Getty Photographs

Payments rookie punter Matt Araiza, who has shortly risen to fame with a robust leg and a catchy nickname, faces a really critical off-field challenge earlier than his first NFL sport.

In keeping with the Los Angeles Instances, Araiza is among the many defendants in a civil lawsuit alleging gang rape. The opposite defendants are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko. All three males had been San Diego State soccer gamers on the time of the alleged incident.

The incident allegedly occurred final 12 months, at an off-campus social gathering. The alleged sufferer was 17 years outdated.

Araiza’s lawyer stated the accusation is fake, and he accused the plaintiff of creating a “cash seize.” (As we not too long ago discovered within the Deshaun Watson case, it’s all the time a cash seize, till it isn’t.)

“It’s a shakedown as a result of he’s now with the Buffalo Payments,” Kerry Armstrong advised the Instances. “There is no such thing as a doubt in my thoughts that Matt Araiza ever raped that woman.”

There may be an ongoing felony investigation of the incident. No arrests have been made, and San Diego police haven’t publicly recognized any suspects.

The Instances beforehand reported that the college did not alert the campus neighborhood concerning the alleged incident, and that the college waited greater than seven months to launch an investigation.

“We had been not too long ago made conscious of a civil grievance involving Matt from October 2021,” the Payments stated in an announcement to the Instances on Thursday. “As a result of critical nature of the grievance, we performed an intensive examination of this matter. As that is an ongoing civil case, we may have no different remark at this level.”

The NFL’s Private Conduct Coverage doesn’t apply to incidents occurring earlier than a participant enters the NFL, both through the draft or by signing as an undrafted free agent. Nonetheless, such allegations can grow to be related to the punishment imposed for any off-field misconduct occurring after the participant joins an NFL workforce.