The defending-champion Kansas City Chiefs are taking a chance on Matt Araiza, the former Buffalo Bills punter who was released following accusations sexual assault – claims that have since been dropped.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday that the Chiefs plan on signing the free agent, who has never played in a regular-season NFL game.
Araiza has since confirmed the news through his agency’s social media accounts, writing: ‘I am proud and honored to sign a contract with the @Chiefs. I am thrilled to be able to continue my NFL career. I want to thank my family, who have been my rock and my many friends who have been unwavering in their support.’
In December, Araiza was dropped from a lawsuit filed by a woman who alleged she was raped by San Diego State University football players in 2021. The woman agreed to dismiss Araiza from the lawsuit she filed last year, while Araiza agreed to dismiss his defamation countersuit against her, his attorneys said at the time.
Araiza will likely compete for the Chiefs’ punting job with 2023 start Tommy Townsend’s contract expiring earlier this month. Townsend is coming off an up-and-down season in which he ranked 25th in punts inside the 20-yard line and 17th in gross punt average.
The defending-champion Kansas City Chiefs are taking a chance on Matt Araiza (pictured)
Matt Araiza gets off a punt during Bills training camp at Saint John Fisher University in 2022
Araiza was nicknamed the ‘Punt God’ and honored as a consensus All-American in 2021 for his booming kicks that helped SDSU to a school-best 12-2 season in his senior year. He was selected by the Bills in the sixth round of the NFL draft but released two days after the filing of the lawsuit on August 27, 2022.
‘Matt has been forced to defend himself for the last sixteen months against false accusations and a campaign to ruin his career in the NFL. He will never get this time in his life back,’ attorneys Dick Semerdjian and Kristen Bush said in Decmber.
‘Thankfully, there was extensive evidence that was key to securing Matt’s voluntary dismissal from this lawsuit,’ the statement added. ‘Matt was and has always been innocent. The case is over, and Matt has prevailed.’
Araiza said in December that the ordeal ‘changed me a lot’ and that he wants another shot at the NFL.
‘My name, my reputation — this will be tied to me forever, that won’t go away,’ he said at a news conference. ‘It was tough to watch the pain that it caused my family, because I have been proven innocent but they for sure had absolutely nothing to do with this.’
Araiza said at the time he was continuing to work out in hopes of finding his way back into the league.
‘When I was cut, I was an NFL starter, had just beat out an NFL veteran. I was on a four-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. ‘I’m confident that I will be able to regain my NFL career — whenever that is. I believe it’s more of a when, not an if.’
The defamation lawsuit against the woman, described in court documents only as Jane Doe, was ‘legally baseless,’ but her first legal bill topped $20,000 and she ‘simply cannot afford to defend herself,’ her attorney, Dan Gilleon, said in a statement reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
‘Plus she has been beat down by Araiza’s PR campaign and is frankly over it,’ he said in a text, the news outlet reported.
The lawsuit against four other former San Diego State University players will continue.
Araiza was nicknamed the ‘Punt God’ at San Diego State, where he was an All-American
The unidentified woman alleged that she was 17 and attending an off-campus party in October 2021 when Araiza, then 21, had sex with her in a side yard at an off-campus house before bringing her into a bedroom where a group of men took turns raping her. She reported the alleged assault to San Diego police the next day.
Araiza has said he stayed in the backyard and never entered the home during the party and that he left nearly a half-hour before the alleged raping occurred.
After an hour-and-a-half, the teen ‘stumbled out of the room bloody and crying,’ according to the complaint, obtained by DailyMail.com. Her nose, belly button, and ear piercings had allegedly been pulled out.
She immediately told her friends about the rape and the next day reported it to police and underwent a rape exam, according to the lawsuit. Officers coached her on calling Araiza, which she did 10 days later as detectives recorded it, according to the complaint.
He and most of the other players the woman is suing have said their encounters with her were consensual.
During the call, Araiza acknowledged having sex with her, the lawsuit states, but later, when she asked him ‘And did we have actual sex?’ he responded ‘This is Matt Araiza. I don’t remember anything that happened that night’ and hung up.
But before getting off the phone, Araiza told Doe to get tested for chlamydia, according to the filing.
‘Araiza told Doe that he had tested positive for chlamydia, at which time Doe was instructed to say, ”So you know what to get tested for Ok, that makes me feel a bit better.”’
Araiza hung up on his accuser during a police-recorded phone call in October of 2021
After a monthlong police investigation, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced in December that it would not file criminal charges.
Several media outlets obtained an audio recording of a meeting between prosecutors and the woman in which deputy District Attorney Trisha Amador said she concluded, based on a witness statement, that Araiza ‘wasn’t even at the party anymore’ when the alleged raping could have occurred and wasn’t visible in videos that were recovered.
Earlier this year, the New York Jets hosted Araiza for a workout at the team’s facility, six days after a San Diego State investigation found no wrongdoing by him in connection with the alleged rape.
‘We are grateful to Brett Veach, coach [Andy] Reid and the @Chiefs organization for giving Matt this opportunity,’ JL Sports officials wrote on X. ‘Matt has been to hell and back in the last 18 months. He has handled himself with grace and humility that is truly inspiring.’