Exclusive: How Matt Araiza fought depression to land with Patrick Mahomes’ Super Bowl champion Chiefs
It’s been a long two years for Matt Araiza. Anointed the “Punt God” during his record-breaking tenure at San Diego State, he was handed the job as starter for the Buffalo Bills soon after being selected by the team in the 2022 NFL Draft. Yet accusations of sexual misconduct put his career on hold for two seasons even though Araiza was fully exonerated after two separate investigations found no wrongdoing on his part. Then in February, his NFL career received a lifeline after the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs signed him to a contract. After interviewing Araiza at length last summer, I recently caught up with the Chiefs starting punter to talk about his new lease on life in the NFL soon after their week 1 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.
The Chiefs’ season-opening game against the Ravens was the first meaningful football game Araiza, the 2021 Ray Guy Award winner as the best punter in college football, had been involved in for almost three years. And it wasn’t just any game.
It was the game that kicked off the 2024 NFL season.
It was a game where he was wearing the uniform for the two-time defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.
And it was a game played on the Chiefs’ home field, Arrowhead Stadium -- one of the most raucous stadiums on the planet.
I surmised that Araiza had never experienced anything like this before in his life and he must have been jumping out of his skin, and he agreed. I wondered how was he able to come down from the excitement of running onto the field at Arrowhead Stadium on such a pivotal night and get into game mode?
“It took the first series for me to settle down,” Araiza told me, “Then I was able to focus on the task at hand.”
And that task was simple; flip the field or pin the Ravens deep on those occasions when the Chiefs offense was unable to score points. And he did well for his first time out in a big-league game.
Araiza had three punts in the game, averaging 48 yards for the night. The last one was downed inside the 15-yard line by the Chiefs coverage units, while the first two ended up in the end zone for touchbacks, but not by much. His first two punts were literally six feet away from being downed inside the one-yard line. Coming off the field after his first punt, Araiza seemed a bit animated, and I asked him about it, to which he countered with extreme detail about all his kicks that night.
“I’m not a big fan of or comfortable having to do end-over-end kicks, which is something I’ll have to get used to,” was the bottom line for his near misses early in the contest.
Did he know the foot of Isaiah Likely was out of bounds on the final play when the tight end caught the ball in the end zone? “Not until I saw it on the big screen,” Araiza replied. “When I did see the replay, I knew we won the game!”
I ventured back to when I last spoke with the punter. It was late summer of 2023, and by that time two separate investigations, a criminal investigation by the District Attorney’s office of San Diego County as well as another investigation by San Diego State University where Araiza attended, found no wrongdoing on behalf of the punter, and no criminal charges were filed. Yet Araiza was still on the outside looking in, hoping to catch on with an NFL team either before or during the season.
Despite his hopes, Araiza never came close to getting a job in the NFL in 2023. I wondered if he struggled with the hopeless feeling that signing with an NFL team was never going to happen and it wasn’t his fault.
“Yes, I did [struggle]. It was a little depressing at times, and throughout the 2023 season I wondered where my future would take me. I considered becoming an accountant if I was not able to sign with a NFL team.”
When the regular season ended, there were still no concrete offers from the teams no longer in the playoffs. Was the XFL a consideration?
“It was,” Araiza told me. “There were discussions with several teams in that league if nothing panned out with the NFL.”
Then lightning struck.
The Kansas City Chiefs, coming off their second successive Super Bowl victory, had several big decisions to make with NFL free agency in just around the corner. One of those decisions had to do with their punter, Tommy Townsend, who was ready to hit the free-agent market.
The choice was an easy one for Kansas City, who signed Araiza on February 22 of this year, almost three full weeks before free agency began. It would mean the Chiefs weren’t going to re-sign Townsend, and the starting punter’s job in Kansas City belonged to Araiza.
What was the process with the Chiefs like for Araiza. Did he work out for the team? Meet with Andy Reid or Brett Veatch? Speak with anyone from the Hunt family?
“I spoke with Brett Veatch a bit before signing with the team. I didn’t work out for the Chiefs or meet with coach Reid.”
And how did his new teammates receive their new starting punter when he arrived at the facility for offseason workouts?
“Everyone was great to me. I could not have asked for anything better.”
What about the Buffalo Bills? During our last interview, Araiza said he initially went to the Bills and informed them of the sexual misconduct allegations before anything was made public and kept them abreast of the situation. Eventually the team chose to cut him as the firestorm around those allegations started to build.
Had Buffalo contacted Araiza with an interest in bringing him back this past offseason? “No,” he told me.
Had anyone from the Buffalo Bills organization at least reached out to thank Araiza for being truthful throughout the entire process and wish him well moving forward?
“I had heard some people from the organization were trying to contact me, but to date I have never heard a word from the Buffalo Bills.”
Out loud, I said I could only imagine that Araiza hopes to be playing meaningful football against the Bills late next January and pins them deep in the coffin corner with a gorgeous punt late in the game when the Bills need a big drive. Araiza agreed, and it’s obvious he hopes to get his revenge against Buffalo on the football field.
In a bit of irony, Araiza’s field-goal kicking teammate Harrison Butker drew headlines in the offseason, taking a lot of heat for a commencement speech he gave during the graduation ceremony at Benedictine College last May. I wondered if Araiza reached out to his new teammate and offered advice after what he had been through the prior two years.
“Yes,” Araiza told me. “I offered to be of any assistance I could and told Harrison that [the speech controversy] was going to be blared in the news until the next big story came around- then it would be forgotten.”
When I last left off with Araiza, he told me he was in regular contact with many of his former coaches at San Diego State University and it was his understanding the school had put his Ray Guy Trophy back on display soon after the their [SDSU] investigation found allegations against him were false. Had the relationship with his alma mater changed for the better since we last spoke?
“There’s a whole new coaching staff at the school, and I don’t know any of them,” he told me. “The President of the University made statements after the allegations became public and before the facts of the case were known. She’s never retracted her statements.”
Araiza’s name was dropped from a civil lawsuit brought by the woman who accused him of rape last December. In return, Araiza dropped his defamation lawsuit against the accuser. Yet a separate defamation lawsuit was brought by Araiza against the accuser’s attorney, Dan Gilleon, who was the focus of an episode of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel in June of last year. Was the lawsuit still in the court system?
Araiza’s reply was short and sweet, “I am very happy and content with the way everything was settled.”
Finally, I asked Araiza if he still had to contend with haters on social media or even in public. Unlike the way the Bills handled domestic abuse violations thrown at Von Miller, Araiza was declared guilty from the get go and never had the benefit of being innocent until proven guilty.
“There will always be haters out there. They don’t know the facts of the story, nor do they care. You have to live your life and not worry about them.”
Week 2 has just concluded, and the Chiefs scored a last-second victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Araiza punted twice in that game; the first one went 49 yards and was downed at the Bengals one-yard line. The second traveled 63 yards then was down by the Chiefs on Cincinnati’s seven-yard line.
After what must have been a harrowing two years of being unemployed after false accusations of rape were thrown at him, Matt Araiza has seemingly found his pot of gold in the NFL. And in the early going, it seems the Chiefs are also cashing in after making the proper decision.