It's Interesting That NFL Teams Risked Their Seasons Rather Than Sign Matt Araiza

The Bills and Eagles chose PR concerns over on field advantage

Punter Matt Araiza is back, this time with the Kansas City Chiefs.

We’ve covered the banished “Punt God” saga here, with analysis aimed at how irrationally emotional sports media operates on certain topics. Today’s article is devoted to a mostly ignored related subject of how media hysteria impacted actual football seasons. I realize that the issues at play are more important than sports. I was, for example, not wild about Defector journalist Diana Moskovitz glibly hand waving away the destructive impact of media overreach on this one:

He’s very young. He’s 22 years old, and it is still distinctly possible that Matt Araiza is on a team this coming season. Right? Little early to say life destroyed. He’s 22! He could still be signed with a team.

At the same time, it is in part due to the fraught subject material that the actual sports aspect has been swept under the rug. It’s amazing to me that, during Araiza’s banishment, at least two Super Bowl contenders carried shaky punters when he was highly available, likely out of deference to media irrationality. In those two specific instances, which I’ll detail, it came back to bite these teams.