SectionC3

I did before I typed that post. Sticking by my opinion.

They’re young kids who had a friend who was just raped (allegedly). Hardly is it a problem that they didn’t think to direct her to a hospital for the administration of a rape kit.

How is this unprofessional? What’s the goal? At bottom, probably justice. And in this instance, justice might have been a cash transfer that made the victim feel whole (or at least less unwhole). Araiza’s attorney apparently attempted to call what he thought was a bluff. Turns out it might not have been a bluff, and justice may now be ruining the guy who someone believes ruined her/their daughter. I’ll get back to the point that if Araiza is not guilty of a crime and he would like to keep his job, then he needs to get someone speaking effectively on his behalf ASAP. Give the Bills PR cover to keep him. Otherwise, he’s relying on the strength of the Bills to allow this, from his perspective, to hopefully blow over. At some point (and I think we’re getting close to being there), it’s not worth the aggravation to keep this guy around.

I disagree. He has our attention. And, if he’s done this for awhile, he’s probably had his client pass a poly and exhausted all other means of obtaining his price of peace before scorching the earth.

Have the attorney hold a presser, deny everything, say our thoughts are with the victim, particularly after the release of those horrible photos and journal entries, and get on a video a statement that your client had nothing to do with any of those injuries or that harm. He’s losing the air war. And the team’s statement means nothing here. They investigated at a prior time, based on information that may or may not have been complete, and with tools that didn’t allow access to any meaning physical evidence in this case.

I don’t doubt that he would say that. I’m sure the witnesses are experts in that field. (Yes, that was sarcastic.). A lot of this is posturing. But I’ll say that Araiza better start fighting back because the alleged vic’s lawyer is killing him on the PR front.

I think you’re thinking about her mom, if I recall correctly. You might be right, but I thought it was mom who intervened in that respect.

I just read the diary entries and saw the photos. Woof. New thought: the alleged vic and the parents are at the end of their ropes with all of this, they don’t like the way the SD has acted, and they’re looking to both burn down Araiza and cajole the cops into prosecuting the case. That is, this may be a leverage play on the SD cops as well.

Nobody said that it was automatically anything. I’m just curious why that person things that accuser stopped cooperating. There are other reasons, in addition to those you mentioned, as to why accusers sometimes stop cooperating. The reasons I’m thinking of are not that the case is BS, for what it’s worth.

Why did the accuser stop cooperating?

At this point, both.

We don’t know whether that story was “made up.”

They don’t have a good choice. Check out one of my recent earlier posts. Either nuke the guy on a moment’s notice (maybe, just maybe, this is all BS, although I doubt that), or nuke someone else who deserves the chance to make tape to they can bring in another punter, or have Bass or another currently rostered player punt (stupid and absurd, respectively), or just don’t punt at all (could hurt a bunch of guys trying to make ST tape). It’s an awful situation from a football perspective. And a much worse one from a life perspective.

It’s time for you and I to go our separate ways.

What if the client authorized the post?

What is this, the 1950s? Let’s see what the rape kit holds. Hard to fake the physical injury the kit could (and, here, given prior reports, likely will) find. And that she was intoxicated. And that he was an adult. And that the rest of the allegations, though to this point unproven, are abhorrent.

You and I have a different view of things. I don’t believe that an adult should engage in that activity with a drunk child. So yes, Araiza exploited a child.

Guilty or innocent of a crime if that was my son who pulled something like this and exploited a child there would be significant consequences. Also, Araiza doesn’t have a right to this job. He put himself in a bad spot. Maybe he didn’t act criminally. Maybe he did. But it seems like he’s guilty of behaving like an obnoxious frat boy and, if he loses his job over the issue, then that’s his problem.

I agree with you. The Bills probably don’t want any part of this mess. I do think Araiza punts tonight, because otherwise we either have to not punt tonight (hurts special teams evaluate) or fire someone other than Araiza to roster a new punter (and deprive that person of the opportunity to make tape).

Maybe. But the ID of Araiza isn’t a huge issue right now (unless the focus turns solely to the assault that occurred inside the room). The controlled call didn’t go so well for Araiza. And his attorney seems to have acknowledged “consensual” contact. There’s a good chance of a DNA deposit, too. (Although it might be cloudy because of the possibility of multiple contributors.). So I’m not too concerned with how the vic came to know Araiza’s identity.

You’re assuming the investigation was conducted well. I have doubts about that.

That’s not a bad idea. Depending on availability of other punters and mood with the locker room (don’t want to turn your back on guys based on mere allegations, because current and future teammates will take note), they may well decide that the “negative” of this significant distraction is not worth the “positive” that Araiza brings to the field.

I’m not convinced the attorney is acting like a clown. I don’t agree with negotiating something like this over text. I don’t agree with publishing the text messages. (I’d never trust this guy in a professional setting after something like that.) But we also don’t know what the goal is here. It could well be that the vic had a price of peace, that the vic was getting jerked around, and that she and her parents then decided that satisfaction would be achieved by destroying the person whom they believed to be one of her rapists. (They’re off to a good start in that respect.) Of course, it also could be that this guy, too, is exploiting the vic and using her case as free advertising. Or a combination of the two. But just as I’m not ready to convict Araiza yet, I’m not ready to condemn (most of) the strategy of the vic’s attorney.

That’s how I see the strategy, too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that he wasn't a full-time punter until the 2021 season, and that his NFL stock rose because of his punting that occurred during that season. He was principally a kicker before 2021 and, to my knowledge, he wasn't on NFL radars as a kicker. So I think my prior point stands.