Bills release punter Matt Araiza after rape allegations in civil suit | Buffalo

The team announced it has released Araiza, a little more than 48 hours after the public release of a civil suit against him and two of his former San Diego State University teammates.

In discussing the team’s decision Saturday evening, a somber Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said, “Our culture here is more important than winning football games.”

“The last 48 hours have been very difficult for a lot of people,” Beane said. “It’s been tough. … We sympathize with this whole situation, all the parties involved, this young woman, what she went through. Really feel bad for that whole situation. Ultimately this a legal situation, we don’t know all the facts and that’s what makes it hard.

“But at this time,” Beane said, “we just think it’s the best move for everyone to move on from Matt and let him take care of this situation and focus on that.”

Beane made it clear Araiza’s version of the events on the night in question were different than what is alleged in the lawsuit. Araiza released a statement Friday night through his agent saying the “facts of the incident are not what they are portrayed in the lawsuit” and that he looked forward to “quickly setting the record straight.”

Beane said the team did not know about allegations when it picked Araiza in the sixth round of the NFL draft in late April.

“We did not know about this, and the league did not know about this,” Beane said. “We’ve reached out to I can tell you double-digit teams at this point, and no one had anything on this. These names were sealed, wherever the investigation was at that point. Yes, if we had this, and we get things like this from guys, you know how important the character and the culture is to Sean (McDermott) and me. And anything that would have been lingering, (Araiza) would have been off our board.”