The image is burned into the memory of anyone who followed football in 2013. A star athlete, a guy who just months earlier was catching passes from Tom Brady in a Super Bowl, being led out of his mansion in handcuffs wearing nothing but a white t-shirt. It didn't make sense. It still doesn't, really. People keep asking about what Aaron Hernandez did, trying to find a logical thread in a story that is basically a knot of violence, brain trauma, and wasted potential.
Honestly, the sheer speed of the collapse was dizzying. One minute he’s signing a $40 million contract extension with the New England Patriots, and the next, he’s a defendant in a first-degree murder trial. He wasn't some benchwarmer. He was one of the most versatile weapons in the NFL. But while the world saw a Pro Bowl tight end, the reality was a man living a double life that was rapidly spiraling out of control.
The Night Everything Changed for Aaron Hernandez
On June 17, 2013, a jogger found the body of Odin Lloyd in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. Lloyd was a semi-pro football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins. They were basically family. Yet, Lloyd had been shot multiple times.
What led to this? Prosecutors later argued that Hernandez felt "disrespected" by Lloyd at a nightclub a few nights prior. It sounds petty because it is. But for Hernandez, perceived slights were often treated like declarations of war. Surveillance footage from Hernandez’s own home security system showed him clutching a handgun just minutes after the murder. He’d even tried to destroy the system and his cell phone.
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The evidence was a mountain.
- Tire tracks at the scene matched his rental car.
- A shell casing found in his car matched the bullets in Lloyd’s body.
- Blue Bubblicious gum—the same kind Hernandez bought at a gas station that night—was found near the body.
He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015. He got life without parole. Just like that, the "Patriot Way" was a distant memory, replaced by a prison cell at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
The Secret History of Violence
If you look closer, the Odin Lloyd case wasn't some isolated "oops" moment. It was the climax of years of escalating aggression. While he was at the University of Florida, he was questioned in a 2007 double shooting. He punched a bar manager so hard he burst the man's eardrum.
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Then there’s the 2012 Boston double homicide.
Two men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, were killed in a drive-by shooting while stopped at a red light. The motive? Someone accidentally bumped into Hernandez at a club and spilled a drink on him. That’s it. A spilled drink.
He actually went to trial for these murders while he was already serving life for the Lloyd case. In a shocking twist, he was acquitted of the double murder in April 2017. His high-powered lawyer, Jose Baez, managed to dismantle the credibility of the prosecution's star witness, Alexander Bradley. Bradley was a former friend of Hernandez who claimed Aaron had also shot him in the face in Florida to keep him quiet about the Boston killings.
The Brain Science: A Case of Stage 3 CTE
Five days after that acquittal, Hernandez was found dead in his cell. He was 27.
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When researchers at Boston University examined his brain, they found something terrifying. He had Stage 3 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Usually, you only see that level of damage in players in their 60s or 70s. Dr. Ann McKee, the lead researcher, noted that his brain had significant atrophy and large holes in the membrane.
How CTE Messes With the Mind
The frontal lobe is basically the "brakes" of the human brain. It controls impulses, judgment, and social behavior. In Hernandez, those brakes were essentially non-existent. While it doesn't excuse murder, it provides a chilling context for why a guy with everything to lose would kill someone over a spilled drink or a sideways glance. He was quite literally losing his mind while playing at the highest level of professional sports.
What We Can Learn From the Fall
The story of what Aaron Hernandez did isn't just about a "bad seed." It's a complicated mess of childhood abuse, a culture of silence in high-stakes sports, and a medical crisis that was happening inside his skull in real-time.
If you're looking for a takeaway, it's that the signs were there for years. The NFL, the Patriots, and the University of Florida all saw the "red flags"—the failed drug tests, the late-night altercations, the "unsavory" associates—but as long as he was scoring touchdowns, those flags were ignored.
To understand the full scope of the legal and medical fallout, consider these steps:
- Read the BU CTE Center's report on the Hernandez brain study to understand the physical reality of his condition.
- Review the Odin Lloyd trial transcripts for a masterclass in how circumstantial evidence (like the gum and the rental car) can secure a conviction without a murder weapon.
- Watch the documentary 'Killer Inside' to see the interviews with his former teammates and family members, which paint a picture of the double life he led.