I do, too. Just so very sad. I think of all the kids who participate in youth sports, try so hard to make Varsity, try so hard to play in college, try so hard to get drafted into the pros…all the folks who don’t have that level of talent, who can only dream of not having to pinch pennies…and this is what happened with the talent AH was given and the work he put into his sport. So sad.
“For me, the most upsetting part is that it is apparently very easy for a convicted murderer to get drugs in prison.”
+1
The signing bonus might have had a clause about following NFL rules, or some other “good behavior” type of language. I just saw a story about a player (Charles Rogers) who was dimissed due to failing drug tests and had to repay 10M of his 14M signing bonus.
Now his lawyer is saying the ME’s office is holding Hernandez’s brain illegally–the family wants it studied for the CTE research project:
"Baez said the family plans to donate the brain of the former Patriots tight end to advance the study of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that has been linked to athletes, including football players, who might suffer concussions and head trauma. "
There is also the matter of his NFL pension. That should be fully protected from creditors under ERISA so perhaps that might be something for his daughter. He may also have had life insurance or it may have been provided for him as a benefit of his employment. Many policies pay out even in suicide scenarios however there is usually a waiting period before the payment is released.
Edited to add: the state medical examiner also just ruled his death a “suicide” and they are releasing his brain to Boston University so they can study it.
Yes, confirmed to be a suicide, and no signs of any kind of struggle.
I wonder if vacating the murder conviction makes it easier for the estate to defend the civil suit being brought by Odin Lloyd’s mother?
Ironic that Hernandez killed Lloyd to cover up the murder of the two guys in Boston, for which he was acquitted. Would he have needed to kill Lloyd? Would Lloyd have been a better witness than his “friend”, who he lured to an industrial park and tried to kill (ended up only blinding the "friend:)?
It doesn’t have to make sense with CTE. Interested to see the results. Go watch the movie Concussion. It’s quite good.
If he’s found to have CTE it would be a strong indication of the dangers of football when you consider he stopped playing at the age of 23. Yes, I realize he played in HS and college as well, but he would’ve played fewer total years than most former players found to have CTE.
And now there’s news that he was bisexual, and keeping his fiancee from finding out was why he murdered Lloyd. He left behind three notes, one to his prison boyfriend.
@greenwitch – could you share the link?
Edited: OK see that UK’s Daily Mail is reporting it.
I saw it on the NY Daily News’ web page.
Wasn’t it initially reported that no note was left? Now there are three?
Newsweek is also reporting this…and saying his prison boyfriend was a high school classmate and that one theory is that Odin was going to tell Hernandez’s “fiancee” that AH was bisexual. Odin was dating the “fiancee’s” sister. http://www.newsweek.com/aaron-hernandez-hidden-sexuality-murder-police-587879
I did read that the matter of the signing bonus (which wasn’t for his original signing but for the renegotiated contract in 2012) and the guaranteed contract amounts were already appealed by Hernandez in 2014 and ‘settled’ although what was paid, if anything, was not released. It won’t stop people from filing suit against the Patriots, but the Patriots have a much stronger position. In 2012 when he signed it, he had to affirm that he knew of nothing that would prevent him from being available to play. Oops, he forgot to disclose those murders.
Just because the murder conviction was vacated doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and the Patriots could have dismissed him without any criminal trial (which they did). Players are dismissed all the time for things they haven’t been charged with in a criminal court.
I’m just waiting for Baez to claim that Hernandez accidentally drowned in the prison pool and everything else was staged. Oh wait…he’s already sold that BS story once before. :-q Guess he’ll have to come up with some other line of crap to sell.
@jonri, the prison friend and the long term boyfriend are not the same person.
OOPS! I read the Newsweek article too quickly. Thanks @Consolation
Man, I know it’s sad he was killed, but this was some group of people we have here. Fiancee covering for the man who basically murdered her brother in law. Can’t remember anything about anything. And Lloyd, wouldn’t have covered for Hernandez in a double murder had he known he was gay.
The lines between victim and perpetrator in this case are so blurred, it’s unbelievable.
Sorry, not seeing lines between victim and murderer as being unbelievably “blurred.”
Lloyd did not want to quit living, and calling someone a “smoocher” should not invoke the death penalty on the part of the offended. What happened to that man was despicable. No amount of insulting comments could ever justify AH’s actions.
Also, it wasn’t Lloyd who said he wouldn’t have covered for the murder if he’d known Aaron was gay, it was Ernest Wallace.