The Buffalo Bills dismiss rookie punter Matt Araiza. Previously, rape allegations have come to light. Some teams reportedly knew about incidents before the draft

Munich/Buffalo – The Buffalo Bills have released sixth-round pick Matt Araiza.

Allegations of gang rape previously came to light, and a civil lawsuit is also underway against the 22-year-old and two former college walk-ons. All three are charged with rape, gender-based violence as well as false imprisonment.

“This is bigger than football. Let’s take a step back and let himdeal with it. We thought that was the most important thing,” Bills general manager Brandon Beane said in a news conference Saturday night.

Bills GM Beane: “Let Matt take care of business “

Beane went on to say that Araiza was told of the final decision on Saturday afternoon. The latter reacted with understanding.

However, the accusations do not come completely out of the blue. As “NBC” reports, some teams already knew about incidents involving Araiza before the draft. What exactly happened, however, apparently remained hidden from these teams as well.

According to the report, the general managers of two different teams confirmed to the news agency “AP” that they knew about incidents involving Araiza even before the draft.

Speculations surrounding Ravens and Bucs

“AP” did not name the names or the teams of the two officials. Nevertheless, the news triggered speculation. Araiza was actually considered the best punter of the previous college season.

Nevertheless, two other punters were drafted before him – by the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Therefore, the question now is whether both teams already suspected that they might have problems with Araiza. Of course, this is no more than conjecture.

Even Bills GM Beane does not know what exactly happened in the Araiza case.

“There are multiple versions of what happened and Sean is a football coach and I’m a GM. We don’t have access to everything and that’s more important than playing football. Let Matt deal with it,” the 46-year-old elaborated, adding, “We did the best we could with our resources, talking to the league and using our people to find information. But at the end of the day, there are a lot of things that we still haven’t put together today.”

As recently as Friday night, Araiza had denied the allegations in a statement. “ESPN” also quotes the punter’s legal counsel, who called the allegations “false” and furthermore hopes that his client “will soon be able to play in the NFL again”.