The Buffalo Bills on Saturday said they were releasing punter Matt Araiza from the team, two days after a civil lawsuit accused him and two other former San Diego State University football players of gang raping a 17-year-old girl last year at an off-campus party.
Araiza, 22, whose powerful and precise kicking in college earned him the moniker “Punt God,” was accused of bringing the teen into a room during the party where she was repeatedly raped.
The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, alleges that the then-high school senior went in and out of consciousness but remembers moments as the men took turns assaulting her.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the allegations on Thursday.
The other men named in the complaint are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko. Leonard was listed previously on the university’s fall football roster as a redshirt freshman, but the university said Saturday in a statement that he is no longer on the team. Ewaliko was on the team last year as a freshman but is not on the current roster.
In an interview on Thursday with The Times, Araiza’s lawyer, Kerry Armstrong, said he hadn’t reviewed the complaint but called the rape accusation false.
He said his investigator spoke to witnesses from the party who contradict the allegations against Araiza.
“It’s a shakedown because he’s now with the Buffalo Bills,” Armstrong said, adding, “There is no doubt in my mind” that Araiza didn’t rape the teen.
