Matt Araiza #

Introduction #

Matt Araiza, a rookie punter for the Buffalo Bills, was released by the team on August 27, 2022, two days after a civil lawsuit accused him and two other San Diego State University football players of gang-raping a then-17-year-old girl at an off-campus Halloween party the previous October. Araiza denied the allegations; his attorney said he never raped his accuser, and Araiza said the facts were not as portrayed in the lawsuit or the press.

Background Information #

Matthew Ryan Araiza was born on May 16, 2000, in San Diego, California, and attended Rancho Bernardo High School, where he played football and soccer and competed as a hurdler on the track and field team. He committed to San Diego State, where he was redshirted as a true freshman and later set a school record with 22 field goals in a season as the Aztecs’ placekicker.

In 2021, his redshirt junior year, Araiza averaged 51.19 yards per punt, breaking the NCAA single-season record of 50.98 set by Texas A&M’s Braden Mann in 2018 and earning the nickname “Punt God” from fans — a label he has said he does not “necessarily love,” though he called it a “huge compliment.” He won the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter, was named a unanimous All-American, and entered the 2022 NFL draft, where the Buffalo Bills selected him in the sixth round with the 180th overall pick.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

On August 25, 2022, a lawsuit filed by the attorney for a plaintiff identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” alleged that Araiza and two other San Diego State players, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko, gang-raped a then-17-year-old girl at a Halloween party near the university in October 2021. The complaint asserted that Araiza, then 21, could observe that Doe was heavily intoxicated and handed her a drink anyway, that he knew or should have known she was a minor, and that he led her to a bedroom where at least three other men were waiting. The filing said Doe was raped for about an hour and a half until the party was shut down, that she “stumbled out of the room bloody and crying,” and that she reported the alleged incident to police the next day and underwent a rape examination at a hospital.

Araiza’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, denied the allegations outright: “He never raped his accuser, and that includes by force or by means of intoxication (including alcohol and/or drugs). The rest of the details will eventually come out in a court of law.” Armstrong also disputed the specifics, saying Araiza never used force, that Doe was not visibly intoxicated, and that he did not hand her a drink with anything in it.

The Bills, who said they were made aware of the allegations in late July when contacted by a representative of the alleged victim, released Araiza on August 27, 2022. “This afternoon, we decided that releasing Matt Araiza was the best thing to do. Our culture in Buffalo is more important than winning football games,” general manager Brandon Beane announced.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, which initially said the investigation was under review, announced in December 2022 that it would not file criminal charges against Araiza, stating: “Prosecutors can only file charges when they ethically believe they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” The office also stated that, based on a witness and other information, Araiza could not have been involved: he left the party at 12:30 a.m., about 30 minutes before the first of about nine short videos of the alleged encounter, and does not appear in the videos.

The civil case continued. In responses filed in 2023, Araiza, Ewaliko and Leonard denied the allegations and, without admitting that the alleged acts occurred, raised that they were consensual and said they believed Doe was not a minor; as of May 2023 the lawsuit remained pending with a trial scheduled for October. Araiza’s lawyer described the allegations as “a money grab,” while his accuser said she reported the incident the day after the alleged rape, before she was aware of Araiza’s background. In an interview with CNN affiliate KPBS, Jane Doe said of the party: “It kinda scared me just because I do know how many girls go to these parties and make the decisions that I, unfortunately, made that night.”

On July 28, 2023, Araiza filed a defamation lawsuit against his accuser. On December 12, 2023, he and the accuser mutually agreed to drop their respective lawsuits, with neither party admitting wrongdoing and no money changing hands; the accuser continued her case against the other defendants, and in the summer of 2024 Araiza settled with her attorney, Dan Gilleon.

Current Status #

Araiza signed with the Kansas City Chiefs on February 22, 2024, after he had been dropped from the suit. In his first NFL season he was a Pro Bowl alternate, and he punted in Super Bowl LIX, averaging 51.8 yards on six punts — a Super Bowl record — in the Chiefs’ 22–40 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. On April 20, 2026, he re-signed with the Chiefs on a one-year contract.

Impact on Their Career/Life #

The release came before Araiza played a single regular-season NFL game: he had been named the Bills’ starting punter days earlier after the team released veteran Matt Haack and did not dress for the final preseason game on August 26, 2022, the day after the lawsuit became public.

Araiza spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons out of the NFL before joining the Chiefs in February 2024. Looking back after resolving the case, he said the settlement with the accuser’s attorney “met my satisfaction,” adding, “if anything that was originally claimed had merit, I wouldn’t have won at every turn.” The episode shows how an allegation — even one prosecutors declined to pursue and that was later dropped — ended Araiza’s tenure with the Bills before he ever punted in a regular-season game, keeping him out of the NFL until the litigation was resolved nearly two years later.