Former San Diego State University star punter Matt Araiza said Wednesday he believes he will be able to join an NFL team now that he is being dismissed from a lawsuit leveling rape accusations against him — and his agent says four teams have already expressed interest.
“I’m confident that I’ll be able to regain my NFL career, whenever that is. I believe it’s more of a ‘when’ not an ‘if,’” Araiza said, addressing a roomful of news reporters in his attorney’s downtown San Diego offices.
The press conference came a day after news broke of the agreement to drop him from a civil suit alleging he and fellow SDSU football players raped a 17-year-old during an off-campus house party in October 2021. Araiza has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
No money will change hands in the settlement, and Araiza agreed to drop his defamation countersuit against the woman, who is now 19 years old. The agreement leaves him open to sue the woman’s attorney — which he said he intends to do.
The agreement between the parties also notes that the dismissal of the case against Araiza constitutes “a favorable termination” for Araiza “for purposes of a malicious prosecution claim” against her attorneys. Araiza’s attorneys said that is, in essence, a win for their client.
Araiza was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in April 2022 but was cut from the team when the lawsuit was filed four months later — less than two weeks before the start of the season. Now 23, he has not played football for more than a year.
“When I was cut, I was an NFL starter,” Araiza said Wednesday. “I just beat out a veteran. I was on a four-year contract, and that won’t be handed back to me. No one in the NFL is gonna go, ‘Here’s the job that you once had.’ Working to regain where I was at is my primary goal right now.”
Araiza declined to say if any specific teams have expressed interest in him. His East Coast-based agent, Joe Linta, issued a statement that he feels “very strongly that any concerns about Matt are now completely eliminated.”
Attorneys Dick Semerdjian and Kristen Bush, representing former San Diego State University punter Matt Araiza, speak at a news conference on Wednesday.
(K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“He can now continue his path of an NFL career. Each team can now evaluate him on his ability and not on what I knew to be false and fabricated allegations,” Linta said.
Linta said via text that four teams have expressed interest since news of the dismissal broke Tuesday and that he expects his client will be signed in the next month.
Araiza set an NCAA record in his senior year, with a 51.19-yard punting average. Dubbed “Punt God,” he won the 2021 Ray Guy Award as the nation’s top punter — and that made him the first football player in SDSU history tapped with a major national award.
The Buffalo Bills selected Araiza, a Rancho Bernardo High School graduate, in the sixth round of the draft. It was the first time since 1990 that the Bills had used a draft pick to obtain a punter.
In the lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court in August 2022, the woman alleged Araiza had sex with her in a side yard of the residence then brought her into a bedroom where she said men took turns raping her. The woman, who was underage and in high school at the time of the incident, told San Diego police detectives she cooperated to avoid being hurt.
She went to police a day after the party. After a months-long police investigation, prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against anyone.
Araiza said he did have sex with the girl — believing she was 18 and a college freshman — in the side yard of the home, but insisted he never entered the home and had left the party a half-hour before the alleged incident in the bedroom.
Araiza’s attorneys, Dick Semerdjian and Kristen Bush, have fought for months to get him dismissed from the suit and pressed for the case to hit trial as fast as possible, arguing there was no evidence putting him in the house and that he would be exonerated.
Although Araiza is being dropped from the suit — the paperwork will be filed next week — the other four former Aztecs players the woman has accused still face civil trial, which is slated for February. The defendants have said any encounters with the woman were consensual.
Araiza has said for months that he plans to sue Dan Gilleon, the attorney who represented the young woman. In reaching the dismissal deal, Araiza and the attorneys who represent the woman, including Gilleon, signed a “tolling” agreement in which Araiza agreed not to sue them for at least a year.
On Wednesday Araiza said he still intends to sue when he can, saying Gilleon “lied time and again” through media.
“Had he just filed the lawsuit and not gone on a big media tour, it might be a different story, but the way he handled it was unbelievably unprofessional,” Araiza said. “Going to Twitter, starting this big social media campaign. It was quite ridiculous, and he’ll be held accountable for his actions.”
Gilleon said in a text message that he did not see the news conference and “could not care less” what Araiza said.
“He will answer our questions under oath later this month, and he will face a jury with testimony at trial,” Gilleon texted.
Arazia is slated to be deposed next week for the civil case that still remains against the four other players. He is being questioned not as a defendant but as a percipient witness present at the party. Gilleon said the jury in that case will decide “who did what, including Araiza.”
The civil trial for the remaining defendants is slated to start Feb. 16 in San Diego.
