Matt Araiza accused of rape, served with a lawsuit.

[stevewin]

How relieved are Bass and Ferguson that he's not practicing.  At camp I thought about how awkward it must have been for them to always be off by themselves with both haack and MA, but this is next level

[GoBills808]

4 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Please tell us why you want to hear more “I can’t comment on that at this point” from the owners who are not public speakers and have hired people to deal with “all situations football”.  Nothing is to be gained by putting them at a podium right now. Only a complete idiot would even consider that. 

 

The resolution is not available NOW. This instant gratification stuff is out of control! 

 

A candid response would be “I don’t know yet”, but that will only lead to the being badgered to death. ZERO point in that at this point. 

A coherent timeline of what they knew and when they knew it is hardly what I'd call instant gratification. Again, I realize that would be more than an NFL front office might usually be willing to share but this is a unique situation. 

 

[Draconator]

2 minutes ago, Albany,n.y. said:

I wonder if this still exists & offers the best solution until they can get all the legal stuff figured out:  

 

https://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/9/17/6333759/nfl-exempt-commissioners-permission-list-explanation-adrian-peterson-greg-hardy

 

The Minnesota Vikings took advantage of a rarely-used NFL protocol Wednesday, placing Adrian Peterson on the exempt/commissioner's permission list while the running back goes through the legal process after being indicted for child abuse last week. The list, used to allow players who are dealing with significant off-field situations, will allow the Vikings to remove Peterson from their 53-man roster.

Peterson will be barred from all team activities in the meantime, which sounds like a suspension except that Peterson will be paid during his leave. The decision whether to pay the player falls on the team. Players placed on the exempt list can be held with or without pay at the team's discretion.

Players must consent before being placed on the list, allowing the NFL Players Association to call Peterson's placement a "voluntary leave with pay."

As the name of the list suggests, players can only be placed on the exempt/commissioner's permission list with clearance from Roger Goodell. From the NFL Player Personnel Policy Manual:

The Exempt List is a special player status available to clubs only in unusual circumstances. The List includes those players who have been declared by the Commissioner to be temporarily exempt from counting within the Active List limit. Only the Commissioner has the authority to place a player on the Exempt List; clubs have no such authority, and no exemption, regardless of circumstances, is automatic. The Commissioner also has the authority to determine in advance whether a player's time on the Exempt List will be finite or will continue until the Commissioner deems the exemption should be lifted and the player returned to the Active List.

 

That would be the best case scenario. 

[mannc]

2 minutes ago, Boatdrinks said:

Perhaps McD and Beane (with the blessing of the Pegulas) actually believe in doing the right thing- namely standing by the young man they drafted if he is not responsible for this alleged incident. It’s hard to believe in this day and age, I know but they seem to have principles. The savage and psychopathic media makes it difficult to let the investigation play out, but I’m impressed by the Bills handing of this to date. I’m confident when the truth is known as best it can be under the circumstances that they will do the right thing . Maybe they’ll prove me wrong and cave in,  but as a fan I’m proud of their response thus far. 

I hope you're right.  I just think they'll act quickly to eliminate this distraction.  As I said, it's not fair to Araiza, but if he comes out of this relatively clean, he'll have another opportunity. 

[Captain Caveman]

43 minutes ago, mannc said:

There is nowhere near enough information to conclude anything about the thoroughness of the Bills’ investigation.  The only thing we know is that after communicating with the plaintiff’s lawyer, and having an opportunity to investigate further, they went ahead and cut Matt Haack.  As some have pointed out, that might not mean much because talent like Haack’s isn’t exactly rare anyway…

 

I think the fact that yesterday McDermott said in his interview that he learned things in the last 24 hours, and they held him out of the game after originally planning to play him says all that needs to be said about the thoroughness of the Bills' investigation.

[NoSaint]

Just now, stevewin said:

How relieved are Bass and Ferguson that he's not practicing.  At camp I thought about how awkward it must have been for them to always be off by themselves with both haack and MA, but this is next level

if/when the time comes- strap on the helmet, lace up the shoes and get to work. I doubt there will be much “so anybody check out the news today!?!?” chatter. 
 

probably real quiet for a bit. A “hey, I don’t know what you are going through but let me know if you need anything” and then try to go about it as normal pretty quickly. 

[Motorin']

20 minutes ago, gordong said:

Sorry but your making a lot of assumptions here… just let it play out instead of commenting on “the bills chose to name him the starter hoping it would stay buried” you were in the room and know what the bills are thinking..???  
  The bills don’t owe you anything as a fan not sure why you think they do…. And again you have no idea what due diligence was or wasn’t done. 
 

I get it man you don’t want our team associated with someone that would do this….none of us do! But let it play out and don’t make assumptions. If he did do this we will cut him and hopefully he goes to jail.  Anyone that watched that press conference by Sean can see he is taking this serious and he is truly bothered by it… I can’t for the life of me think that Brandon beanie feels any differently. 

 

Fair enough to say that its an assumption on my part to say the Bills hoped this wouldn't come to light. 

 

A counter assumption I've seen posted by several people is that the Bills did their due diligence, know more than we know and are standing by their player. 

 

But as far as what the Bills owe us, 850 million for the stadium and ticket and merchandise revenue say we are owed a full explaining of what they knew and when, And what their thought process was at the various stages.

 

I get that's not going to happen right away, but there's no way in the world they don't have some splainin to do.

[aristocrat]

1 minute ago, Captain Caveman said:

 

I think the fact that yesterday McDermott said in his interview that he learned things in the last 24 hours, and they held him out of the game after originally planning to play him says all that needs to be said about the thoroughness of the Bills' investigation.

The bills attorney spoke to the victims attorney. Do you think he left info out when talking to the bills? Doubt it

[SCBills]

7 minutes ago, Mango said:

It’s been like 36 hours and this is page 241 of this thread. Likely the longest thread in the history of this site. 
 

The Bills are the lead story on nearly every (sports) news org in the country. 
 

They are either thoroughly unprepared. Or they’ve botched the entire thing. Probably a little bit of both. 

They aren’t even on the main page of ESPN.com right now.  
 

Fox Sports has an article about the Bills on their main page.  It’s about Dorsey/Allen. 
 

Aside from quoting McDermott, national reporters on Twitter have barely talked about this after the initial story broke.   

 

It’s pretty Bills-centric right now. 

[NoSaint]

3 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

A coherent timeline of what they knew and when they knew it is hardly what I'd call instant gratification. Again, I realize that would be more than an NFL front office might usually be willing to share but this is a unique situation. 

 

a timeline.. provided instantly… to gratify my needs. 

 

im guessing you’ll get updates at some point. It might not be RIGHT NOW.

[Believer]

6 minutes ago, Augie said:

Please tell us why you want to hear more “I can’t comment on that at this point” from the owners who are not public speakers and have hired people to deal with “all situations football”.

This is not “all situations football”… It is a national story… about an allegation of rape… by a Buffalo Bills rookie…

 

My point was made… The owner should be visible in the process… No point rehashing it… We can agree to disagree… Great place, America… 

[Airseven]

12 minutes ago, Mango said:

It’s been like 36 hours and this is page 241 of this thread. Likely the longest thread in the history of this site. 
 

The Bills are the lead story on nearly every (sports) news org in the country. 
 

They are either thoroughly unprepared. Or they’ve botched the entire thing. Probably a little bit of both. 

Or they’re conducting due diligence amidst changing circumstances.
 

The fact it’s a lead story speaks more to how bizarre it is that people seem to care so much - whether their motivations are political, exploitative, self-righteous, or, far less likely, out of genuine concern.

 

At the end of the day, this is just low brow entertainment.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Airseven

[NoSaint]

7 minutes ago, Draconator said:

That would be the best case scenario. 

Not possible as the offense happened in college is what’s been shared thus far

Edited August 27, 2022 by NoSaint

[BillsFanSD]

Huh.  I actually expected Araiza to get cut today after not dressing yesterday.  Maybe the Bills are sticking with him after all.

[Augie]

11 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

A coherent timeline of what they knew and when they knew it is hardly what I'd call instant gratification. Again, I realize that would be more than an NFL front office might usually be willing to share but this is a unique situation. 

 

 

I’m sure they are trying to figure all that out. They are asking questions of themselves. What did we miss? How did we miss it? Should we have known? What should we have done differently? Hell, what is the TRUTH here? 

 

There are a million reasons smart people would not paint themselves into a corner before they know all the facts and how things went off the tracks. Only THEN do they come up with a statement. Not now, in the midst of fact finding.

 

This is serious stuff, you don’t “just wing it” because “people want to know”.  Smart people learn what they need to know, and only then make a plan. 

 

 

.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Augie

[BillsFanSD]

13 minutes ago, Mango said:

It’s been like 36 hours and this is page 241 of this thread. Likely the longest thread in the history of this site. 
 

The Bills are the lead story on nearly every (sports) news org in the country. 
 

They are either thoroughly unprepared. Or they’ve botched the entire thing. Probably a little bit of both. 

Or maybe they know something you don't.

[Augie]

3 minutes ago, Believer said:

This is not “all situations football”… It is a national story… about an allegation of rape… by a Buffalo Bills rookie…

 

My point was made… The owner should be visible in the process… No point rehashing it… We can agree to disagree… Great place, America… 

 

The owner was very visible in the Deshaun Watson fiasco in Cleveland. That is NOT my model franchise. 

[SCBills]

Just now, BillsFanSD said:

Huh.  I actually expected Araiza to get cut today after not dressing yesterday.  Maybe the Bills are sticking with him after all.

Im guessing that they are giving this until cut day to sort itself out as they dig into every corner of the situation. 
 

If it doesn’t, they likely release him and pick up a punter off the inevitable scrap heap on Tuesday. 

[GoBills808]

Just now, Augie said:

 

I’m sure they are trying to figure all that out. They are asking questions of themselves. What did we miss? How did we miss it? Should we have known? What should we have done differently? Hell, what is the TRUTH here? 

 

There are a million reasons smart people would not paint themselves into a corner before they know all the facts and how things went off the tracks. Only THEN do they come up with a statement. Not now, in the midst of fact finding.

 

This is serious stuff, you don’t “just wing it”.  Smart people learn what they need to know, and only then make a plan. 

There's not much about their response thus far that lends me to believe they had a plan. To call it disjointed is being generous at this point. 

[BillsFanForever19]

22 minutes ago, Mango said:

I think you’re over complicating it. The Bills gave them approval to report that he isn't practicing. Him being on the roster was already reported. Sal is just piecing the two bits together. He doesn’t say “they told us to report he is on the roster but isn’t practicing”.

 

I understand the confusion. But I really don’t think that’s the intent.  

 

No, I don't think I am. They could have easily just said nothing and addressed the release after practice. They specifically told the media that they should let it be known he is still a member of the team. Also...