Embattled punter Matt Araiza should have been back in the NFL before he was signed by the Chiefs last week, Kansas City general manager Brett Veach told reporters Tuesday.
Araiza joined the defending champions on a minimum deal two months after being dropped as a defendant in an ongoing sexual assault lawsuit.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, Veach explained that the Chiefs had to do their due diligence, but felt comfortable adding Araiza, who has not been charged with any crime in the case.
‘Yeah we go through our process, and that one was a long process there,’ Veach said. ‘I think from our end, we attack this like we do every player that we add on our roster. We go through the entire process and our intel and security team.
‘I think when that came through, it was pretty much a green light and that it was an opportunity for him. Probably should have been in the league maybe sooner than what he was, but he had to go through that process.’
The defending-champion Kansas City Chiefs are taking a chance on Matt Araiza (pictured)
Araiza should have been back in the NFL earlier, Chiefs GM Brett Veach told reporters Tuesday
‘We’re looking forward to adding him to the roster, but as far as the information and our process, there was no hold-up there.’
Adding Araiza isn’t a major financial risk. The punter signed a reported minimum deal, which is around $750,000, and the contract is unguaranteed, meaning the Chiefs can cut him without consequence.
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.
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 was nicknamed the ‘Punt God’ at San Diego State, where he was an All-American
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 December.
‘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.’
Matt Araiza gets off a punt during Bills training camp at Saint John Fisher University in 2022
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.
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