{"id":27200,"date":"2024-02-23T00:29:40","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T21:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/27200\/chiefs-sign-matt-araiza-after\/"},"modified":"2024-02-23T00:29:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T21:29:41","slug":"chiefs-sign-matt-araiza-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=27200","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs sign Matt Araiza after punter dropped from lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chiefs sign Matt Araiza after punter dropped from lawsuit\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Adam Teicher, ESPN editor<span class=\"timestamp \">February 22, 2024, 8:19 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Covered the Chiefs for 20 seasons for the Kansas City Star<\/li>\n<li>Joined ESPN in 2013<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Chiefs have signed punter Matt Araiza, who was fired in December following a lawsuit alleging the rape of a 17-year-old girl in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are grateful to Brett Veach, Coach Reid and the @Chiefs organization for giving Matt this opportunity,\u201d the agent said. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLSports3\/status\/1760757715284951390\">Joe Linta wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p>Tommy Townsend, the Chiefs&#39; punter in each of the last four seasons, is set to become an unrestricted free agent next month.  Townsend was a first-team All-Pro and selected to the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/pro\/\"   title=\"Pro\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">Pro<\/a> Bowl in 2022.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#39;s Choice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Chiefs-sign-Matt-Araiza-after-punter-dropped-from-lawsuit.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The girl, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, excluded Araiza from the lawsuit filed in August 2022, and Araiza agreed to dismiss a defamation suit against Doe filed in July 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am proud and honored to sign a contract with the @Chiefs,\u201d Araiza said in a statement released through his agent.  &#8220;I am thrilled to be able to continue my career in the NFL. I would like to thank my family, who have been my rock, and my many friends who have provided me with unwavering support. I am excited to begin the next phase of my career with the Super Bowl Champions!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Araiza, 23, played in <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/college\/\"   title=\"college\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">college<\/a> at San Diego State.  He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but never appeared in an NFL game.  The Bills released Araiza in the summer of 2022, shortly after he was named in the rape trial.<\/p>\n<p>The San Diego District Attorney&#39;s Office announced in December 2022 that no criminal charges would be filed in this case.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Jets brought Araiza in for a workout last May.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chiefs sign Matt Araiza after punter dropped from lawsuit\u060c Adam Teicher, ESPN editorFebruary 22, 2024, 8:19 p.m. Close Covered the Chiefs for 20 seasons for the Kansas City Star Joined ESPN in 2013 KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 The Chiefs have signed punter Matt Araiza, who was fired in December following a lawsuit alleging the rape [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11085,354,647,877,1521,1726,2775],"class_list":["post-27200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-araiza","tag-chiefs","tag-dropped","tag-lawsuit","tag-matt","tag-punter","tag-sign"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27202,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27200\/revisions\/27202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}