The former San Diego State University and Buffalo Bills punter was recently dropped from a civil lawsuit alleging he raped a then-17-year-old intoxicated girl at an off-campus party in 2021, and with that he said he plans to return to the NFL to reignite his punting career.
“When I was cut, I was an NFL starter, had just beat out an NFL veteran. I was on a 4-year contract and that wont be handed back to me. No one in the NFL is going to go, ‘Here’s the job that you once had,’ so working to regain where I was at is my primary goal right now,” Araiza said at a Dec. 13 conference, as reported by Fox 5 San Diego. …
“This idea that society has that the second someone files a lawsuit it’s completely true and we must take action based on what’s alleged — I disagree with it,” Araiza reportedly said. “Professional sports teams, as well as college teams, should have the backbone to say, ‘Look we take these allegations seriously, but until allegations are proven, we can’t cut our guy. We can’t push somebody out who’s worked their whole life to be here.’”
[Innocent until proven guilty is the best principle in these cases, although we seem to be losing our adhesion to that principle. In reading the whole story, it appears that this accusation was always threadbare, at least in terms of Araiza’s alleged role. The Bills should have stood by him; maybe another team will do better now. — Ed]
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