Matt Araiza became the talk of the town after the Pittsburgh Steelers released P Pressley Harvin III. Once dubbed the “punt god”, he never punted in the NFL because of his off-field concerns. Accused of rape, he and his accuser mutually dismissed their lawsuits against one another in December.
And the Kansas City Chiefs signed him instead of the Steelers. KDKA’s Bob Pompeani struggles to comprehend why. He brought up the topic on Joe Starkey’s show on 93.7 The Fan this week, noting that he looked into Araiza’s case extensively.
“Nobody would give him a shot, but Kansas City finally did. My question: why wouldn’t the Steelers do that?”, he said. “They needed a punter. Why wouldn’t you take a shot after everything has been dropped on whatever accusations he faced?”.
The Buffalo Bills drafted Araiza in the sixth round in 2022, and he beat out their incumbent punter. They released him on Aug. 27, one day after the lawsuit he faced became public knowledge. But they had already named him the starter even though they had known about the lawsuit by their own admission since July.
As a result of the lawsuit and the allegations, Araiza spent the entire 2022 and 2023 seasons out of the league. The New York Jets brought him in for a workout last May, but that’s the closest he came to a roster before Kansas City came calling. But the most notable thing about the Chiefs signing him is they already have Tommy Townsend.
“Kansas City had a decent punter to begin with. They didn’t need a punter. The Steelers actually released their punter”, Pompeani said regarding his questions about Pittsburgh’s lack of interest. “I just wonder about that”. He added that he would have signed Araiza.
The Steelers are not an organization that actively courts controversy, though not universally. They only signed Mike Vick many years ago because of injuries at the quarterback position, but they still signed him.
I have to say, I did some quick research, and I haven’t found any meaningful blowback against the Chiefs. Sure, you can find negative tweets, a lot of them referencing Taylor Swift. But on the whole, I think most teams expected worse.
“A lot of these teams also have domestic abusers”, Pompeani pointed out, who actually faced charges and paid money. Araiza paid nothing and seems to be in the clear at this point. The question is really how much scrutiny a team is willing to face on behalf of a punter.
I have no idea how much homework the Steelers did on Araiza or if they considered him at all. But they had a golden opportunity to sign him if they wanted to after cutting Harvin. They currently have no punter at all, so they still have to find somebody. We just know Araiza won’t be that somebody. Pat McAfee suggested that they sign him. Perhaps they sign Townsend if the Chiefs release him in free agency instead.
