Latest news with #MaxwellHairston
Time of India
20 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Buffalo Bills rookie Maxwell Hairston suffers right leg injury during drills team fears serious damage
Buffalo Bills rookie Maxwell Hairston suffers right leg injury during drills team fears serious damage (Image via Getty) Maxwell Hairston, a first-round cornerback for the Buffalo Bills, damaged his leg on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at a training camp session in Pittsford, New York. The scene of the accident was St. John Fisher University's training facility. As coaches checked his right knee, the 21-year-old first-round draft pick was seen resting on the second practice field. Maxwell Hairston slowly walked off the field a few minutes later, assisted, and into the medical tent. He did not return to practice. Team doctors have scheduled tests to determine how serious the injury is. With Maxwell Hairston competing for a key spot in the lineup, his health now becomes a major concern. Maxwell Hairston goes down with right leg injury during Buffalo Bills training session Maxwell Hairston Injured his right leg while doing defensive exercises nearly 50 minutes into Tuesday's morning practice, Maxwell Hairston, the 30th overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. Quickly grabbed the attention of the medical personnel, who spent several minutes inspecting him while he lay on the turf. Though he could rise and move, he seemed to be in pain. The Buffalo Bills have not yet shared official details about the injury, but insiders say medical scans are being done to assess possible damage. Head coach Sean McDermott has not issued a public comment yet. Maxwell Hairston's strong start and Buffalo Bills' injury concerns at camp Maxwell Hairston entered camp with strong momentum after an impressive career at the University of Kentucky. With a 4. 28-second 40-yard dash, he was one of the quickest players at the 2025 NFL Combine; he stands 5-foot-11, 183 pounds. Three interceptions for touchdowns in college, he is noted for his tackling and ball skills. At camp, Hairston had been rotating in with veterans Tre'Davious White and Christian Benford. His solid coverage and near interception of a Josh Allen pass had caught attention. His injury now adds to the Bills' long injury list, which includes Curtis Samuel (hamstring), Tyrell Shavers (ankle), Terrel Bernard (hamstring), and Spencer Brown (back). Also Read: Bills' 1st-Round Pick Maxwell Hairston Accused Of Sexual Assault FAQs What happened to Maxwell Hairston at Bills training camp? Maxwell Hairston injured his right leg during defensive drills on July 29 at Bills camp in Pittsford. Is Maxwell Hairston's leg injury serious? The Buffalo Bills are awaiting test results to find out how serious Maxwell Hairston's leg injury is. Will Maxwell Hairston miss games for the Buffalo Bills? It's unclear if Maxwell Hairston will miss games, as medical scans are still being evaluated. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
New York Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Bills Day 4 observations: WR injuries piling up, while backup QB battle intensifies
PITTSFORD, N.Y. — Most days at training camp practices pass with all players making it through each day, perhaps with a minor injury here or there, but nothing too serious. But every so often, there's a stark reminder of football's cruelty. One of those occurred on the final snap of Bills practice Sunday. Advertisement Wide receiver Tyrell Shavers, who had already been earning increased opportunities through just the first four days of training camp and seemed like a real threat to make the 53-man roster, ran a route against 2025 first-round pick and cornerback Maxwell Hairston in the goal-line area. Shavers won the rep in 11-on-11 and popped open in the end zone to bring in a well-thrown pass from quarterback Mike White for a touchdown. Shavers jumped up for the catch and landed initially in the end zone without a problem, then at the tail end of the rep, Hairston attempted to jar the ball loose. As the play continued, Shavers crumbled to the ground and immediately grabbed the foot and ankle area on his right leg. 'He ran an under, a shallow route,' Hairston said of the play. 'That's just us competing — me being a corner, not trying to allow the receiver to catch the ball.' Shavers was immediately surrounded by multiple members of the team's athletic training staff. Within a few minutes, the majority of the roster was around Shavers and those attending to him. HBO's 'Hard Knocks' cameras were heading toward the quickly piling up huddle, and franchise quarterback Josh Allen swiftly shooed the camera away from the close-up shot. After a few moments, the cart came over for Shavers. Unable to put any weight on his right leg, he was loaded onto the cart and headed back to the locker room for further examination. As Shavers was being tended to, cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae went over to have a conversation with Hairston — a potential teaching moment for the young player the Bills hope will be their future at cornerback. 'Just be smart. You know, we're in practice, at the end of the day we're competing,' Hairston said of Addae's message to him. 'But these are our teammates. Just to be smart on the finish.' Advertisement Hairston said he needed to go back and see the play to see what he could have done differently at the end of the rep. It's officially an ankle injury for Shavers, according to the team. Here's what else stood out from Day 4 of Bills camp on what was possibly their last ramp-up day before full pads go on Monday. The Bills were fortunate enough to have Shavers make it through the majority of the practice because they needed him. It happens every year at one specific position, where injuries just pile up, which makes it challenging to get through a full day of practice. Shavers is now one of the five different injuries the 13-player receiver room is dealing with. The Bills have been without Laviska Shenault since the start of camp. They lost Curtis Samuel — close to a lock for the team — early on Day 3 to a hamstring injury. Then the Bills suffered three more receiver injuries Sunday. One was to Shavers at the end of the practice and another was to Elijah Moore, the current favorite to make the team as the fifth receiver. Moore didn't take part in team drills after going through some seven-on-seven reps earlier on Sunday due to general leg soreness. Seventh-round rookie Kaden Prather also missed time Sunday, as he sported a wrap on his upper leg as the practice went on. If none of the five injured players return for Monday, that leaves the Bills with only eight receivers to take reps throughout the day. And three of those injured players — Samuel, Moore and Shavers — were getting considerable time with the first-team offense. Even before Shavers had the injury, the Bills were giving some Josh Allen reps to players like Jalen Virgil, KJ Hamler, Stephen Gosnell and Kristian Wilkerson. As cruel as injuries can be, they're also a lifeline to depth players trying to make the team or practice squad. These next few days could wind up being the best opportunity the likes of Virgil, Hamler, Gosnell and Wilkerson could have all summer. The other new injury that seemingly popped up out of nowhere was to starting middle linebacker Terrel Bernard, who missed Sunday's session with a hamstring injury. It has yet to be determined if that, or any of the new injuries, are serious ones. The Bills are trying to get a lot of new pieces on defense on the same page, so not having the defensive play caller available to them is undoubtedly a bit of a setback, should he continue to miss time in training camp. Though with that disappointment comes an opportunity for them to gain more information in what is one of their more important depth decisions this summer — who Bernard's primary backup will be. Advertisement To begin camp, the Bills rewarded second-year linebacker and Buffalo-native Joe Andreessen with the second-team reps likely for the work he put in and progress he made during spring practices. Andreessen was notably ahead of Baylon Spector, who, when healthy in 2024, served as Bernard's top backup and even started some games for the Bills last season. The problem for Spector, who may qualify for defensive coordinator Bobby Babich's subtle message on Friday to be available, is that Spector has been injured quite a lot during his three-year Bills career, and even picked up an injury in the spring. Without Bernard, the Bills split up the first-team middle linebacker work between Spector and Andreessen. It's generally tougher to gauge performance of linebackers in a training camp practice because, outside of a handful of live tackling reps each summer, there really isn't an opportunity to finish plays with a tackle — which is a big part of the job. However, both players can at the very least demonstrate their coverage ability, how they read and react to run plays and how they can serve as a connector with teammates before the snap. While Andreessen is a likely lock for the 53-man roster, the same can't be said for Spector, who needs a healthy and good camp to secure his spot as the team's fifth or sixth linebacker. At least in one area, the Bills will hope that 2025 provides the same outcome as every other season since 2019 — for Josh Allen to be healthy enough to start every game. If that happens, the competition this summer at backup quarterback won't matter much. But Allen has a certain playing style as a mobile quarterback who extends plays, making what they do with the quarterback depth chart pretty important. Last year, Mitchell Trubisky was the coast-to-coast backup to Allen, though even in spot duty and during the preseason, his performances were somewhat uninspiring. Then the Bills brought in Mike White as their third quarterback and then signed him through 2025 once they called him up to the 53-man roster at the end of the year. It created the potential for Trubisky and White to battle it out for the backup job in 2025, but it was hard to determine if that was reality early on, given their overall adoration for Trubisky. The team has talked about competition at spots before, but with how they handle reps in practice doesn't always indicate a true competition. However, after seeing the full breakdown of reps at camp through four days, the Bills are giving both Trubisky and White an equal amount of time with the second-team offense, effectively saying, 'may the best quarterback win.' Through four days in camp, White has looked like the better player. Although White did throw an interception Sunday, it was more of a fantastic play by the cornerback in coverage than it was a bad pass. White is the superior quarterback in the pocket and has made sharp reads while delivering a good ball to his targets for the most part. Trubisky has had his moments as well, and provides more of a mobile threat than White, but his accuracy has not been as strong and he has been a bit more hesitant in the pocket than White. To this point, White has been the better of the two, though this competition is likely to go through the third preseason game. By the end of the season in 2024, the Bills felt as if their confidence in kicker Tyler Bass was vindicated in how he performed down the stretch. From the start of November through the end of the season and including playofffs, Bass hit 20 of his 22 field goal attempts (91 percent), and 40 of 43 extra point attempts (93 percent), erasing a lot of the shakiness he had heading into the season. That confidence carried over into the start of training camp in 2025, as Bass went perfect on all six attempts on Day 1, with a long of 48 and most of the kicks coming from 40-plus. But on his next field goal opportunity in team drills on Sunday, it went considerably worse. As a cell of moderate-to-heavy rain hovered over Bills practice for about half an hour, Bass was tasked with kicking through that rain, and made only four of his eight attempts. Advertisement The makes were from 33, 39, 45 and 50, with the misses from 43, 45, 48 and 50 yards. Bass missed the initial 50-yard kick and made the second with a second chance at it. The majority of his misses were just a hair outside the uprights, so it wasn't as though he was shanking them all practice, but it's nonetheless a correction he'll need to make ahead of his next session. For camp, Bass is 4-for-4 from 30 to 39 yards, 5-for-8 from 40 to 49 yards and 1-for-2 from 50-plus. Day 4 MVP, CB Ja'Marcus Ingram: Ingram made the play of the day by perfectly high-pointing White's pass intended for tight end Zach Davidson and completed the catch for an interception. Later in the session, working against Allen and first-team receiver Keon Coleman near the goal line, Coleman got the better of a contested catch opportunity near the sideline — but it was a highly competitive rep and the team had them go at it again on the very next play. Ingram dominated that contested rep and broke up the pass, splitting the results in half with Coleman. Ingram will need a really good camp and preseason to make the team this year, and days like Sunday certainly help his cause. Did not participate: RT Spencer Brown (back, active PUP), C Sedrick Van-Pran Granger (calf, active PUP), WR Laviska Shenault (lower leg, non-football injury list), TE Dawson Knox (hamstring, non-football injury list), LB Dorian Williams (calf), WR Curtis Samuel (hamstring), LB Terrel Bernard (hamstring). (Top photo of Tyrell Shavers: Shawn Dowd / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle via Imagn Images)
New York Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Bills Day 3 observations: Competition heats up at CB, WR; a message is sent to backup LBs
PITTSFORD, NY — As the Bills transition into the 2025 season, all but one of their starting positions are spoken for, which creates a natural competition in this year's training camp. The Bills have a clear need for a starting cornerback and are now tasked with deciding between youth and experience. Advertisement First-round pick Maxwell Hairston has the benefit of investment, which could help be a tiebreaker on a decision. However, veteran Tre'Davious White has the advantage of spending seven years in the Bills' scheme and was once one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. He's back for another go-round with the Bills in his age-30 season. White, who had his first real offseason in a few years without having to rehab a long-term injury, has remained with the first-team defense through the first three days of training camp. He's not just a novelty for the team before it eventually gives those snaps to Hairston. White has earned the time there because he's been the better player so far in camp. 'Tre's on a mission right now,' defensive coordinator Bobby Babich remarked on Friday. The longer White can extend this unquestioned time with the top unit, the more likely it is that he can make his Buffalo comeback complete. He's often said that he feels like he's back home with the Bills after a one-year stint away playing for the Rams and Ravens, and it would be quite the homecoming story if he could stave off the first-round pick to be the opening day starter. White was asked Friday if anyone should be surprised if he wins the job and becomes the Week 1 starter in 2025. 'Absolutely not. I feel like my work speaks for itself,' White said. 'I work extremely f—ing hard, and a lot of people can see it. You can see it in my burst, the way I'm transitioning out of my breaks, the power, the way my body looks, how I feel in the morning. I put a lot of f—ing hard work in. It's not gonna be a surprise to me or nobody that's seen my work. I pride myself on putting my best foot forward. I know what type of player, so the injuries kind of slowed it up, but that's behind me now. I'm moving forward. It's gonna be a great f—ing season.' As the cornerback competition heats up, here's what else stood out at Day 3 of Bills camp. With a few days of non-padded practices in the books, it's worth compiling how the receiver group has looked on an individual basis. The group is a key to unlocking another level on offense, as the team hopes for some natural progression from the pieces they've assembled. Khalil Shakir was the Day 2 MVP, has had a strong camp and has been such a consistent performer. Outside of Shakir, their most trusted commodity, how has the top of the group looked? Advertisement Without question, Coleman is the most talked about receiver on the roster because of his role last season, his youth, where he was drafted and interest in how much he could improve in his second year. His first practice did not go well, letting multiple contested catch opportunities get knocked incomplete and without great separation. On Day 2, Coleman had a bounce-back practice, corralling multiple catches in 11-on-11s, primarily working against zone. Day 3 started well with a few shorter-yardage catches, but his inconsistency showed up to end the day. One pass went right through his hands, and then, near the end of the practice, Coleman popped open in the intermediate middle, with the pass hitting him in the breadbasket before it fell to the ground. Through three days of camp, it's been an extension of what he was as a rookie. A player who is likely to have a sizable role and shows flashes, but with some occasional maddening inconsistency. If there's one word to describe Joshua Palmer as a player, it's 'smooth.' He moves quickly and effortlessly, but never looks in a hurry. He's a plus route runner and specializes in separation, which has already been a magnet for quarterback Josh Allen early into camp. The Bills can use Palmer at both boundary positions, which gives him a high ceiling for 2025. All early indications are that Palmer will be a staple on offense and could be a sneaky candidate to lead the receivers in snaps. Through the first two days, it seemed like Samuel was firmly in control of the fourth receiver spot on the depth chart. He was getting plenty of time with Allen, receiving opportunities and moving around the offense. That was the hope from the Bills, who loved what they saw from Samuel at the end of last season. On Day 3, though, he sat out of team drills in full. He was not holding his helmet during those parts of practice and was spotted speaking with the team's athletic training staff. The team has yet to disclose what Samuel is dealing with, so it remains to be seen how this will impact his camp. Injuries defined Samuel's summer and early regular season in 2024, so the team hopes this is something minor that will take only a few days to get through. After having a good spring, Moore had his moments during team drills at training camp, though he hasn't uniformly been working with Allen and the first-team offense. That's noteworthy for those expecting he would walk into a top role on the Bills' offense. How will it look when the small and speedy Moore has to deal with the physicality of padded practices? As of now, he looks like the fifth receiver on the depth chart. For the second straight year, it looks like Shavers is pushing to make the 53-man roster. Although it's early, Shavers has progressively earned more time with the first unit over the first three days of camp. The Bills already know Shavers can play all three receiver positions, that he can be a positive on special teams and nearly made the team last year. This time around, he looks bigger and stronger. It could be difficult to find a sixth receiver spot on the 53-man roster, but Shavers has made a good early impression once again. Advertisement While most of the extension attention continues to center around running back James Cook, the real undercurrent on pressing re-sign decisions has all to do with the interior offensive line. Starting center Connor McGovern and left guard David Edwards are both free agents in March, and Edwards told The Athletic on Thursday that there have yet to be substantial talks with the Bills about a new deal. What makes those two decisions difficult has nothing to do with them, but rather because of the step forward starting right guard O'Cyrus Torrence took at the end of his second season. Torrence, 25, is extension-eligible in the upcoming offseason, and the Bills likely want to keep their options open to make him one of their core building blocks moving forward. Torrence turned in great performance after great performance in the second half of 2024, and it's already bled into his third training camp this summer. He's looked super steady throughout team drills, and in his first taste of one-on-ones Friday, he dominated his pass blocking rep against defensive tackle DeWayne Carter. Torrence's teammates have taken notice of his big jump from last season, and their lofty opinion of his potential might provide a window into why the Bills are in an extension holding pattern at the moment. 'I think that O'Cyrus can be one of the best, if not the best guard in this league,' Edwards said. 'There are some things that, when you look at the best guards in football, they have a God-given ability, and the really good ones have multiple. So he has God-given size. He has God-given strength and, obviously, he works at it too. Now he's learning how to play with master technique and mastery of offense, mastery of playing next to guys. I think that's when you see guys take a huge jump. I don't put expectations on people. I just know how good he is and what he's capable of.' Torrence is scheduled to become a free agent in 2027, which opens the window for an extension after this year. Should he continue his excellent showings from late last season, he could easily become their top priority in the coming offseason to lock in a deal the way they did with Christian Benford, Greg Rousseau, Terrel Bernard and Shakir heading into the final year on each of their rookie contracts. On Thursday, the Bills elected to exercise caution with their prized addition to the defensive line, as the team confirmed that Joey Bosa did not take part in team drills on Day 2 as part of their plan to keep him healthy for the long term. But what was more notable from Bosa's return to those 11-on-11 snaps on Day 3 was not that he was taking them, but who he was taking them with. With A.J. Epenesa unavailable due to an ankle injury, Bosa got some unencumbered first-team time. The Bills said in the offseason they viewed Bosa as a starter, but due to his spring-long calf injury, it was unclear how the Bills would use him with top defensive end Greg Rousseau. The initial answer had Rousseau firmly planted at left defensive end — his more natural side and where he's best as a pass rusher — with Bosa at right defensive end. Over the last two seasons, the Bills have moved Rousseau around due to past pass rushers Leonard Floyd and Von Miller being at their best on the left side. Rousseau, staying on the left side, appears to be the early priority in camp. The way they utilize players in practice often indicates their regular-season plans. There isn't much drama around the Bills' starting linebackers in 2025, as Terrel Bernard and Matt Milano will be the top duo, just as they were in 2024. Past them and clear-cut third linebacker Dorian Williams, there are questions about how the depth chart plays out and who makes the 53-man roster outright. Over the first two days, the Bills used Buffalo-native Joe Andreessen quite a bit as the second-team middle linebacker, which showed an even higher ceiling for him than he showed last year. But the Bills spent Day 3 with a new set of backup linebackers, with Baylon Spector and Shaq Thompson on the second unit. Spector, when healthy, spent 2024 as Bernard's primary backup. Thompson was a longtime starter for Sean McDermott in Carolina, made a flashy play on Thursday and likely got the second-team run as Williams was unavailable due to a calf injury. However, Thompson received the time ahead of 2024 fifth-round pick Edefuan Ulofoshio, which is not an early positive indicator for Ulofoshio. Advertisement The situation is likely fluid for the rest of training camp, though Babich made a pointed remark about the backup group. 'They need to perform, and they need to be available. That's the bottom line,' he said. The Bills have seen their fair share of linebacker injuries over the past two seasons, and the first name that sprang to mind when Babich said the 'need to be available' line was Spector. Despite being a positive special teams performer and winning the backup middle linebacker job in 2024, Spector has a lengthy history of missing time with injuries over his three years in Buffalo. Andreessen, his main competition, did not miss any regular-season time with injury in 2024. That's part of why Andreessen seems like a safe bet to make the team in 2025, while Spector appears on the bubble. The team's biggest decision will not only be about who they keep, but if they choose to keep five or six linebackers. Spector, Ulofoshio and Thompson — the three main bubble linebackers — will certainly hope it's the latter number. Day 3 MVP, S Taylor Rapp: It was a banner day for Rapp on the stat sheet, corralling two interceptions and a would-be sack against the first-team offense. The two interceptions may have been a product of 'right place, right time' above all else. His first happened in seven-on-seven, when Allen threw to Moore on a deep route, but the receiver broke it short, allowing Rapp to pick up the pieces. Later in practice, as it began to rain, it looked like the ball slipped out of Allen's hand mid-throw, and Rapp brought in the wobbly pass for the turnover. Regardless of the difficulty level, Rapp took advantage, and after the defense hadn't forced many turnovers through the first two practices, Babich will take whatever he can get. Did not participate: RT Spencer Brown (back, active PUP), C Sedrick Van-Pran Granger (calf, active PUP), WR Laviska Shenault (lower leg, non-football injury list), TE Dawson Knox (hamstring, non-football injury list), DE A.J. Epenesa (ankle), LB Dorian Williams (calf), WR David White Jr. (personal, excused).
Fox News
6 days ago
- Sport
- Fox News
Bills GM stands firmly by rookie amid sexual assault lawsuit: 'This kid didn't run from anything'
Buffalo Bills first-round pick Maxwell Hairston is dealing with a sexual assault lawsuit while in his first training camp, and his new NFL organization has his back as he goes through it. Hairston was named in a civil lawsuit that claims he sexually assaulted a woman while at the University of Kentucky in 2021. Bills general manager Brandon Beane addressed the allegation on Wednesday, when he called the situation "frustrating," but not in the way one might think. "Frustrating because, in the legal world, you can't sit there and say things back and forth. You've got to let it go," Beane told reporters, via The New York Post. "This happened to this young man over four years ago. He gave up his phone to prove … he took a polygraph test. This kid didn't run from anything, he answered all of that. "We have to remember in society that people can make accusations and do things. I have no idea what the agenda is there. I can tell you, every stone we turned over, every door we looked behind, this is a very good young man. A young man you would let in your house, watch your kids, hang out with whoever." Beane continued to emphasize the type of person he and the Bills believe Hairston is. "He is genuinely a good person. … I think we need to remember in the world, I'm not going to get into it, but we see these accusations, sometimes these guys can be victims, too," Beane explained. "They make a lot of money. Rarely do people defend them. That's hard for me in this seat sometimes. Because I've seen it. We've had it here with a player here a few years ago that's no longer here that's wrongly accused." Rebecca Hendryx is the woman who was identified as Hairston's accuser in the lawsuit, which was filed in Kentucky earlier this month, per ESPN. Hendryx claims that Hairston "forcefully removed" her clothes and sexually assaulted her despite allegedly telling him she did not want to participate in sexual activity. Hairston said on Wednesday that he went through a "thorough" investigation after police found out about the allegations while he was at the university. He was 17 at the time of the allegations. "The University of Kentucky did a thorough investigation," Hairston, who is not facing criminal charges, said, via the New York Post. "I was exonerated from that, as well. And I volunteered to do multiple polygraphs because I was determined to get my truth out there, because I had nothing to hide. I was an open book. "I have two sisters that I love dearly, and I respect all females, and I was just determined to get my truth out there. Like I said, I was an open book, and I was exonerated from both of those and just got to stay strong. But I'm confident that my truth will be out there." Buffalo was in need of secondary help this offseason, and they used the 30th overall pick on Hairston, who went viral during the NFL Draft after cameras caught him excited for all the players who were selected before him in Green Bay. Hairston is expected to be a starter alongside Christian Benford, though Dane Jackson and Tre'Davious White, who reunited with the Bills for a second stint with the team, will be battling for the job as well.
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Buffalo Bills back Maxwell Hairston amid sexual assault lawsuit: 'A young man you'd let in your house'
Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane has thrown his support behind Maxwell Hairston after the rookie cornerback was recently accused of sexual assault by one of his former university classmates. Hairston, who was selected by the Bills with the 30th overall pick in this year's NFL Draft, has been named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit which alleges that he sexually assaulted a woman while he attended the University of Kentucky back in 2021. The plaintiff, Rebecca Hendryx, claims she was living in the same dormitory with the football player in early 2021. It was there, her attorneys allege in the filing obtained by Daily Mail, that he barged his way to her dorm room. Hendryx alleges that she physically resisted his advances only for him to forcibly remove her clothing and sexually assault her. Hairston, now 21, was 17 at the time of the incident. He is not facing criminal charges and already claims to have been 'exonerated' following a previous University of Kentucky investigation. And as he continues to protest his innocence, the new Bills star has received support from Beane - who praised him for not 'running' from the allegations and being a 'young man you would let in your house'. 'Frustrating because, in the legal world you can't sit there and say things back and forth. You've got to let it go,' the Buffalo GM told reporters on Wednesday. 'This happened to this young man over four years ago. He gave up his phone to prove [it]... he took a polygraph test. This kid didn't run from anything, he answered all of that. 'We have to remember in society that people can make accusations and do things. I have no idea what the agenda is there. I can tell you, every stone we turned over, every door we looked behind, this is a very good young man. A young man you would let in your house, watch your kids, hang out with whoever. 'He is genuinely a good person. I think we need to remember in the world, I'm not going to get into it, but we see these accusations, sometimes these guys can be victims, too. They make a lot of money. Rarely do people defend them. 'That's hard for me in this seat sometimes. Because I've seen it. We've had it here with a player here a few years ago that's no longer here that's wrongly accused.' The former player Beane was referring to is Matt Araiza, who was released by the Bills in August 2022 after a woman alleged that he and other San Diego University players raped her at an off-campus party in October 2021. She claimed that the punter, then 21, had sex with her in the side yard of a house before bringing her into a bedroom where a group of men took turns raping her. However, after he filed a defamation countersuit against her, the woman agreed to dismiss him from her lawsuit in December of last year. Araiza also dropped his countersuit against her to bring the ordeal to a close, before he was signed by back-to-back Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs two months later. Hairston insists he has nothing to hide despite the accusations that have been leveled against him, telling reporters after practice on Wednesday: 'The University of Kentucky did a thorough investigation. I was exonerated from that, as well. And I volunteered to do multiple polygraphs 'cause I was determined to get my truth out there, because I had nothing to hide. I was an open book. 'I have two sisters that I love dearly, and I respect all females, and I was just determined to get my truth out there. Like I said, I was an open book, and I was exonerated from both of those and just got to stay strong. But I'm confident that my truth will be out there.' Beane also previously said that the Bills looked into the claims made against Hairston before drafting him 30th overall in April.
