I just convinced myself.  Bills should have been more proactive after first learning of it in July.   They should have checked with her lawyer, and Araiza's lawyer, asking if there are any developments.  That way, at least, they might get advance notice of the filing of the suit.  Keep pursuing it in any way you can, just the way your scouts track down old coaches and other people.  Talk to the coaches at his college, talk his teammates.  Keep Haack on the team.  Then, when you get to this weekend, when final cuts are made, you make a decision.  Maybe you've learned enough to know that the whole thing is dying, or has settled quietly.   You keep Araiza.  Or, you've learned nothing new (where the Bills were a few days ago), and decide you don't want to risk a November scenario, so you cut him and keep Haack.   

 

Instead, the Bills waited for the episode either to die or come alive.  It came alive, and the Bills dealt with it.  Team will be way past it in a day or two, and the press will be, too.  Not the best possible outcome, but in no way is it devastating to the team. 

 

I also think you have to assume that their decision making was guided (not directed, but guided) by the League.  Beane did mention being in touch with the League, and you can be sure the league was over it.    All of the NFL's marketing has the Bills shown as a marquee name, and they don't want a sex scandal associated with that marketing.  It's a good bet that the Bills dug exactly as deep as the NFL suggested.  Beane didn't say, "the NFL made some suggestions, but we decided they weren't overkill."  The NFL was no doubt very clear about how they thought it should be handled, and I can't imagine that these managers - Beane and McDermott - would not do at least what the league suggested.  

 

One final thought, off the subject.   Where was Terry Pegula in this?  Did he tell Beane and McD to handle it and keep him out of it?  I might have thought he would have participated in a press conference, saying how important these issues are in the country, and how concerned Kim and Terry are about them.   Which leads to the bigger question:  Where's Kim?  Was there news that I missed one day?   We haven't heard a word, so far as I know, and now Terry is AWOL.   I wonder if Beane and McDermott have been left in charge of the place while Terry and Kim are dealing with some tough stuff.  Beane and McDermott probably are working under a lot of pressure.   That may explain why even Beane had trouble handling that press conference. 

 

 

 

Good overall take on a fairly complex subject.

 

My thought is that most people here seem to think the Bills either handled this very well or very poorly.

 

But again the truth doesn't always fit into a nice, tidy binary box.

 

The Bills did some things well and other things poorly. You could probably assign them a numerical grade. I dock them points for not doing better on the due diligence/vetting of Araiza. I also dock them points for not continuing the engagement between De'Angelo and Gilleon. They had nothing to lose and possibly something to gain by staying connected in this conversation... even if it's just for good optics. The Bills have not been flawless in this situation but I think overall they responded pretty well. 

[Doc Brown]

1 hour ago, Boatdrinks said:

As a man of principles, perhaps McD’s faith in humanity was shaken by the cacophony of the media swarming like hyenas on a freshly killed carcass. 

If he didn't understand what was coming he would've played Araiza Friday night.  This could've been a lot worse.

[UKBillFan]

Regarding the person or persons to take the 'fall' for this - Beane specifically said that he and McDermott needed more help. Have to wonder who that was aimed at.

[Doc]

37 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

Legal experts and former DAs are fine people, but without the details of exactly what the SDPD has in that file, are their opinions of great value?

Again, as the lawyer who deals in this type of stuff said much earlier, the plaintiff’s lawyer probably filed a civil suit after he learned the DA wasn’t pressing charges.  The public scrutiny following the civil suit might have forced him to open it again or maybe that’s just lip service. I guess we’ll find out. 

[RunTheBall]

Take the fall for what?

 

Because the Bills didn’t have a binder labeled “Open in case 6th round pick gets implicated in a gang rape case and you don’t know the facts just allegations” ??

 

Some of you are nuts. McBeane handled this about as good as they could. The nitpicking here is incredible. You are like the mob in the Holy Grail “SHE’S A WITCH! BURN HER!!”

 

 

[Beck Water]

1 hour ago, Boatdrinks said:

As a man of principles, perhaps McD’s faith in humanity was shaken by the cacophony of the media swarming like hyenas on a freshly killed carcass. 

 

I think McDermott has witnessed his share of swarming hyenas in the press and on social media, including in response to situations like the Shady McCoy bar fight and home invasion accusations or even lesser things like Josh Allen's texts or Jake Fromm's texts.

 

I don't think he says "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" because of press and social media clamor.

 

McDermott also wasn't the only person shaken - remember Keenum "Still processing a lot of it" and Barkley "Some of that stuff is hard to read.  There's a lot to work through"

 

But YMMV

Edited August 28, 2022 by Beck Water