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THERE’S NOTHING THAT Ryan Murphy and co. love more than a true crime saga—the television behemoth producer/creator/showrunner has made his footprint in that world on both FX and Netflix, starting with the American Crime Story franchise in 2016 that’s focused on such notable figures as O.J. Simpson, Gianni Versace, and Monica Lewinsky. After taking his talents to Netflix, he began the Monster franchise in 2022, first exploring the infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and, this month, releasing the follow up: Monsters, a look at The Menendez Brothers, who killed their mother and father.
Now, Murphy is adding another exploration of crime to his FX roster with American Sports Story, an anthology series looking at the sports world. The first figure the show is tackling is Aaron Hernandez—the late NFL star who played with the New England Patriots until he was arrested and convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd; he’s played by Hunger Games and West Side Story actor Josh Rivera. The series begins with looking at Hernandez’s life as a high school football player being scouted for colleges, and follows his myriad of troubles as he makes his way into the NFL.
Here’s a bit about who Hernandez was in real life, and how his life and career inspired this new chapter in Murphy’s American Story franchise.
Stream American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez Here
Who was Aaron Hernandez in real life?
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Aaron Hernandez greets his brother, D.J., in 2012, during the pre-game warm-up before Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis.
Hernandez was born in November 1989 to his parents Dennis Hernandez and Terri Valentine-Hernandez—who are of Puerto Rican and Italian descent. They had a fraught relationship, getting married, divorced, and then remarried again in 1999.
He had an older brother, D.J., and their father, who wanted athletic greatness for his sons, pushed the two boys to the brink in an abusive household. Dennis passed away from complications from a hernia surgery at 49 and many say that he never got over his father’s death. He became estranged from his mother and lived with his older cousin, Tanya Singleton. D.J. wrote a memoir titled The Truth About Aaron: My Journey to Understand My Brother which mentions that Hernandez was sexually molested as a young boy by an older boy.
How did Aaron Hernandez’s professional football career go?
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Hernandez caught a touchdown from Tom Brady during the Patriots’s loss to the Giants in 2012’s Super Bowl XLVI.
Living in Bristol, Connecticut with his family, Hernandez attended Bristol Central High School, where he played for the football team, first as a wide receiver and later as a tight end, the position he would eventually play in the NFL. There was one incident during his senior year where he was knocked out by a hit to the side of the head and didn’t get back up until an ambulance was called. In 2007, he was named the top tight-end recruit by Scout.com. He was initially recruited by the University of Connecticut where he would play alongside his brother, but ended up going to University of Florida to play under the heralded head coach Urban Meyer (who had previously coached at Utah and would later coach at Ohio State).
He was allowed to graduate a semester early to go and begin playing for the University of Florida, where he played alongside Tim Tebow. He wasn’t prepared for college and struggled academically. Due to his chronic drug use, Meyer told Hernandez he wouldn’t be welcomed back to play for his senior year; this led Hernandez to enter the 2010 NFL draft, where he was drafted by the New England Patriots alongside fellow tight end Rob Gronkowski. Even though he was known to be an excellent tight end, many teams didn’t draft him because there was an awareness that he was a potential problem. Hernandez admitted to his drug use and wrote to teams that he would be willing to be tested every other week during his rookie year playing.
When he started the 2010 season with the Patriots, he was the youngest starting player in the NFL. He had a spectacular rookie season but injured his hip, so starting the 2011 season he had undergone surgery and would began to cede more playing time to Gronkowski (who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career). The two became the first pair of tight ends in NFL history to catch 5 touchdowns in consecutive seasons for the same team. Hernandez started in the 2012 Super Bowl, which the Patriots lost to the New York Giants.
In 2012, he signed a five year $39 million extension with a $12.5 million signing bonus. Despite his spectacular performance on the field, he still wasn’t popular with his teammates; his career ended with his June 2013 arrest for the murder of Lloyd.
What was Aaron Hernandez’s life off the field like?
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Off the field, Hernandez was known for being a partier. Both in high school and college, he smoked a lot of weed and drank heavily. Meyer described him as a “distressed person” during his time at University of Florida.
Beginning in high school, he started dating Shayanna Jenkins, who would be his future fiancé and mother to their daughter Avielle, who was born in 2012. She would discover that Hernandez cheated on her and moved out of their shared home only to return later. During his trial, it was discovered he had some sort of flirtation with their nanny.
After his death, a friend of his and high school teammate, Dennis SanSoucie revealed that he and Hernandez had an ongoing relationship starting in 7th grade up until 11th grade. He was known for going on homophobic rants and would frequently expose his genitalia and talk about gay sex, according to some of his Patriots teammates. While he was in prison, according to his attorney, Hernandez came out to his mother and ex-girlfriend as gay.
As an adult, Hernandez grew increasingly paranoid about everyone being out to get him, including the FBI, according to his brother. He began getting weapons for his protection, hired a friend as a bodyguard, and even bought an armored car.
What kind of legal issues did Hernandez face through the years?
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Throughout the years, beginning when he moved to Florida for college, Hernandez had many criminal friends, especially when he returned closer to the area to play for the Patriots. In 2007, he refused to pay the bill at a bar and then sucker punched the manager, rupturing his ear drum. The incident was settled out of court.
Later in 2007, someone approached a car that Randall Carson, Justin Glass, and Corey Smith were in and fired shots while they were waiting at a traffic light. Smith was shot in the back of the head and Glass in the arm. Both men survived. Hernandez refused to speak to the police, and during the 2013 arrest it was looked into whether or not he was involved. Ultimately, it was officially deemed that he was unlikely to be the shooter in the situation.
Over the years, Hernandez would be involved in fights, was a suspect in a 2012 double homicide that he was ultimately acquitted of, and was also acquitted in the 2013 Miami shooting of Alexander Bradley, who sought revenge against Hernandez. Hernandez would later be indicted for witness intimidation against Bradley, who was allegedly a witness to the double homicide—he was also acquitted of that charge.
What is the story of the murder Hernandez was charged with and convicted for?
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In June 2013, Hernandez’s home was searched by police in connection to the murder of Odin Lloyd, a friend of his, who had gunshot wounds to the back and chest when he was found at an industrial park near Hernandez’s home.
While he claimed to his Patriots coach that he had nothing to do with the shooting, he was formally arrested and charged with first-degree murder and five gun-related charges. In 2013 he was indicted for the charge, and in 2015 was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was immediately terminated from the Patriots, forfeited all his salaries, and all of his merchandise was removed. Many of his endorsement deals ended as well.
While a motive was never formally found, there was suspicion that Lloyd had figured out the truth of Hernandez’s bisexuality and was going to expose him.
What about his time in jail and death?
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According to Jenkins and his mother, Hernandez was strangely calm during his time in prison. During his four years, he was reprimanded for breaking prison rules and found religion. While he was, at times, punished for his behavior, apparently his drug use had a blind eye turned to it by guards. After his murder conviction, Hernandez was moved to Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security prison where inmates spend upwards of 20 hours a day in their cells. He was apparently popular with some, hated by others, and used a lot of his time to work out, believing that he was preparing for an NFL return.
He was acquitted on the witness intimidation charge in 2017, nine days before his death. Right before his death, a reporter named Michele McPhee went on the Kirk and Callahan radio show where they heavily implied that Hernandez was gay, which many thought may have led to his suicide.
In April 2017, Hernandez was found hanging with bed sheets in his cell; he was transported to a nearby hospital where he was announced dead. He had apparently been smoking K2, a synthetic drug associated with psychosis before his death. There were separate notes to his attorney, his fiancé, and his daughter found next to a bible. The pages of the bible were open to John 3:16, which he also had written in red ink on his forehead.
His death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging. His family requested that Hernandez’s brain be donated to Boston University for research on CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which is a degenerative disease, found in many football players, which begins from severe or repeated blows to the head. After the research, Hernandez’s CTE was diagnosed as severe, a stage 3 of 4. As a child playing football, he had two confirmed concussions, but there was no doubt Hernandez had suffered many blows throughout his football career.
Many symptoms of CTE—which include aggression, anger, paranoia—were seen in Hernandez; the CTE he suffered from may have been a factor in some of his behavior.
