Sean McDermott is a very good head coach, and one of the better defensive minds of his era. He is also not in any way prepared to handle the kinds of questions he was inevitably going to get after the Bills’ 21-0 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Friday night. And a postgame press conference is not the ideal setting for what was about to happen.
McDermott knew that he was going to have to say more than what the team has said in the wake of a lawsuit filed in San Diego County Superior Court against Bills rookie punter Matt Araiza, and two other current and former San Diego State football players. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Colleen Shalby and Robert J. Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, accuses the three men of rape, false imprisonment and gender-violence crimes. An unidentified woman claims that Araiza, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko took turns having non-consensual sex with her as she went in and out of consciousness. The woman was a 17-year-old high-school senior at the time.
