I love the Buffalo Bills. I've been a diehard fan of them longer than most people on this broad have been alive. My loyalty to them will not change because of this situation.
BUT, to say they handled this with class, I'm not there yet.
What bothers me, is they at least new about this since July 29. Why was there not an urgency then? At that point, their actions indicate that football was more important than life. Do a Google search on the topic and, depending on how one classifies it, experts report that no more than 10%, to as low as 2%, of all rape accusations are falsified. So, even in the best of odds, 9 out of 10 accusations are proven true. That fact alone should have caused the Bills to move into an accelerated gear to get to the truth and put a pause on their loyalty to Araiza.
I realize I do not know much about what they did or did not do at that point. But the evidence is clear it was not enough to convince them to keep from moving forward with Araiza.
I think the world of Beane and McDermott, and the Pegulas, and what they have done for this team. But I can't give a shallow fan nod to them on this and say "good work, way to put this behind us, now let's get on with winning football games."
Bills fans, don't think for a minute the national media and public's general response to this is going to commend the Bills for how well they handled it. In their eyes, the Bills and the Browns are now the same thing. Get use to it.
The lack of urgency and movement once they knew about the charges (charges that, once reported, prove to be true over 90% of the time) will leave a stench on this team.
I do believe that what happened in the organization after July 29 has to be accounted for. The actions of the team, in releasing Haack and committing to Araiza, do not scream "thorough investigation" or that they took the accusation as seriously as they should have when they first learned about it.
Sorry, as much as I respect what this regime has done for us, they fumbled this one and I cannot agree with anyone on here that thinks this justifies the label of "class organization." They convincingly and by their own doing, were not in this circumstance.