NFL rookie punter Matt Araiza is let go from the Buffalo Bills after he was accused of raping a teen girl in a lawsuit

By Homero De la Fuente, Nouran Salahieh and Stella Chan, CNN

Updated 0115 GMT (0915 HKT) August 28, 2022

Buffalo Bills punter Matt Araiza walks on the sideline during the first half of a preseason NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Aug. 13, 2022.

(CNN)NFL rookie punter Matt Araiza has been released from the Buffalo Bills days after he and two other football players wereaccused in a lawsuit of gang raping a then-17-year-old girl during an off-campus party at San Diego State University last year.

«This afternoon, we decided that releasing Matt Araiza was the best thing to do. Our culture in Buffalo is more important than winning football games,» team general manager Brandon Beane announced on Saturday.Araiza and two other current or former San Diego State University football players are accused of gang raping the girl at a Halloween party last year, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the attorney for the plaintiff identified in court documents as «Jane Doe.»Araiza and his co-defendants, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin «Pa'a» Ewaliko, were on San Diego State's football team at the time of the alleged incident last October.Araiza's attorney, Kerry Armstrong, told CNN Friday his client did not rape the accuser.Read More«The facts of the incident are not what they are portrayed in the lawsuit or in the press. I look forward to quickly setting the record straight,» Araiza said in a statement issued through his attorney.Jane Doe says she attended a party in the San Diego area with friends, but was separated from them when she met Araiza, according to the claim. The filing further asserts Araiza «could observe that Doe was heavily intoxicated» and «handed her a drink anyway.»«Doe informed