Controversial Chiefs punter Matt Araiza makes NFL debut nine months after he was dropped from sexual assault lawsuit

Kansas City Chiefs star Matt Araiza finally made his NFL debut Thursday night, nine months after the player was dismissed in a sexual assault lawsuit.

Araiza, 24, was released by the Buffalo Bills in August 2022 after a woman alleged he and other San Diego University players raped her at an off-campus party in October 2021.

She claimed the footballer, then 21, had sex with her in the side garden of a house, after which he took her to a bedroom where a group of men took turns raping her.

However, after he filed a defamation lawsuit against her, the woman agreed to dismiss him from her lawsuit in December last year.

Araiza also dropped his countersuit against her to end the ordeal, before being signed by the Chiefs, the back-to-back Super Bowl champions, two months later.

His move to Kansas City sparked controversy back in February, with some fans criticizing the organization for hiring him, while others felt he deserved a second chance.

And nine months after his sexual assault lawsuit was dismissed, Araiza was finally able to make his NFL debut in the Chiefs’ season opener against the Baltimore Ravens.

The former San Diego player took the field early in the second quarter on Thursday night to kick the ball for Kansas City, firing it deep into Baltimore’s half.

Nicknamed “Punt God,” Araiza was honored as an All-American in 2021 for his stellar kicking, helping San Diego State to a school record of 12-2 his senior year.

He was selected by the Bills in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL draft, but was released two days after the lawsuit was filed.

“My name, my reputation – that will be forever associated with me, that will never go away,” Araiza said at a press conference in December.

Araiza, 24, was released by the Buffalo Bills in August 2022 after a woman alleged he and other San Diego University players raped her at an off-campus party in October 2021.

Araiza kicked for Kansas City in their season opener against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night after the woman agreed to drop the lawsuit filed last December

“It was hard to see how much pain it caused my family. I may have been innocent, but they had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

He added: ‘When I got fired, I was an NFL starter, I had just beaten an NFL veteran. I had a four-year contract and that’s not going to be given back to me.

“Nobody in the NFL is going to say, ‘This is the job you used to have,’ so my main goal right now is to get back where I was.

“I’m confident that I’ll get my NFL career back on track — whenever that is. I think it’s more a matter of when, not if.”