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Matt Araiza has been the stuff of headlines for all the wrong reasons of late. On Saturday, the Buffalo Bills officially announced their decision to release the rookie from their squad amid the horrifying gang rape allegations he is currently facing.
It’s going to be a rough road ahead for Ariaza, who according to Mike Florio of PFT, is set to keep the $216,000 signing bonus he received when the Bills selected him as the first pick of the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft. His base salary of $705,000, however, is non-guaranteed, which means that he is not going to be receiving a single penny from it now that he’s been cut from the team.
Araiza’s camp has been suspiciously quiet throughout this scandal, and they have not released a statement with regard to the Bills’ decision to cut ties with him. For their part, the NFLPA has also kept mum. This points to the notion that it seems unlikely that neither Araiza’s camp nor the NFLPA will launch any sort of legal challenge to address Buffalo’s decision. According to Florio’s report, “it becomes very difficult to fight a team’s decision to cut a player when the player’s salary isn’t guaranteed.”
Matt Araiza, who along with two of his former San Diego State teammates are being accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl, is officially going to be released on Sunday. Once he clears waivers, any team in the NFL can pick him up. At this point, however, you can be sure that not a single team in the league is going to touch this young man with a 10-foot pole.
Most importantly, though, Araiza could be facing criminal charges here, and if this is the case, then football is going to be the last thing on his mind.