Crime Weekly - S2 Ep75: Aaron Hernandez: Wasted Potential (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 29, 2022

Fifteen year old Matthew Kent was out for a jog on the evening of June 17th, 2013 when he discovered something that would change the course of multiple lives. Kent had just finished working out at the gym, and he was training for his high school track team, so he decided to run the short distance back to his home in Westwood Estates in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. His route brought him through a secluded clearing in an industrial park around 5PM where he saw a man, lying on his back, not moving. Kent approached the man to ask if he was alright, and when he received no response, he called the police. The body was that of 27 year old Odin Lloyd, a semi professional football player and a linebacker for the Boston Bandits, a family man whose two loves in life were his family and football, but for some unexplainable reason he had been shot to death, execution style. Odin was not from North Attleboro, and it wasn’t the kind of place where random acts of violence occurred, but law enforcement quickly discovered that he only knew two people in the area. Shayanna Jenkins, the sister of Lloyd’s girlfriend, and Aaron Hernandez, Shayanna’s boyfriend and tight end for the New England Patriots. No one wanted to believe that a young and talented professional football player who had just signed a 40 million dollar contract could possibly be involved with this brutal murder, but as the investigation progressed, a pandoras box was opened, revealing that there was another, darker side to Aaron Hernandez.  Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCO.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

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Kent had just finished working out at the gym, and he was training for his high school track team, so he decided to run the short distance back to his home in Westwood Estates in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. His route brought him through a secluded clearing in an industrial park around 5 p.m., where he saw a man lying on his back, not moving. Kent approached the man to see if he was alright, and when he received no response, he called the police. The body was that of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player and a linebacker for the Boston Bandits, a man whose two loves in life were his family and football. But for some unexplainable reason, he had been shot to death, execution style. Odin was not from North Attleboro, and it wasn't the

kind of place where random acts of violence occurred. The law enforcement quickly discovered that he only knew two people in the area, Cheyenne Jenkins, the sister of Lloyd's girlfriend, and Aaron Hernandez, Cheyenne's boyfriend and tight end for the New England Patriots. No one wanted to believe that a young and talented professional football player, who had just signed a $40 million contract, could possibly be involved with this brutal murder. But as the investigation progressed, a Pandora's box was opened, revealing that there was another, darker side to Aaron Hernandez. Hello, everybody.

Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I am Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. And we're both sick today. Yeah. Which is funny because we live nowhere near each other. We're in California. We're in New Mexico. Everyone. It's like this nationwide thing. So everyone's sick. So bear with us. We're either going to sound real good to you or real annoying, but this is the way we sound right now. But we want to dive into this case as soon as possible because it's a very interesting one. However, we have a really big announcement. We kind of been teasing it with you guys for a couple months now, and we're finally ready to tell you what we have been working on and what we're going to release.

This is something, without giving it away, you know, Stephanie and I have been talking for a long time amongst ourselves and with you guys about wanting to do something in the true crime space that would allow us to contribute to combating the issues that we see in the criminal justice system. We see a lot of families, a lot of police agencies, a lot of organizations asking for funding. And we've said numerous times that we want to do something where we can be a part of that, be a part of contributing to the funding needed to bring justice to these families. And we wanted to do it in a fun way, something that although we will be helping others, we are also doing something that we think everyone will enjoy. So that's kind of how this came up, right?

I mean, there's a lot more to it, but I'm just giving like the one minute version where I basically came to you and was like, hey, got an idea. Yeah, I mean, you know, you guys know that there's a few things I love in life that I love to consume. And that's wine and coffee, right? So I think it kind of just made sense that the amount of coffee I drink, we should just start our own coffee company and create our own coffee. But what was so important to us first and foremost is because obviously we're going to be drinking this. We're not going to be that kind of company who is putting out a product that they're not using. We're going to be drinking this. We're not going to be that kind of company who is putting out a product that they're not using. We're going to be drinking this every single day. We wanted the coffee to be good. And so we've been working so hard for

months to make sure that not only the coffee we're going to be providing to you in the form of our new coffee company, criminal coffee company, not only is going to be amazing, but it's also going to be in fun packaging and have fun interactive ways to sort of enjoy the coffee i'm holding it up on the screen here for the youtube people if you're on audio sorry we're so excited to launch if you're on audio you can go to our website we're going to link everything in the show notes we'll link everything in the description box but you can go to our website it It's criminalcoffeeco.com. Nailed it. You got to have more confidence in that. You get so, you're so uncertain about your URLs. I am so uncertain about my URLs. You really are.

Everything else in life, you're like, I know it. But when it comes to a website, you just have no confidence. I falter. So criminalcoffee.com, so C-O dot com. Go there. You can see kind of what the flavor notes are. We have a light roast. We have a medium roast. We have a dark roast. And what's cool about the coffee is each coffee has its own character. And then each character has its place, his or her place in our criminal coffee universe because you guys know i'm a writer i love this kind of stuff i like being creative and in in true crime i don't get to really be that creative i have to stick to the facts and things but with the criminal coffee universe i could just go ham and i did you definitely did yeah yeah i told derrick i was

like listen like i know it might sound crazy. And if it sounds crazy, rein me in, but don't rein me in. So he kind of just let me go with it. And we kind of came up with these characters together. Our main characters, which is Agent X, Sebastian and Chase. And you guys can learn more about them at criminalcoffeeco.com. Go there and read their bios to see what they're all about. And every so often we will be updating on the website so you can see what's going on. It's kind of like a graphic novel, you know, ARG kind of thing. It's

super fun. We're super excited. We are going to have these bags of coffee with us at CrimeCon in Vegas. You guys can stop by our booth, check them out, feel them, see them in person, smell them, because they're actually filled with our coffee and they smell amazing. And you'll be able to put your name down for a pre-order in Vegas, or you can go to the website and sign up for the pre-order.

Now the pre-orders are going to take a couple of weeks, right? Because we're just launching. Yeah, about four to five weeks from the date of us announcing this. But we kind of wanted to get like an idea of who was interested, how many people would be interested, what you'd be interested in, which roasts, which blends you would be the most interested in. And Derek and I are going to be like bagging these up ourselves.

We're going to get our family. We're going to, you know, head down to Rhode Island. All our family's going to be there. We're going to assembly line it, wrap these bags up, send them out to you with love. So yeah, the pre-order is essential at this point, but sign up for the pre-order, be the first ones to try Criminal Coffee. I'm so excited. I definitely think that you should try the alias roast because I think it's the best. Yeah. The characters might look similar to you when you guys see the characters and i'll hold them up again real quick so this is our this is our right here this is our alias blend which is our dark roast um you it's not going to be easy to

see on camera but i can see it agent x might look familiar to you let's just say that uh she might look familiar to you and then we have the undercover roast which is our light roast uh this might look familiar to you. And then we have the undercover roast, which is our light roast. This might look familiar to you as well. Who's that guy? Yeah. We have Sebastian. And we're going to be adding more characters as we go as the seasons change. So who knows?

You might see some of your other favorite true crime people on a coffee bag. But there's something that's really important about this. And I hit on it a little bit at the beginning. Yes, it's fun. Yes, it's interactive. We feel, I keep referring to it as like an adult cereal box because not only did we partner with, in my opinion, the best coffee roaster in Rhode Island, he travels all over the world every year to these different farms and he grabs the coffee beans directly and make sure the process is top notch. The coffee's unbelievable. You have to try it for yourself. But to just go back to what the whole mission behind this is, a portion of the proceeds from every bag sold is going to go to

fighting crime, combating crime. And you're going to be a big part of that. We're going to be taking money from profits and we're going to be interacting with you guys on the website, finding out if there's certain things that you want to see us donate to. And we will be sending out the checks. I think we're going to maybe do it quarterly or monthly. We don't know yet. We have to figure out those logistics, but we will constantly update the site under the fight crime tab so that you know where your money's going as well.

And you can see the impact that it's having, which I think is super important. We're really excited about the potential of this. And ultimately the success of this product is going to be based on you guys, but really excited. Can't wait for you guys to taste it. Can't wait for you guys to see the bags. And as Stephanie said, this is the first round, just a pre-order because we don't know what the interest will be. So it's going to be about four or five weeks, but after that, you'll be able to order whole bean or ground and you'll probably get it within like a week or two. And you'll be able to subscribe and save too if you want. Also. Yes, that's right. This is very important. We worked with a lot of great

people to make this happen. A lot of great people. This wasn't just Derek and I, although like we were running the ship, we worked with people who are actually subscribers to us. Because there's so many talented, talented individuals out there and we wanted them to be people who actually understood our vision, understood who we were and who we could work seamlessly with. And that's exactly what happened. The person who did the illustrations, she was amazing. She was so responsive. The person who did the website, go and look at the website. Even if you're not interested in the coffee, go and look at the website. It is crazy good. We had someone help us design the bags, the logo. I mean, this is such a team effort. It's not even funny how it all worked and came together. And I am so

proud of everybody for doing that. And I really want you guys to go and check it out because understand it is good. We would not be putting out something that didn't taste good. I think this is the best tasting coffee that I've ever had. And I know you're going to say, you're just saying that because it's your coffee, but I wouldn't say it was my coffee or our coffee. No, that's why you came up to Rhode Island. You wanted to try it. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. We've had such a great team behind us. So go check it out. We're going to be going live from Vegas to launch it on the Crime Weekly YouTube channel. And we'll talk more about like the characters and the inspiration and kind of what we saw when we were creating them. And we'll

get more into that and we'll shout out these people by name and you can go and follow them and give them shout outs too. I'll shout them out right now. Yeah, go ahead. Maggie, Christina. Maggie, she lives in Austria. She designed the bags. She was just honestly commenting on one of our posts. I saw it, saw that she was an artist and I reached out to her. And then same thing with Christina. She know, on her social about listening to an episode while working. And I could see in the background that she was coding. So I hit her up in the DMS and was like, Hey, do you design websites? And she's like, I do. And we had a few bids that came in, but we really liked the idea

of working people who've kind of been part of this crime weekly family. And although this is a separate thing, criminal coffee is going to be its own thing. It's not really going to be, it's not Crime Weekly coffee. So it's really for everybody, just everybody who's a true crime enthusiast, who has a passion for these stories and has a passion for being part of change, then we think you're going to like this. And yeah, if you like drinking coffee, it's not bad either. All right. Should we get started? I'm just so excited. I could talk about this forever. I know. I know. And it's like, I think about the people who are like, oh, they took 15 minutes to get into it. Well, guess what? We legit took 15 minutes tonight. So

you're welcome. But we've been keeping it a secret for so long. It feels finally like we can talk about it. And it's like showing your newborn baby to the world for the first time and how you just want to keep gushing about your baby. And this is our baby. So hopefully you guys love our baby because we love our baby, man. We love it. Link will be down below in the description box as well. You'll see it up on the screen. If you're on audio, she already said it one more time, criminalcoffeeco.com. You can find out everything about the coffee, where it's from, the philanthropic element of it, where the money will be going, and obviously a little bit about criminal coffee and how it came to be. All right. So we're talking about Aaron Hernandez. And very similarly to the way that we went over,

this is going to be a multi-part series, obviously. There's so much to go over here. And I've never been a huge football fan. I was telling Derek that earlier. I've never really been into football. So I didn't realize how very much in depth it did actually go, this case, and how many people were involved and how many crimes he was actually sort of like involved with at the end. Casey Anthony and Scott Peterson, we're going to start from the beginning because especially with someone like Aaron Hernandez, that's a very important part. That context is very much needed. So this first part is going to be focused on his childhood, growing up, going into high school, college, things like that. I think it's very interesting and I hope you guys do as well. Yeah. This is also really close to home, my backyard, literally. Obviously, I'm a huge New England Patriots fan. If you follow me on social at all, you know that. But when she

mentions North Attleboro, that's in Massachusetts, but it's very close to where I live. And when this was all happening, there were detectives. I was doing a lot of undercover work for North Attleboro at the time. So I got very close with the detectives who were in narcotics, but then got promoted to homicide or whatever. So I was having a lot of conversations with these individuals while this was taking place. And it was funny, not actually funny, but it was interesting to see Aaron Hernandez come out of the house in handcuffs. And there are two of the guys that were my eyes and ears when I was undercover. So that was, that's, that's when it's, they get in that national attention and you see people, you know, that's not something you see every day as a police officer. So are you going to have super secret undercover, like stories that nobody knows but you and the people who are in the inside? Honestly, I wish, I wish, you know, they kept this very close to the chest as they had to, because there were so many news outlets and so many leaks and people trying to gain information

that had no interest in North Attleboro, but had interest in Aaron Hernandez. So they, although, you know, I was friendly with them, they were keeping everything in house for the obvious reason, because they didn't want leaks as they were building this case. And as you're going to get into, this was just something that every time they turned over a stone, there was another five stones under it. So there's so much to Aaron Hernandez and his involvement with some of these criminal acts that they had to be very careful with who had information before it went to trial. And understandably so.

Now that we hear what was transpiring and some of the things he's been accused of, you can understand why they had to keep everything between those four walls. Although some things did leak, but I don't have any secret sauce. I'm sorry. So your better answer should have been maybe to give us hope, you know? Yeah, just to keep them going. Yeah. What'd you say last episode? I cannot lie, Derek. I cannot lie. That's not lying. So there is that one really secret thing that would have changed the whole case that I forgot to mention, but I'll tell you at the end of the whole series. Oh, I can't wait. All right. So let's dive in to Aaron's life. Aaron Joseph Hernandez was born

on November 6th, 1989 to his parents, Dennis and Terry Hernandez. Both Aaron and his older brother, DJ, were gifted with incredible athletic ability. Not only that, but they were born to a father who had football in his blood and in his heart. Dennis Hernandez and his twin brother, David, were living legends in their hometown of Bristol, Connecticut, and they had been since their days of playing football for Bristol Central High School. Bristol is one of those towns where football is religion. Every week, thousands of people would crowd the stands at Muzzy Field for high school football games, and the young athletes would receive high fives and claps on the back in Bristol's Crystal Diner.

Dennis Hernandez was a hometown success story, and the Boston Globe said, quote, In the traditional working-class city of Bristol, some 18 miles west of Hartford, he was generally regarded as a local success story. He was the scrappy kid who grew up in a family with Puerto Rican roots. People knew he had his share of run-ins with the law, but they saw him pull himself together as a teenager and become a Bristol Central High football star and a football scholarship recipient at the University of Connecticut, end quote. In high school, Dennis earned himself a larger-than-life nickname,

The King, and he would hold onto that moniker throughout his entire life, going triple varsity in track, basketball, and football. Both Dennis and his brother David received full scholarships to play college football for the University of Connecticut, and throughout his youth, Dennis would do his fair share of drinking, partying, which turned into fighting and petty crime after he started hanging out with the wrong crowd. When he was a junior in college, two days after UConn lost their final game of the 1977 season, a police officer from Plainville was killed during a botched home invasion. Dennis Hernandez was questioned by law enforcement in regards to this, and it was believed that he

had helped the burglars evade the police since one of the suspects was a teammate of his from both UConn and Bristol High School. Dennis was never formally charged with anything, but at that point, it was revealed that although he was excelling on the field, he was on the brink of academic failure. But even so, Dennis and David Hernandez were the best athletes to ever come out of Bristol Central High School. That is, until DJ and Aaron Hernandez made their debut. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Becoming a father had seemed to set Dennis Hernandez on a more responsible path,

and it also gave him something to live for, something to work towards. He knew that his two sons would not only follow his same path, but they would likely surpass even his greatest achievements. And family friend Tim Washington said, quote, Dennis knew that those boys were going to be special in any sport they played, and Aaron was driven to make his dad proud, end quote. Dennis got a job working as a custodian for the Bristol School District, and his wife, Terry, worked as an administrative assistant at Southside Elementary School. Working was what Dennis needed to do to provide, but his main

focus and passion would always be sports and shaping the next generation of local athletes. Dennis and his brother David, who'd become a corrections officer, they were both in the coaching staff for the Bristol Bulldogs and the Pop Warner League. And even though they were no longer actively playing, they remained pretty much royalty in Bristol, especially Dennis, who was highly respected, the life of the party, and the guy you would bring your kid to talk to if he was considering becoming a football player. Every year, Dennis would host a three-on-three basketball tournament on the Hernandez's family's backyard court. He would fire up the grill, get a pit set up for the pig roast, and the tree-lined streets would be packed with cars. DJ Hernandez said, quote, sometimes we'd have 500 people watching the games, standing shoulder to

shoulder, kids on their knees looking between the adults' legs. Others brought lawn chairs and would sit and gossip for hours. Our dad got physical on the court and dominated the grill, where he cooked burgers, hot dogs, and chicken. It was like he was everyone's best friend, end quote. Dennis and Terry Hernandez worked really hard to give their sons a good life, but as a well-written Sports Illustrated article put it, quote, growing up, the boys had everything they needed, but not everything they wanted, and good luck finding a teenager who can tell the difference, end quote. The family purchased their first house on Greystone Avenue in Bristol, and according to DJ, this was a huge achievement. DJ said, quote, this was the first house that my parents were able to buy. It was a really big deal

for our family. They'd always wanted to buy a home. I was in third grade. My dad worked his ass off. His paycheck went to the family, everything. Anything extra, he had to work overtime for. End quote. It was here in this small but cozy home where Aaron and his older brother DJ shared a small bedroom and stayed up nights talking about how they would one day become professional athletes. DJ said that the bedroom was so small that when Aaron was lying in bed, the door to the room would hit his feet when it was opened, and their mother, Terry, would iron clothes in their room very early in the morning while they were still sleeping, and DJ would always wake up with a cord from the iron wrapped around his feet. But Dennis made this house a place where his two sons could hone and grow their natural athletic ability. Tim Washington said, quote,

They had a nice house with a nice finished basement. Their dad had a little gym set up down there for them to work out. It had some weights and a weight bench. There was an in-ground pool and a basketball court right behind that. Aaron and DJ played basketball and home run derby in the woods off the back of that house, end quote. And it seemed that DJ and Aaron had a life that was very similar to a lot of us who were born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, especially those of us who were born to immigrant parents. Very structured, family value dominated, wholesome looking from the outside, but under the surface,

there were problems bubbling up that you wouldn't necessarily know about unless you were behind closed doors. Aaron would later recall that his parents argued and fought 24-7, and based on the evidence, it does seem that Dennis and Terry Hernandez had a very tumultuous history. The two had gotten married in 1986, they got divorced in 1991, and then they got remarried in 1996 when Aaron was six years old. And when Aaron was three, the couple filed for bankruptcy. It seemed like money was a constant source of tension, and it didn't help that Dennis spent a lot of nights out drinking with his friends, maybe even dabbling in some of the harder stuff. When Aaron was three, his father

was arrested and charged with trying to buy cocaine from an undercover police officer. And in 2001, when Aaron was 11, his mother Terry was arrested on gambling charges after she'd been caught working as a low-level bookie taking bets on college and professional sports games. For doing this, Terry was paid $300 a week, and her son DJ believes that she participated in this illegal activity because she wanted to give her children things that the family could not afford. DJ remembered being upset because he wanted, you know, all the things that his friends had. He wanted clothes from Abercrombie and Fitch that the other kids were wearing, or new bikes like some of the other kids in the neighborhood had. And he said, quote,

I'm not saying what she did was right at all. I don't think it is. But this woman did this because I was crying every single night. She didn't do it for the thrill. She didn't do it to pocket the money. She did it to provide for me and Aaron, end quote. The charges were dropped and Terry never went to trial. But of course, word got out around Bristol and DJ and Aaron were teased about their bookie mother by the other kids at school. You know, I didn't grow up with a lot as a kid, and my mother had to work multiple jobs to provide for us. So I'm empathetic to it. I understand that sometimes parents, in order to provide for their children, will do things they don't necessarily want to do. And that may be the case here. But I will say, although my mother worked four jobs, they were all legal jobs. So I hope nobody comes down on

me for that. But there are opportunities to work hard, maybe for not as much money, but to do it the right way. So I think it's important to discuss these things because it not only gives us a picture of what Aaron Hernandez grew up around, but it may also give you an indication as to why he ultimately turned to the things he did and why he made the decisions he made. Because it's no secret that children usually grow up to emulate their parents. Not in all cases, but many instances they do. So by seeing his father and mother both turn to criminal activity

in order to get the things they wanted, that may have contributed to his decision-making process, which is unfortunate if you think about it, because if we're to take this at face value and we're to take what DJ saying, which is his mother was doing this to provide the things that her children wanted, it's sad. It really is sad. But there are other ways. There are other ways. And yes, it's important to note, but I don't think we're giving anybody an excuse here either. And you can always tell your kid no, right? That's right. That's right. And you did. Let's go back a couple steps, right? As you're describing their household, they got a pool, basketball court, gym downstairs.

I'm not playing. I loved my childhood, but I'm not, I never had a pool. I never had a basketball court in my yard. So I am very familiar with Bristol. My wife grew up in Bristol. So I, when I met her in college, I spent a lot of time in Bristol, Connecticut. And I can tell you that Bristol is right on the border of a town known as Farmington, which is a high upscale town. 50 Cent lived there. Hey, isn't that where Jennifer Dulos was? She was in New, no, she was in New Canaan. Was her husband from Fotis? Did he own property in Farmington? I feel like we talked about

Farmington in the Dulos case. It's possible. Okay. It's possible. It's an upscale community. Like I said, Mike Tyson owned a mansion there. Then Mike Tyson sold the mansion and 50 Cent bought it. And I remember my wife telling me about parties that they would have at 50 Cent's mansion. So that's the type of community we're talking about. So there is an expectation, right? It's not the same level of expectation you would have in a neighborhood were being provided for, but probably for themselves as well, to maybe put on this front that they were doing better than they really were to their peers. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean,

my mom told me no all the time. I was like, I want those shoes, these shoes that everybody wants and everybody's wearing. And she'd be like, those shoes are $78. You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind. I'm going to get you four pairs of Walmart shoes for the same price. And then we're going to have rice with cinnamon and sugar and milk in it for dinner because we're broke, you know, shut up. Like that was it. No, my mom would not be running, running bets out of the house to buy me Abercrombie and Fitch clothes. And I don't want to be a hard ass, but when we're hearing from DJ and he's like, oh, you know, she was just trying to provide for us.

But in the same sense, they're living in a house, like I said, with a pool, a basketball court. That sounds like you're living pretty good to me, you know? And I think most people listening to this or watching this would probably agree. So, you know, it's one thing to say, you know, she was just trying to provide a better life for us, but you also got to have some self-awareness and understand that, you know, as you just said, you don't always get everything you want. So although I didn't live with them, I don't know what was happening inside those four walls. They had a roof over their head. They weren't living out of a car. So I feel like they were doing pretty well with all things

considered when you put it in the context of what some kids are living with out there. Yeah. And I will say DJ Hernandez, I think he's a great guy. We're not talking badly about DJ. I have his book. No, not at all. I read it. He's incredibly self-aware. He's incredibly emotionally mature. I mean, his whole life, his whole family exploded around him. So you have to have some sympathy there. And it's his mom. So of course, there's going to be that innate feeling that you want to protect her, especially after all she's been through, right? So yeah, he said that because- Absolutely. Completely understand.

We understand. We just don't agree. And by the way, that's his perspective. And I believe that he absolutely sees it that way. That's how he views his mother, as he should. But I think from an outside perspective, we can look at it with a little bit more objectivity. And there may be things in there that we're missing, that we don't know about. But just on the surface, it doesn't seem like they were standing in line for food at a homeless shelter. They had the basic necessities. They were again, in my opinion, just trying to live up to what others around them, the lifestyle that they were living. Yeah. And the childhood of the Hernandez brothers is, it's an emotionally confusing dichotomy.

So on one hand, DJ has these very heartwarming memories from his youth. He tells stories of brown paper bag lunches, holding peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with the crusts cut off and sweet I love you notes tucked inside each bag, family dinners with steaming plates of homemade lasagna and warm brownies for desserts where he and Aaron would playfully argue over who got the soft inside middle pieces, car rides to Blockbuster where he and Aaron would playfully argue over who got the soft inside middle pieces, car rides to Blockbuster where their father Dennis would joke with his young sons that he was a magician who could predict exactly when the traffic light was going to turn green, even though he was just watching the light in the other direction as it turned from yellow to red,

movie nights with their parents warm and snug in their pajamas, falling asleep as they cuddled their mother and father in front of the television. But DJ also tells stories of a darker side to his parents that most people did not see. Dennis Hernandez was strict. He had standards that he expected to see met. And if they were not met, he could turn on a dime. And this is very important. This is why it's important to go through the childhood and the parents of these people, because you'll hear the way that people describe Dennis, or at least the way DJ and people close to Dennis who knew about this other side of him would describe him and the way they would later describe his son, Aaron. So Dennis would constantly harp on

his younger son, Aaron, for doing things that made him appear feminine, such as the way that Aaron would stand while on the sidelines watching a game. Aaron and DJ's cousins, they were very talented cheerleaders. And when Aaron was young, like a kid, you know, five, six, seven, he was so impressed with them that he was like, I want to be a cheerleader too. But Dennis made it clear that this was not even close to being an option. DJ said, quote, the F word was used all the time in our house, all the time, standing, talking, acting, looking. It was the furthest thing my father wanted you to even look like in our household. This was not acceptable to him, end quote. And when I say the F word, I'm talking about a derogatory term used to describe a homosexual man. I just didn't want to say it. engage in loud and violent arguments. On one such night, Terry pulled the rotary phone off the wall and smashed it over her husband's head, and she also took her lit cigarette and put it out on

Dennis' forehead. DJ and Erin, hearing this commotion, they rushed from their bedroom in time to witness their father smashing their mother's head into the bathroom sink over and over again until she slumped to the floor. Remembering this traumatic moment, DJ said, quote, as my dad stood above her, they both looked our way. You see this coward, boys? Our mom yelled from the bathroom as blood streamed down her forehead. He's a piece of shit. He thinks he is tough because he can beat a woman, end quote. Yeah, that's terrible to hear. And unfortunately, not something you want became physical, but there were some really heated arguments. And even just the yelling was traumatic for me and my brothers and sisters. And it got to the point where it looked like it could become violent and I would call the police. And I remember

being in the room next to the phone with my brothers and sisters and waiting to hear the sirens because I knew once I to hear the sirens. Cause I knew once I could hear the sirens, whatever was happening was going to stop because they were close. And that was something that unfortunately became like a happy thing for me to hear those sirens. And it did lead to me eventually becoming a police officer. It was a motivation for me because I wanted to be that for someone else, for other children out there. So I am very empathetic to this, very fortunate that it never got to this extreme, but have had some type of experience like this. And I know that that had an impact on me to this day. So I can only imagine what it would be like

to see something like this happening to your mother. I don't know what I would do. And as a child, what can you really do? You can't do anything. You're powerless. That's kind of, that's the crux of the issue. Yeah. And I mean, that's why I said like a lot of us who were born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s, I think this is much less common now. Obviously, it still happens, you know, and it happens a lot. But I think people are aware of the trauma it causes children now. It's become more.

I mean, I just saw an ad from, I believe, the 80s where it was like having to instruct parents to like not be mean to their children. It was one of those like public service ads. And it was like, don't yell at your kid. Don't spank your kid. She's a person too. And if I can find it again, I will put it in here. But it was stunning to me that like at that time, they had to make commercials to tell parents not to treat their kids like shit because there was a lot of stress. There was a lot of stuff going on. But in the 80s, if you were growing up in the 80s and the 90s and stuff, that was kind of just like what you were used to. We all saw our parents screaming at each other, throwing things at each other. And it's incredibly traumatic even to this day.

Like abrupt loud noises startle me. And sometimes my husband's like, what? Because he's always slamming the damn cupboard doors in the kitchen and stuff. And I'm like, could you not do that? And he's like, why? And I'm like, I don't like it. I don't know why I don't like it. I just don't like it. Don't do it.

And it's a long lasting impact. It changes your brain. It changes the way you see the world. And we can start to kind of see maybe why people turn out the way they turn out. Yeah. To go back to what I said earlier, a lot of times your children, your sons will emulate their father, you know, and the way they treat women, you know, they learn that and it's inherited. They learn it from their parents. Especially if your father is such a well-respected figure in the community, right? Yeah.

Yeah. They see people around them praising him and wanting to be friends with him. And yet behind closed doors, he's doing things like this. They think the two go hand in hand. Exactly. So DJ claims that Dennis Hernandez was extremely abusive to himself and Aaron as well. And they would get brutally beaten for anything, whether it was a bad grade, disrespectful behavior, or just a simple clumsy accident.

DJ said that when he was nine, Dennis lifted him up by his left arm and spanked him repeatedly, hitting him on the backside with each word that he said, which was Dennis' custom. When Dennis saw that Aaron, who was watching, was crying because of what was happening to his brother, Dennis turned his rage on the younger boy and beat him as well. DJ said, quote, whenever Aaron and I sensed a beating was coming, we ran into our bedroom. As our father got closer, we could hear his footsteps on the wooden floor and his belt buckle clink as he started to take it off.

We would crawl underneath our beds and put our backs flush against the wall. Every time he reached for us, we sucked in our stomachs trying to keep his searching fingertips from grabbing us, end quote. One time, DJ told his father that he was going to call Child Protective Services, and Dennis handed DJ the phone and calmly said, quote, call them. As soon as you hang up the phone, I will beat you boys harder than you've ever been beaten before. They will have to pull me off of you after they break down the door, end quote. Now, most of this abuse was kept secret from the rest of the world, but there were people outside the family who had some idea of what was happening. Jeff Morgan, the former assistant football coach at Bristol Central High School, remembered that Dennis Hernandez was very strict, and one night Aaron had gotten in trouble

for drinking before a school dance. The next time Morgan saw Aaron, Aaron had a black eye, and Morgan assumed that the black eye was the result of Aaron's father's discipline. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. But Dennis Hernandez was not just strict when it came to discipline. He made sure that his two sons kept a very structured routine when it came to their physical fitness to make sure that their athletic skills stayed sharp. Every morning, Dennis would wake DJ and Aaron up with the sun so that they could run suicide drills up and down the hills that surrounded their home. He made them practice layups for hours because, like their father, both DJ and Aaron were incredibly talented at both football and basketball. Sheriff Tom Hodgson of Bristol

County remembered that Dennis would make Aaron shoot the basketball 500 times before even allowing him to go off and play with his friends. And there were always certain motivational phrases that Dennis would hammer into his sons to keep their eye on the prize. And Aaron would later have some of these words of wisdom permanently emblazoned on his body in the form of tattoos. Dennis would say, if you're not working, someone else is. And if it is to be, it is up to me. One choice he makes is to tattoo some of his dad's advice on his arms. That's a quote my father always used to give me. If it is to be, it is up to me. Basically saying whatever I want my life to be, it's up to me to make it out that way.

Dennis Hernandez was at every game, every match, cheering his sons on and celebrating all of their victories, sometimes with tears of pride in his eyes. And there came a time, as the boys grew, where they no longer needed the constant reminder from their father for motivation. Aaron and DJ began to push themselves in order to make Dennis proud, in order to not fall short of the expectations he had set for them. Sometimes, if they couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, they would get up, put a weighted vest on, and jump rope in the driveway until their mother yelled out of the window for them to get back in bed. Before going to sleep every night, the brothers would compete

to see who could do the most sit-ups or push-ups or plank the longest. On rainy days, they would set up cones in the basement and run drills. And despite his abusive periods, which, you know, these abusive periods seem to have like stayed in early childhood, according to DJ, kind of once they got out of that like adolescent period, Dennis became more of a friend and an ally rather than an abuser, but I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about that, but despite the fact that he was abusive, Aaron and DJ absolutely worshipped their father. They wanted him to be proud of them, just like everyone else in Bristol wanted Dennis to be proud of them and wanted Dennis to be

accepting of them. Family friend Tim Washington said, quote, they were a staple in Bristol, the Hernandez family. They always have been. Good people. They'd give you the shirt off their backs. They'd give you a ride if you needed it, give you something to eat if you needed it, give you advice, talk to you about sports, how you could get better. They were great down to earth people, end quote. Little insight. I had said earlier that my wife grew up in Bristol. Now, we're a little older than Aaron was. So he was actually in high school, in Bristol high school, with my brother-in-law, who's a little younger. And I will say, very respected. Obviously, they're the popular kids. You can tell that they're unbelievable athletes and they're going places. Right. But even then it was very well known that Aaron was, he was a, he was a bad dude. He wasn't like, you know, the good kid in school that everyone was like, oh, he's an honor roll student. Everyone knew for lack of a better way of saying it, he was possibly involved with some gang activity in the Hartford area.

And this was not a secret. He was already getting tattoos, I believe, at a very young age. So not that that makes you a bad person, but it's the bad boy role. He was starting to play that, getting into a lot of fights, hanging around with the wrong people, missing a lot of school. But a lot of that, a blind eye was turned to because he was such an incredible athlete. But this was after, this was like after the age of 16. So like from what we can tell, because we're going to talk about that in a little bit,

his father dies, right? And that's when things, that's when he changes. That's when he flips. That's when he sort of goes down the wrong path. Because before that, he was an honor roll student. He was like the greatest guy. Everybody was like, Aaron was always smiling, always had a nice word for everyone. So it was after that. There were things that definitely were off because like I said, my brother-in-law played football that entire time. And although he may have not been off the rails before his father's passing, there were signs. And maybe I didn't know a lot of these other things as far as the domestic abuse in the house. Maybe this is why, right? Maybe this is why some of those things where, although Aaron worshiped his dad at the same time, he probably hated being home sometimes. And what happens,

not even an extreme where you're an incredible athlete, but a lot of children, when they don't like what they're seeing at home, will turn to others for that fatherly advice or for that big brother figure. And that's where gangs have an opportunity to come in and manipulate young minds because they provide that family element that those kids are lacking. So even though he looked up to his father, I'm sure there's an element of Aaron that even at a young age, I mean, I don't see how you wouldn't feel that way after watching him smash your mother's head in where there's a level of resentment too, right? I think you can feel both where you respect him, but also in a way you kind of hate him because you understand that what he can do to you and your mother and there's really not much you can do about it.

So you have to always ask yourself, is it respect or is it fear? And they are two different things. So I'm going to ask for your insight about this as we get to that part of his life, because from what I read and, you know, I read DJ's book and, you know, I also watched interviews where Aaron would talk about his father and things he would say about his father. It doesn't seem that Aaron ever, ever, ever hated his father. In fact, he would later turn on his mother, but he never had a bad word to say about his father, and his father's death impacted him in a way that was so long-lasting that even when he went to the University of Florida, his coaches and team members were seeing it there. Even when he went to the Patriots,

they were seeing it. It was this huge ripple effect. But yeah, and the whole gang thing, it's funny because I didn't even want to talk about the related gang activity because there were some articles I read where they were like, oh, he was involved in gangs and stuff. And then there were some articles that were like, that's horrible. That's discrimination. Just because he has tattoos doesn't mean he's involved in gangs. And it kind of went back and forth where there was never any like tangible evidence or tangible proof. There's tangible evidence and proof that he got wrapped up in the wrong crowd at his cousin Tanya's house. And then there was some rumors that he ended up being part of the Bloods and stuff. It was just so much speculation. But you don't have to be in a gang to be mixed up in the criminal element, right? Or to be even affiliated with them, right? There might be an element where it's like he's protected by that gang, but he's not directly connected because of his notoriety. He can't. Although off to the side he is.

Something interesting you said, and then we can continue to move on. But if it's true, and I guess we'll never really know now, but if it's true where after some of the things that you described, Aaron witnessed, and he never had a bad thought about his father, that really kind of answers a lot of questions for me with some of the behavior that we're going to be talking about through the series and how he valued or didn't value human life. Because I don't know, I can tell you right now, my dad doesn't listen to our podcast, but if he ever put his hands on my mother, not even to that extreme, there would be a very apparent dislike for him for the remainder of my life.

I may not be able to display it out of fear as a child, but we would not be I would not be talking kindly about him in the public eye. So if he really didn't see an issue with that and was like close to his dad, that in and of itself is like, oh, now it makes sense because we're going to talk about the whole reason why we're covering Aaron Hernandez and some of the things that he did as he got older. Dude, I completely agree with you, but I see it all the time. And that is the men who are like that with their fathers, if their fathers are abusive, if their fathers are alcoholics, if their fathers are not the best guy all the time and they continue to like support their fathers, those are the ones that usually go on to repeat those bad behaviors. And it's almost like a Stockholm syndrome kind of thing. Like you start to identify with your captor. You know, it's a very like

psychological torture kind of thing where it's like you see your father in this way and then there's this other thing that doesn't add up with how you see your father in this way and then there's this other thing that doesn't add up with how you see your father as a hero. So you're just like, oh, I'm going to ignore that part because it doesn't work for me in my child's brain. I can't see my father as my hero and also see him as this abusive person. So I ignore this part. Yeah. Well, it sounds like a personal problem for those because there are two types of people. You can definitely choose to embrace the actions you saw or become a better person in spite of what they went through, they knew what not to do and decided to go the opposite direction, which to each their own. I think that comes down to your personality, maybe some things going on internally that we're not aware of. I know that Aaron definitely suffered from some things as well. And all

that combined may have contributed to this perfect cocktail of evil, to be quite frank, to be honest, as far as how he was able to dehumanize people and the things he did to individuals without even really giving a shit. parents or anything that extreme. As a child, you either grow up and you basically either say, I'm going to be exactly like my parents or I'm going to be the polar opposite. That's usually the one or two ways that you go. And that's a choice that you end up making. It's a path you end up taking. I can say that I always said like, oh, I'm not going to be anything like my mom. And I'm very much like my mom because I realized that my mom was a great mom, even though she was strict and even though she did things I didn't like and she didn't buy me $78 shoes. I ended up being like her because she was a good mom. But yeah, it's definitely, I remember reading a Sports Illustrated article where he was talking about his dad and he said, listen, people don't understand. Like everybody was close to my dad. So they were affected by his death, but nobody was as close to him as I was. So no one understands what I'm going through. So they were very close apparently. Makes sense. That's why it's good to cover their childhood because it makes sense. Because I, from what DJ's telling us, hear about Dennis and think he's not a good person. Honestly,

I don't care what he did in the football community or whatever. If you're doing those things behind closed doors, you're a bad person in my mind. And so for Aaron to be that close to him and to know how his story plays out makes a lot of sense. You nailed it. So DJ and Aaron were three years apart. DJ was three years older than Aaron, but they were incredibly close as children and they would remain that way throughout their lives.

DJ said that he always knew Aaron was more physically gifted than himself, even though obviously they were both very talented. But Aaron depended on DJ for a lot, including comfort, encouragement, and guidance. So for instance, you know, when their parents would be engaged in their violent arguments, Aaron would ask DJ to tell him a funny story, tell him something funny to distract him. They did everything together. They were best friends. And in 2003, Aaron and DJ would walk the hallways of the same high school for one year. Now, Aaron was 13 years old when he became a freshman at Bristol Central High School, and DJ was a 17-year-old senior who was heading to UConn for the next year for college on a full football scholarship. I couldn't find any specific reason that Aaron entered high school so young, because that is young and his birthday is in November. He's a Scorpio. So it doesn't make a lot of sense. I suspect it was because he was a powerhouse in football, right? And they wanted him on that team ASAP because Aaron had shown almost unbelievable athletic abilities from a very young age. I don't know how that works. I

would think that there's an age requirement. He might've started school early. I don't know. I don't know. But I know, not that I'm aware of, it's not like the professional sports where you can bump someone up to a freshman in high school just because they're good at sports. I've never heard of it, but I mean, I guess it's possible. I mean, I guess it's possible. There must have been some type of loophole where he fell within a gray area at the time in that school district that allowed him to go up a grade. Yeah, the loophole was they were going to bring him in as a 13-year-old freshman and

put him on the varsity team and then win because he was there. And Bristol's a big college area. It's not like, I mean, it's a big high school football area. There's towns and there's people who love football and Bristol's one of those areas. It's very big. Well, I mean, you know what's in Bristol, right? ESPN headquarters, yeah. Yeah.

It must have been something. You've seen it before where if they want a certain player on their team, there might be a loophole within the school district that allows them, oh, you know, they're doing great at school. So we're going to push them up, but they still only get them for four years. So you would think you'd want to actually let them develop a little bit more and get them on the team when he's bigger. But I guess he was already a monster at that point. Yeah. He didn't need to develop. Okay. By the time he was seven, Aaron could dunk a basketball even when his older brother couldn't. DJ told a funny story. They would play horse in the driveway and Aaron was dunking a basketball at seven and DJ who's like

10, he's like, you can't dunk when we play horse because I can't. Wait, dunk on a regular basketball hoop? Yes. No way. Yeah, that's what DJ said, man. What do you want from me? DJ, I'm looking at the camera. DJ, you're a liar. I don't think there's ever been a seven-year-old. My Rhode Island accent's coming out. There's never, ever been.

There's never been a seven-year-old. Well, I'm not going to say there's never been, but I haven't seen a seven-year-old dunk on a 10-foot hoop. Maybe they were on their little basketball hoop and he was dunking. But DJ, you might be embellishing for the sake of a book sale because he was not dunking at seven years old. Sorry. Not sorry. I know it for a fact. Wasn't dunking. LeBron James wasn't dunking at seven years old. I don't know. That's what DJ said. That's crazy. Listen, apparently Aaron was really, really good at basketball, almost better at basketball than he was at football.

And he enjoyed playing basketball more than he enjoyed playing football. But he had this special instinctual ability with football. So everybody was like, you should play football because you're amazing. So he kind of went in that direction. But he also went triple varsity. You usually see that. Basketball and football together? Yeah.

LeBron James was either going to go pro and he was going to go to the NFL or he was going to go to, I mean, he's a freak athlete like Aaron Hernandez, where if you can jump really high, run really fast, good eye-hand coordination, the two sports, plus they're huge guys, so they can handle themselves. Yeah. You don't usually see that. Then you see that with LeBron James and Aaron Hernandez and very few other people. Nope. You see it with most athletes of that caliber where they're two sport athletes, whether it's baseball and basketball, baseball, football. I mean, you don't know a lot of sports, I don't think, right? But even like Russell Wilson, who's an incredible NFL quarterback, played pro ball for a little while. Kyler Murray, who is on the Arizona Cardinals, could play professional baseball right now. There's been multiple athletes, you know, Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson. I'm just naming a few. But a lot of athletes who end up going a specific route had a choice between what sport they wanted to go pro in. Must be nice, right? That's what I was thinking, man. To be that talented in one sport, but then you got two,

three. I mean, Aaron was triple varsity like his father. He was fast. He was track varsity, basketball varsity, football varsity. But to have all that talent, all that natural, God-given athletic ability, and to throw it all away. That's why the story is so fascinating, right? Let's be honest here. The reason the Aaron Hernandez story has captivated so many people is because he was at the top of the game in the NFL and an incredible athlete, even at that level. And to see someone throw it all away for something so stupid, that's why so many people are interested in this because it's a serious case. It was a homicide. Someone lost their life. Potentially others lost their lives as well

at the hand of Aaron Hernandez. I'm sure we're going to get into all that. But the real reason that this is so attractive is it's that fall from grace, right? To see someone who hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people envy and want to be, to see that person in handcuffs and find out all these terrible things about them. You ask yourself, why, what, what world are you living in where this is the right choice when you have all of this at your fingertips? He had just signed that contract that you mentioned for the Patriots. He was set for life. It was generational wealth and he threw it all away because of anger and stupidity.

So it's really, it's really crazy to think about because most people at that level have people around them that will keep them in check, right? And make sure that they stay on the right path so that they don't do something that could jeopardize their future. Unfortunately for Aaron, he was not surrounded by those people. And that's why we're covering it here. No, he was.

He was surrounded by those people, but he was surrounded by other people too. And it was Aaron Hernandez who made the decision who he listened to, because what world was he living in? He was living in a world where basically from the time he hit puberty, everyone was kissing his ass. He grew up in a football town where he'd go and people be giving him high fives. walking into bars like king shit and then he becomes part of the Patriots and now he's king shit there. If nobody ever tells you like, you know, you can't have that or no, just because you're who you are, you don't get to do this or that, then you think you're untouchable. And

that's what happened. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of a lot of professional athletes. You know, they're obviously they they operate under a different set of rules. Yeah. But I mean, you know, he didn't need. He went into being a freshman at 13, and by that point, he looked like a full-ass grown man. He was six foot two, pretty much all muscle, and apparently he was very social, very outgoing. He was known to strut around the halls of Bristol Central with his trademark huge dimpled smile handing out high fives and hellos like they were candy. But people noticed something about Aaron in school that others would come to find out about him as he got older, which was that he was desperate for approval. He wanted to be liked

and accepted, and he would do anything to achieve that. Aaron had kept good grades throughout middle school, he was on the honor roll in high school, And as soon as he became a freshman, he joined his brother on the Bristol Central High Varsity team. We're going to take our last break really quick and we'll be right back. On September 12, 2002, Aaron and DJ walked out on the green of Muzzy Field to play high school football for the first time together. They waved at the screaming cheerleaders who had made a banner that said the Hernandez boys, number 14 and number 15. And they won that game, 44 to 14. And DJ remembered it was the best night of their lives. After the game, he saw his father crying and DJ

asked him what was wrong. Dennis responded that nothing was wrong, saying, quote, I am just so proud. We've come so far. I'm so thankful for you, for Aaron and for mom. I love you boys so much. End quote. After graduating high school, DJ went off to play football for UConn and the Hernandez family had always been a UConn family. Obviously, Dennis went there. His brother David went there. They even named their dog UConn. So it was no surprise to anyone that DJ would follow in the footsteps of his father and Uncle David. And it only made sense that the college would also offer his younger brother a spot in their program as well, since Aaron had already made a name for himself. By the

time Aaron was 15, he had already committed to UConn, and he spent a lot of time on the campus because he only lived an hour away from the school. Sean Korchesny, who worked for the Hartford Current, said that Aaron was, quote, like any typical 15 or 16-year-old kid, goofing off, laughing, joking. He had a slight arrogance about him. But I think any kid who has been recognized as one of the best football players in the state is going to have that. And also he carried some celebrity status around the UConn football team because he was a commitment and because his brother was a quarterback on the roster. Aaron was the biggest player in the state at that time. You could see that he was a beast in high school, especially in Connecticut, where you don't have a lot of superstar kids. He was literally head

and shoulders above all the competition on the field. It seemed unfair at times when you saw some of the highlights, end quote. So for those who don't know, and I had to learn a lot about football to do this case because I didn't understand what anything meant. A commitment is not like a contract necessarily, but it's like when, you know, a coach or like a recruiter or a scout will be like, hey, kid, you're looking pretty good out there. Like UConn is going to want you when you're ready for college, you know, like we can offer you this, like come to the campus, look around. And it's basically like a verbal deal between the player who is 15 and really shouldn't even be able to make, be making any sort of like verbal agreements

of any kind, but between the player who's a, who's a kid and these adult coaches and stuff where the kids like, yeah, yeah. Like when I hit, you know, 18 or when I'm out of high school, I'm yours. Yeah. It's, it's a lot of a PR thing too, because there is no contractual element to it. There's colleges now offering 13, 14-year-old kids full rides to their football or basketball programs or baseball programs for that matter. And there's no obligation there. It's something they usually throw out there. I think, again, I can talk about LeBron a lot this episode, but he has two sons, Bryce and Bronny. They both got offers from every college you can think of. I think Bryce is only a freshman, but that is something they do nowadays to try to lock them up. But understanding that ultimately until they sign on where they're

actually going to go to school, there's nothing that can be held over their heads. I think it's more for the kids too. They can say, I'm already getting offers at 15 years old. I mean, it's a big, it's some bragging rights for sure. I'm jealous. I've never had that. So no, there's no contractual obligation, but there is like a reputation thing there, especially if you live in Bristol and you're talking about UConn, right, where your brother's a player there, your father and your uncle are a legacy. There's some sort of like, this is your word, your word is your strongest thing as a man. And I think it's, I wouldn't be jealous. I think it's unfair and a lot of pressure to put on a young kid. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to lock them up and make them feel like indebted to this college before they start to get noticed by other programs,

possibly better programs. So it's not really what's in the best interest of the kid. And I did read, you know, I go deep, man. I was looking at these commitments and I'm like, what is this? Like, can they be verbally, like, can they be contracted into going through with it? No, they can't. But a lot of kids who do it later say, I felt guilty. I felt an enormous amount of pressure and guilt to follow through on my word, even though as I grew and as I talked to other colleges, I realized I wanted different things. And for context for people, because it does matter, UConn, great school, division one football program, but in the grand scheme of top tier college football programs, they're not even in the same stratosphere when we're talking about some of the big schools out there. So for someone who is from the area, yes,

UConn, big deal. But there's not many players. There are players, but not many being drafted to the NFL from UConn. Exactly. Exactly. And what did Aaron want to do? He wanted to go to the NFL. And that separates the good from the great, the guys the pass-through to the NFL. Alabama, Florida, the big schools, Florida State. Ohio State. Ohio State, Michigan. These are the big schools that you go to if you're really in contention for it. Now, again, someone's going to be like, oh, well, Georgia. You pick your poison, but

there's a few schools that you would necessarily want to be a part of because those coaches have direct lines to the NFL. I learned all about those different colleges that you'd want to go to if you want to get to the NFL. So UConn, great school, great football program, but not really the top of the line. So UConn's coach, Randy Edsell, offered Aaron a scholarship in the summer before his junior year, and Aaron accepted. DJ was so proud, but no one was more proud than Dennis Hernandez, who was watching all of his hopes and dreams come true before his eyes. But something was about to happen that would throw the Hernandez family into a tailspin. In December of 2005, DJ was home on winter break, and after he and his father had watched Aaron during basketball practice, they all sat down as a family for Dennis' favorite meal, a delicious homemade beef stew prepared by Terry. But DJ and Aaron noticed

that their father was not eating with his normal gusto, and he excused himself from the table to go lay down, telling his family that he wasn't feeling well. When Terry went into the bedroom to check on her husband, she found him lying in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, and he was complaining about shooting pains in his stomach. Terry brought Dennis to the hospital, where he was informed that he had a strangulated hernia, and he needed to go in for routine hernia surgery the next day, January 1, 2006. The surgery went well, and afterwards, DJ and Aaron were relieved to find that their father was in good spirits and cracking jokes like he always did. But when DJ went to visit Dennis in

the hospital the next day, he found his father shivering under the blankets, weak and exhausted. Dennis Hernandez died on January 5th after going into toxic shock from a post-surgery infection. He was only 49 years old. It was an enormous loss for his family, but especially for Aaron, who had looked to his father as a goalpost to guide him through life and to show him how to be a. I'm a firm believer. And I think most people should be, if you're a grown man and you put your hand on your wife or your children in this manner, the manner that was discussed here, I don't have any respect for you. That being said, I don't wish this for any teenager to go through this where they lose their father in this manner, because there is a real reality where although Dennis did some

things that I don't think most people would approve of or respect, maybe he had turned his life around and they were doing better. Still, in my opinion, not a forgivable thing, but for Aaron and for DJ and for Terry, you know, if they were on the right track and things were looking up and they were doing better as a family to have this tragedy take place. Don't wish that on anybody. And I could definitely see how if Aaron wasn't off the tracks yet, this could definitely derail him. So definitely feel bad for the Hernandez family. Dennis was respected by a lot of the members in the community. You have to ask yourself if they would still feel that way if they knew what was going on behind the scenes. But that being said, I just wanted to point that out there because I think two things can be the case. I can feel bad for DJ and Aaron and the family

that this took place unexpectedly, but also still acknowledge that the things that Dennis was accused of by his own son are not acceptable in any way, shape, or form. Yes, agreed. Obviously, the loss of a parent is hard, especially if you're at a pivotal point in your development as a human being. The Hernandez family mourned for their lost patriarch, along with the community of Bristol, to whom Dennis Hernandez would always be the king.

The line of people waiting to pay their respects stretched out of the funeral home and up Lincoln Avenue for a quarter of a mile, and a family friend said, quote, Everyone was an emotional wreck, except for Aaron, who remained stoic and emotionless. His brother DJ said, The night after his father's funeral, Aaron went on with business as usual, scoring 30 points in a basketball game. It was at that point that Aaron's life, which had previously been all mapped out for him, began to change and Aaron began to rebel in a way. The first day of 11th grade, Aaron went to the home of a friend and teammate, Dennis Sansusi. Aaron and Dennis had known each other since 7th grade, and Dennis's father had coached Aaron in youth tackle football. Actually, Dennis's father, I think his name is Tim Sansusi, he had an altercation with Dennis Hernandez when Tim was coaching Aaron in youth tackle. I guess Dennis Hernandez didn't

like the way that Tim was coaching him, and he just punched him in the face, like on the sidelines in front of Aaron. So once again, this is another kind of thing that Aaron is seeing in his father as he's growing up. Yeah. This whole dynamic is interesting. I didn't know any of these facts, but in one sentence, a paragraph ago, you're saying that they were referring to him as basically the King of Bristol. And in the other breath, next paragraph, we're talking about how he's assaulting coaches because he didn't like that. You know, there's just, I don't know. It's an odd situation. Not surprising because you do get away with a lot more when you're a local celebrity, right? That's in every, you know, like everybody knew that he was like up to no good, but he also gave back so much to the community and was this like gregarious figure where people would like overlook certain things. So like people knew that Dennis had a temper. People knew that Dennis was into some bad stuff. People knew that like probably Dennis was hitting his kids, but they would just say,

oh, he's strict. He's a disciplinarian. You have to be when you have two boys that you're trying to raise on the straight and narrow. And a lot of it might've also been the times and things. Yeah. I don't see that happening now. I think especially with cell phones and things like that, might not go as well. No, absolutely not. But Dennis Sansusi claims that before the first day of school, he and Aaron got high at his house and then they went to classes and Aaron was like the tight end and Dennis was the quarterback. And he said, they walked onto that school like they were king of the school and everybody knew who they were. But at this point, Aaron was already dating a girl from school, Shana Jenkins, who would become his fiance and the mother of his child.

And I think the most ride or die chick I've ever seen in my life. I can't even believe, this is going ahead, but I cannot believe the way she turned her back on her own sister to basically stay loyal to Aaron after everything that she found out about him. But listen, Dennis Sansusi claims that he and Aaron had been engaging in an on-again, off-again sexual relationship since they were kids. And if what Dennis Sansusi is saying is true, it's likely that Aaron felt ashamed of his sexuality, a shame that probably stemmed from his upbringing. Knowing their father, Dennis, didn't approve of homosexuality, Aaron also kept another secret. He was gay. You could kind of see what, you know, his conflicts were and what he was struggling with.

And it's, you know, you know, his sexuality is and accepting himself. I know we're going to go down this road as far as Aaron's sexuality. I know we have to, because it was such a topic that's been discussed in the public eye and in a lot of different ways. And they try to pin this on maybe being part of the motive or whatever, as far as some of the things that we're going to talk about. But for me, it doesn't have as much of an impact on the case as some others think, but maybe that'll change as I hear some more of the details. I was hearing more surface level. I do want to double back to the drug usage with Dennis Sansusi. From your research, are we to believe that the drug usage for Aaron only came into play after Dennis's death? I know you had hit on it earlier, but is that what you've,

I mean, we don't know for certain, obviously he might've been hiding it better when his dad was still alive, but is that at least your understanding? Yes, it is. It looks like Aaron sort of like dabbled with like maybe alcohol and stuff, like with his friends when he was, you know, 14, 15, but he got beat by his dad for that. Like he got in trouble for that. So now this figure that's been putting so much discipline on you, putting so many rules and restrictions on you is gone. And you can kind of just go ham. You can go wild. And it looks like that is what happened. That's when he started smoking weed, which we know if you're familiar with this case, this would be

like something he would just do on the daily at some point, like chain smoking, chain smoking weed all day long. But it looks like this is when it started, like at the beginning of his junior year. So that makes sense. So when I was talking earlier about my brother-in-law, you know, not, was not friends with Aaron by any means, but just seeing him around the school, he was, this happened in his junior year that his father passed away or his sophomore year? He was 16 at the time. 16, but remember he started high school. This happened in his junior year that his father passed away or his sophomore year. He was 16 at the time. 16, but remember he started high school. He was like 13. Yeah. Right. So he's probably a junior. So this is probably his junior and senior year.

Yes. Yeah. That makes sense. So junior, senior year, father's passed away, maybe hanging around with a different crowd, maybe dabbling into some different things. And maybe that's where that change comes in, where people start to notice that, although still an incredible football player, a little darker side that he's taking on as he gets into his junior and senior year, which as far as sports is concerned, very important because that's when the schools are really looking at you. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's accurate. And we'll see in a minute, like other stuff happens, which is putting a lot of pressure on him. So, you know, at this point, Aaron's doing things that his father would not have approved of, including getting high and spending time with another man.

And Aaron's confidence about playing football with his brother at UConn also seemed to be wavering. In February of 2006, Aaron asked DJ if his brother thought he was good enough to play for UConn, and DJ told Aaron that he thought he was good enough to play anywhere, but his commitment to UConn was a big deal for the school and for their football program, and everyone was really excited to have Aaron on campus and on the team. Two months later, Aaron called DJ, and he was like, listen, don't be mad, but I'm going to Florida to check out their football program at the University of Florida. The catch was Aaron had not informed UConn's coach of this yet. And DJ told him this was not a smart move. Now, don't get it twisted. UConn's coach isn't talking to Aaron at 13 and being like, hey, I got your commitment and then just flying off. Aaron is communicating with this person regularly. This coach is continuing to check in. They're seeing each other. They have a relationship. They're in each other's lives. And so DJ told Aaron, this is not really the right thing to do. If you're going to go and check out other programs, you've got to let the coach know. And it wasn't as if other colleges had not been showing an interest in Aaron, but he'd always remained firm that he was going to be playing for UConn. In an interview with the Hartford Current, Aaron had said, quote, it's my dream to play with my brother in college, but it's not a huge thing. I think I would still be going to UConn even if my

brother wasn't there. Since he's there, it just makes it a better fit. Whether my brother is starting or not, he's still going to push me and make me be better just by being there. He's a big motivator for me, end quote. Now, Aaron did go to Gainesville, Florida with Tom Wagman, a man who had coached Aaron in football when he was younger. And the University of Florida did have a lot to offer a young football player who had dreams of going pro, including their head coach, Urban Meyer, who had taken over a struggling football team and turned them into national champions. And one of Meyer's recruits, Tim Tebow, was a rising star, and Meyer had intentions of building a team of competitive young men who would live, eat, breathe, and just like everything was football. And he wanted Aaron Hernandez to be a part of that. Meyer said, quote, Aaron was unique. In a 31-year career, I've never seen one like him. His route running and athleticism, I don't know if I ever will see

another one. He was the guy you would go into the game seeing. He's one of the best players in America. Get him the ball, end quote. I want to say there are choices in life that can really lead you down a path. What road are you going to travel? I'm sure there were other things that were contributing factors, but I have to tell you, just based on what we've discussed so far, and it seems like once Aaron's father passed away, DJ was really the person who was going to keep him on track, keep him in line. So although they probably didn't know it at the time, knowing the University of Florida program, like I do, being a college fan, knowing some of the things that you hear about with programs like the University of Florida, and I do, being a college fan, knowing some of the things that you hear

about with programs like the University of Florida and even Urban Meyer. I'll tell you this, he doesn't have the best reputation either, by the way. He sweeps a lot of things under the rug for his top athletes. That's no secret. He's not the only one that does that. He's been accused of many things. I think he's lost a couple jobs because of it. It enabled Aaron a lot. And I do think that a pivotal moment in his life and the path that he went down was deciding to go to the University of Florida and not following his brother to UConn. Because I do think if he was at UConn, those same temptations would have been there, but he would have had his brother to rely on for advice and guidance so that maybe he would have made better choices

while attending school. Don't know that for certain, but it's something I think is a real possibility because it seems like DJ, from what you've told me, does have his head on his shoulders. So I would only imagine that that would rub off on Aaron. So I don't agree, I think, and we're going to get into it, but I think going to Florida was the best decision for him because remember, DJ's three years older than him. So they're going to be in college together for one year, and then DJ's off to onto his next thing. So and then Aaron's still an hour away from home, where all of these bad players that he ends up getting involved with are there. So we're going to talk about that. But and when you're when Yeah, I mean, for Aaron Hernandez, I don't think joining any football program was a good idea for him. You know, I don't think any more ego boosts. I don't think any more like get out of jail free cards, which he would have gotten no matter what college he went to would have been good for him. This is a guy who, despite his his athletic ability, did not have the the modesty and the ability to ground himself enough to become a big star.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, he became a big star in spite of it, but I get what you're saying. I get what you're saying where as far as he wasn't built for it. He really wasn't. He wasn't built for the stardom, for what comes with it, the responsibility. I'm wondering, because I know you've done the research. He got in some trouble he was in florida too. A lot of it swept under the rug tim tebow uh for those of you don't know very religious guy like Literally doesn't even swear as far as I know like one of the big stories in college was he was the heisman trophy winner Um, all the men wanted to be them be him all the women wanted to date him and he was someone who spent his free time going on religious missions to help other people in foreign countries and he

was very uh open about the fact that he was still a virgin he was waiting until marriage so this guy was literally like quote unquote the perfect football player like he only cared about football religion and helping others so you would think that guy would rub off on him. And I do believe Tim tried to help him. But to your point, Aaron was going home a lot to Connecticut to be around the people that were not the best influence on him. Yeah. Tim Tebow is pretty much as straight-laced as they come, man. Even I know that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they call Tebowing for a thing.

He used to like kneel. And I mean, he's most people, I think, even though there's probably not a lot of like, I don't know how big our sports fans are on here, but I agree with you. He's pretty mainstream. Almost everybody knows who Tim Tebow is. That's a good point. So in April, the University of Florida flew Aaron in and Tim Tebow gave him the grand tour of the campus as well as the Gators' home field, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which is known as The Swamp. It was the biggest stadium Aaron had ever

seen. And he was blown away by the thought of playing there to throngs of cheering crowds. Now at the time, I think things have settled down a little bit, but at that time, Gainesville was a college football town. And if you played for the Gators, you were treated like a king. Game days in Gainesville were like holidays. And resident Jessica Thomas said, quote, some people start gearing up for the next season before the last game of the season ends. The sheer number of people makes it lively, but it's really about camaraderie, being around family and friends, and sharing your love of football or a team together, end quote. ESPN analyst Lee Corso once said, quote, There's no better place than the swamp. When the Gators run out of the tunnel, it is absolutely the moment of moments in college football, end quote. Go, Daners!

Go, Daners! Go, Daners! Go, Daners! Go, Gators! Come on, Gators! Go! Watching that clip as a person who's not a football fan, I got excited. And I'm a big-time college basketball fan, so I love going to Syracuse. I love going to the games in person because it's so different than watching on TV. The energy is electric. It's such a different experience. It's such an amazing experience. And it's not even on that level that you're seeing in that clip with the Gators. You get swept away in it. You get so excited. I'm getting goosebumps talking about it. I love watching college football in person. So I understand that this would be a huge thing

for the people who live there. the biggest player in sports, maybe any sport at that point, college or NFL. Honestly, he was huge. And then on top of that, one of his main receivers, even though he was a tight end, was Aaron Hernandez. And he was nasty too. My brother's a huge University of Florida fan. He goes to the game every year in Gainesville. And so he still goes down there with my father every year to the games. Not every game, but at least one game a year. So he was a huge Aaron Hernandez, a huge Tim Tebow fan. And so not only were they at a big school, but they in and of themselves were just, they were the talk of the town from everybody. Everyone knew Aaron Hernandez, everyone knew Tim Tebow. So they were already celebrities, even though they were college kids. Exactly. Imagine the impact that has on you as a young kid when you're literally being treated

like the best thing that's ever happened in the world. Oh yeah, huge. Interviews every weekend. Again, every woman wanting to be with you, every man wanting to be your friend, just nothing is unattainable for you. They said that these guys would like walk into restaurants and they'd have kids coming up

and asking them for autographs, like bananas. Yep, I believe it. Well, later when Aaron was a student there, his friend, Tim Washington, went to visit him on campus and he was stunned by how the football players were treated saying, quote, if you're a Gator, you can do no wrong. I remember after a game, we went and pulled up at the liquor store. Aaron walked in and got what he wanted to get. I was just sitting there like, yo, you're a freshman. They know you're a freshman. How can you buy this? How can you even do this? It's not normal. We went to after parties and some of the DJs had water bottles for the players when they came in

because they needed to hydrate, except the bottles were filled with vodka, end quote. Now, Aaron was instructed by both his brother DJ and Tom Wagman to consider his options carefully and not make his decision between the University of Florida and UConn until he had weighed the pros and cons, as well as had a conversation with UConn's coach. Despite this, during his Florida trip in April, Aaron told Urban Meyer that he would be playing for the Gators. Later, Aaron explained this decision, saying, It was hard. I was close with Coach Edsell, the coaches and the UConn players. They're a great building program. It was something I thought I wanted to be around.

But then I became the number one tight end in the country. So I wanted to play at a top school against the top kids. My dad always said to be the best, you have to play against the best, end quote. Aaron does this a lot. He quotes his father in interviews. My dad always said, my dad always said, he's like a little robot, a little clone of Dennis Hernandez. This is such a fascinating dynamic that I wasn't aware of beforehand. And it really does. I'm not trying to be sarcastic. It really does make sense to me because think about Dennis Hernandez. You've kind of laid him out to us. He's someone who was extremely talented, an athlete, a local celebrity, and yet he didn't play by the same rules as everybody else. He could go up and assault someone on a football field,

and yet when he passed away, there were lines waiting to pay their respects to him because he was someone who was admired by all. And it doesn't seem like it was this huge secret either. It feels to me like people knew he was a hothead and that he had a temper and that if someone told the individuals of that community that he had struck his wife before or had hit the kids, they wouldn't be shocked by it. So you think about this reputation that Dennis carried and how respected he still was. How would you not expect that to rub off on Aaron, where it's not only a reflection on his father, but also on the community he grew up in, which kind of allowed for

this type of behavior. So it's completely fascinating to me. And there is some speculation on my part, but that's the vibe that I'm getting. And to know what we know about Aaron now and what he felt he could get away with because of how talented he was, it really is enlightening. And I was not familiar with this aspect of it. I agree. I think it's super important. I think the context is super relevant. And that's why we go so deep into the background of these people when we cover people like Scott Peterson, Casey Anthony, Aaron Hernandez.

Because it's very strange. You want to know how they became who they became and you have to go back to the beginning to figure that out. 100% agree. That's why I think we do it. And I love that you always do this because someone might say, and we have had it before, oh, this could be done in two parts or this could be done in whatever it may be. We're going to do it the way we want to do it. Not on Crime Weekly. Not on Crime Weekly, but I do think there's something there where, as you just said in different words,

to understand how we got to where we are, you have to understand where we came from. And that's what we're doing here. It's all about context. It's all about building that foundation so that when we get to the later parts and you hear about the things that Aaron was found guilty of, maybe it makes more

sense. Maybe you understand a little bit better why he felt like he could do those things and get away with it. Because it didn't just happen in that moment. There's a series of events that led up to that rationale. And I know we're going to dive into that, but it's really important. And if you really want to understand the story, especially why their minds work the way they do. And when they're carrying out these crimes, this type of information is necessary. You know, sometimes when we're like starting off one of these cases and I'm going so deep, I feel like even sometimes you're like, why are we, why are we talking about this? Listen, I'll be the first to tell you, because, you know, I say you're my work wife, right? In a lot of ways, it's like some things I do, you know, you fight, happy wife, happy life. You fight some battles. Sometimes you go off on places and you start talking about scriptures or whatever. And I'm like, okay, all right. But no, this noble, this is needed. This is information that if you really want to understand Aaron Hernandez and the

situation that he ultimately found himself in, you have to know about this first. I agree. You know I agree. I do. I know you do. And that it is helpful for me too, because when I hear about a crime, I watch the Aaron Hernandez documentary and I'm like, none of this makes sense, man. Why? And then you start going real deep and then knowing what he did. And then finally, everything falls into place. And it's just human psychology. It's history. It's like history repeats itself, just as it does on a

grander scale, like world history. It does as well on a smaller scale, like person or familial history. You just have to pay attention. Yeah. What's that old saying? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. And really, if you want to break it down in just a simplistic form, it sounds like Aaron Hernandez was basically Dennis Hernandez, just more talented, right? On a bigger scale, bigger school, bigger community, bigger stage, but still kind of conducting himself in a similar manner. Exactly. So that's kind of what I'm taking away from it. And before Aaron even left for Florida, he was telling reporters that Florida was the best place for him, the school, the coach and the team that would help him get to the NFL. A DJ, he went home to Bristol for a visit in July of 2006, and he walked into a different house than the one he had

left. It was not the warm and cozy place of his childhood, filled with the smell of good things cooking and the sounds of an exuberant family. It was dark, quiet, empty, and smelled of stale cigarettes. He found his mother in bed in a dark room in the middle of the day, and DJ noticed that she'd lost a lot of weight. She seemed listless, kind of like out of it, probably depressed. When he asked Terry, his mother, where Aaron was, she said she wasn't sure. Aaron might be at work, maybe he was at practice, maybe at his cousin Tanya's house. Now, Terry was referring to Tanya Singleton, who lived with her mother Ruth on Lake Avenue. Now, it was known that this house was kind of like the party place, and Tanya and Ruth would get down and party with anyone, no matter what their background, including drug dealers, drug users, and even convicted felons. Terry would often rant about

how much she hated having to go to this house when her husband was alive, because, you know, they're family, so Dennis is, they're going there for, like, family things, but, you know, Dennis would spend hours there, like, playing cards, drinking with the guys, getting drunk, ranting, raving, and Terry felt that it was a place where there was no structure and no rules. So what was Aaron doing there? Well, it turned out that in the absence of his father, Aaron had grown quite close to his cousin Tanya's husband, Jeff Cummings. Jeff had taught Aaron to drive, he was taking him fishing, he was going to all of Aaron's games, and Aaron would even invite Jeff to come along for another visit to Florida in September of 2006. During that trip, Aaron went off to hang

out with the other football players while his mother Terry and Jeff explored the campus and had a dinner for two consisting of pizza and beer during which they talked for hours. Now, Tanya obviously became suspicious of the new bond that had developed between Terry Hernandez and Jeff Cummings. And it all came to a head one night after a game where Terry and Jeff decided to go out for a drink. They were confronted by Tanya. Tanya slapped Terry in the face. She was like, you're sleeping with my husband. And then right after this, Tanya revealed to Aaron in a very public manner, I believe he was watching a football game. She walked up to him in the stands and she just screamed. She was like, your mother's having

sex with my husband, basically. Everybody heard. And in the wake of that revelation, Aaron, he sided with Tanya and he began spending more and more time at her house, which introduced him to a cast of shady characters like Carlos, Charlie Boy Ortiz, and Ernest Bo Wallace. And for those of you who don't know, these are the two gentlemen that helped Aaron basically kill Odin Lloyd. I mean, that's the long and short of it. I can't even say allegedly he was found guilty of this. At Tanya's house, a 16-year-old Aaron was exposed to things that would send him down the wrong path, such as crime, drugs, and alcohol. And one night, Terry called Tanya after hearing that Tanya had brought Aaron to a bar and basically handed him

a drink. And she was like, hey, like, I don't really appreciate you, you know, being with my son who's 16 and letting him drink. And Tanya responded, I'm his mother now, before hanging up the phone. From this point on, Aaron's relationship with his mother was fractured, and he was very, very angry with her, especially when Tanya insisted that Terry had been intimate with Jeff Cummings for months before Dennis Hernandez died. That's tough. That's tough, especially now that Dennis is gone. Because before that revelation, let's just assume that it's true, right? It is true, yeah. Right, right.

So there we are. Some of the things that DJ has written about as far as Dennis is concerned seem a lot more egregious than this. And I know this is bad. And it really doesn't help that now Aaron views his dad a certain way because he's no longer with him and he feels like Terry disrespected him while he was alive. So there's really no going back because for all we know, Dennis would have forgave her. We don't know, right? I don't think he would have, but I'm just saying, we don't know. So Aaron feels like this obligation

to basically defend his father because he's not there to defend himself. But it seems awful double standard to me. And I don't know how the women listening to this will feel, but you have a man who beat the shit out of you and your mom for many years. And yet you forgave him and you worship him now that he's no longer gone. And you live your life a lot by the quotes that he told you. And yet your mom made a mistake, had a relationship with another man. But from what you've told me, other than the gambling thing has for the most part been a good mother. And yet she's cut off. You can no longer talk to her because of what she

did. It's interesting. Seems a little, you know, lopsided in my opinion, but maybe there's more to the story with Terry that I'm not aware of, but it still seems like no matter which way you slice it, Dennis has done some pretty bad things and Aaron always forgave him. No, there's, how do you feel about it? There's obviously a double standard. There's some sources that say Dennis did find out and he did forgive her and did move past it. Who knows if that's true? What I will tell you is that Terry eventually moved Jeff into her home. They got married and then they got divorced after Jeff, who was on probation for some other violent crimes,

tried to stab her with a knife. So this is the person who Aaron kind of viewed as a father figure at the age of 16 after he lost his father. So, I can't even imagine what kind of learning and tutelage besides learning how to drive a car and go and fishing Aaron was getting from Jeff Cummings if you're going to try to stab your wife. this in Aaron's defense, not the best environment to be growing up in. I'll give him that. Not making any excuses for the guy. And I said, right from the top of the show, a lot of people go through some bad things, way worse than what Aaron's gone through and come out to be unbelievable people. I'll tell you one example from my hometown, Viola Davis. You want to hear a story about someone who is extremely talented and is extremely successful and an amazing person. And you want to see what she went through in her childhood. Talk to me after reading her story or watching her story, because there's someone who's seen

some things and yet chose the right path as opposed to choosing the easy one. And so I still got to put it in that context when I'm comparing it to Aaron. And, but I will say, man, he didn't have an easy go of it. I'll give him that. Yeah, for sure. And we've always said this. A lot of bad shit happens to a lot of people, but it's ultimately a choice that you make as an individual.

And some people make the wrong ones. And we can say, hey, we feel bad that this happened. We're empathetic about that, but it's not an excuse and you're not excused. Or a justification, right? Because some people will say, you know, this is because, right? I'm a product of my environment. No, you chose that path. So yeah, you're 100% right.

There's always another way. Some people choose, like I said, to go the right way. And some people choose to go the easy way. And that's totally up to that individual. And some people choose to go the right way when they don't have all the opportunities that Aaron Hernandez had. When they still have to scrap and bag, borrow, and steal for every chance that they get in life when he literally had everything handed to him. And at this point, he's got all this athletic ability.

He can do whatever he wants. He's going to make a lot of money and he still made the wrong decision. So I have no sympathy for him. I have empathy, but I'm not like over here, like, you know, poor guy. No, I definitely don't. I think it's because, you know, I know more of the ending and I know about the victim in this case and how their life was taken and how they were treating in their last moments. So yeah, I have no sympathy for him either. I think that's kind of why you guys might be seeing a little bit of a difference with me because some of the cases I try to know nothing about them intentionally, but some, you can't avoid it. This is one of those cases. So as much as I'm trying to stay in power, I'm partial and objective. Wow. My Rhode Island accents really fighting me tonight. But it's tough not to acknowledge what I know. I can't forget what

I already know about the case and how it ultimately played out in court and some of the facts that came out about that case. And essentially the sense of entitlement where it was very, some of the things that were done, it wasn't, if you were trying to hide the fact that you did a crime, it wasn't very well thought out. So those are things that I think are obviously playing a factor in the way I'm responding to some of the stuff you're saying, because I do have a bias in this because I know, you know, some of the overall factors of the actual murders we're going to talk about. Well, in January of 2007, Aaron was invited to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas, after which he was going to fly directly to Florida to get moved into his on-campus dorm. He had finished his high school football career with 3,677 receiving yards and 47 touchdowns, both state records, and his 180.7

receiving yards per high school game was a national record. His mother, Terry, did go to Texas to watch the game, but Aaron would not acknowledge her, saying hello to everyone else around her before saying, quote, I don't talk to sluts or whores, end quote. Aaron, DJ, and Terry all went to Florida to help get Aaron moved in, and Terry purchased him everything he needed for his new dorm room, including a set of Cars bedsheets. Now, there's going to be a lot of signs that Aaron Hernandez was very childlike and very immature as we go throughout this series. This is just one of them, but it does stand out. He was going to college. He's 17 years old. He really wanted Cars sheets for his room. He wanted cars sheets, like cars, like Disney's cars,

not cars like sports cars, even like the cartoons. So I do want to mention that, you know, like I said, it seems like Tanya wasn't wrong about Terry and Jeff, but it still is a double standard that Aaron would be so upset with his mother that he would say, don't talk to sluts and whores. Like that's absolutely despicable and unacceptable to say to any woman, much less the one who gave birth to you. But this is the same woman he watched have her head slammed off a sink by a man he respected and looked up to. So here we are. Here we are. We touched on this briefly, but in truth, Aaron's decision to play for the University of Florida was probably a good one because it did get him away from Bristol and the bad influences there. But maybe by that point it was too late. It seemed that Aaron had been very heavily influenced by the people he'd become close to, the people who had taken him in after his father's death and his mother's betrayal.

Aaron wanted to play football. He wanted to be famous and rich, but he always wanted to be seen as a person who should not be messed with. He wanted to be untouchable, like his father. When he arrived at the University of Florida, Aaron was only 17 years old and still reeling from all the tragedy he had lived through in the past year, especially the loss of his father, who had been the one person who was capable of anchoring him and giving him direction. Coach Urban Meyer said that he didn't realize just how deeply Aaron had been impacted by this loss until he arrived in Florida in the spring of 2007. Meyer said, quote, he was very young coming out of high school. We tried to counsel him through that.

My wife is a psychiatric nurse. She met with him. I would talk to his brother at least every other week. I felt he was trying brother at least every other week. I felt he was trying to grab hold of something, and I wanted to make sure that he was going to grab hold of the right thing. I mean, it just destroyed him. There were times when he would melt down in my office, break down and start sobbing about his dad, how much he missed him. It happened so fast, he never had a chance to say goodbye." Privately and with those that he trusted, Aaron was struggling,

and he considered going back home to Connecticut, but to the world, he showed a face of confidence, the image of a carefree, promising athlete with his whole life ahead of him. Aaron had always hated being alone, so he surrounded himself with friends and admirers who lovingly called him by his nickname, Chico. A former teammate of Aaron's, Ahmaud Black, said, quote, everybody loved Chico, everybody in Gainesville, everybody in the division, everybody. He'd say something weird that made zero sense. He'd come up to me and say, if the hamburger eats the ketchup and climbs the tree, who's going to come out of the ocean?

He would just bust out laughing, end quote. Once again, another sign that Aaron's very immature. That joke's not funny. It doesn't make any sense. And Aaron was the class clown, but he was very childish in ways that people found both hilarious and confusing. He'd be the one to make goofy faces at you when you were trying to give a serious speech, or he would pop a bag in the middle of a class to startle the teacher. Aaron was down for anything, and if something fun was happening, he wanted to be at the center of it. He began dating a girl named Alyssa Anderson. They got a dog together, which she kept at her apartment because he wasn't allowed to have pets on campus. When he went home for visits, his brother DJ said that Aaron was speaking in like a really thick southern accent after only being in Florida for a few months.

And DJ felt that it was part of Aaron's impressionable personality that drove him to want to fit in. But underneath all the playfulness and goofy jokes, there was something boiling inside of Aaron Hernandez, an anger and a violence that he either didn't know how to control or didn't want to control. And before he even played one game with the Florida Gators, Aaron Hernandez would find his temper getting him into trouble repeatedly. Interesting part one. Interesting part one. This is something where a lot of this is just kind of the buildup to what we're really here to talk about, which is the actual murder of Odin Lloyd and also the murders. I'm assuming you're going to dive into the murders in Boston, right?

Yeah, the double murders. Yeah, the double murders in Boston, which it's believed that Aaron committed those murders as well. But he was found not guilty of those, allegedly. Yes, he was found not guilty, Jose Baez. Yeah, that's because of Jose Baez, man. You know he did that, allegedly. So those things are a lot to talk about, but I do think it's interesting to address the why. We talk a lot in the show about things you can look for identifiers that maybe

you and I can be on the lookout for as we're navigating this world, because there are people like this out there that we need to be aware of. But there is a whole different level to this case because there's been numerous different theories on why Aaron was the way he was. Was it a case of really bad CTE, which Stephanie and I were talking off camera. I won't go into the specifics of that. I'm sure that's going to be a whole section. Then there's obviously this alleged hidden sexuality of his where he might have been gay and trying to hide that.

Someone might have been onto that and exposing him. There's so many different things we're going to talk about as far as motive and the reason why he may be conducting himself in the manner that he did. That's, what's really going to be interesting. But I will tell you as someone who I consider myself to be familiar with the case, right? The overview a little bit more than most of our cases, there was a lot of information in here that I did not know. And I do think add substance to some of the questions that I'm going to have later as far as was it CTE or was this something way before that? Was this something that was instilled in him from a very early age to act like this? Was it more than just someone who was completely on the up and up the entire life? It took too many shots

to the head and had a detour. I don't know. So those are things that I'm looking forward to trying to answer myself, but also getting your opinions on it out there, whether it's on audio or video, what you think about it. Is this something that was avoidable? Do you think that Aaron was on this path from a very early age? It's fascinating stuff. And I think that's why we have to break it down. Could be all of the above, right? It could be more than one factor. It could be a little bit of everything, right? It could be a sad reality that just a mixture of childhood trauma, traumatic brain injuries, substance abuse, basic manipulation and the pushing of these gangbangers that he was hanging

out with to live that lifestyle while also being an NFL football player. What was it? Was it that pressure from them to be someone who didn't get disrespected even though they were a multimillionaire? I don't know. Listen, we're going to go into this next episode, which we're actually recording tomorrow because we're going to CrimeCon at the end of this week. So I'm excited to dive into this tomorrow.

But before he gets drafted by the NFL, they do like personality tests and stuff. And it's very telling what they discover in those personality tests. And it seemed that a lot of people thought he was much smarter than he appeared, that he was almost like a con man because he had this very distinct ability to be in all of this pain and be going through all this turmoil, but to the world, act like everything was absolutely fine, except for the moments where he would break. And then everybody would be completely confused. Like, what the hell is going on here? Why are you freaking out? Why are you just completely breaking all of a sudden when you've been happy-go-lucky and good-natured and laughing

and smiling and jovial this whole time? And all all of a sudden out of nowhere, or at least what they thought was out of nowhere, you're a completely different person. You've had like some sort of mental break. We don't understand how this happens. And a lot of people saw that, but I think they just kept writing it off because he was so young. Well, his dad just recently died. You know, he's gone through a lot of stuff, But I think at some point, it wasn't the fact that he was grieving for his dad. I think it was just a part of his personality. So and they kind of went unnoticed because he was so or it went noticed, but it went sort of pushed under the rug because he was so talented. And that helped people overlook him because honestly they want to use him right people want to use him that's what these athletes are and you see like we talked about cte these poor kids get so fucked up on the field man i mean their bodies you see some of those tackles their heads are going back and forth back and forth like whiplash several times in one game. It's not right.

Yeah, it's like a car accident every single time. It's not right to do that to your body. And you're talking kids that are 17, 18, 19, 20 years old with bodies that look like they're 80 because of the shit that they go through. And some of them don't even make it pro to get that amount of money that Aaron had. And they just completely destroy their bodies for that hope that somebody will think they're talented enough to use them for money. And it's sad. I mean, we love sports. I know you love football and I love sports too, but there is that really dark side to it that we need to keep in mind as we go through this. Yeah. We'll see how it plays into this. Listen,

we appreciate you guys joining us as it stands right now. You're listening to this on Friday. We are currently at CrimeCon. If you're watching it on YouTube, we're still at CrimeCon because these episodes now come out on Sundays. Come say hi. For those of you who are not here with us, we will see you when we get back. We're going to be doing another. We're not missing a beat. We're not missing a week. And I know we mentioned criminal coffee in the beginning. We're really excited about it. So get ready. We're going to be talking about it a lot, but if you want to keep up on it, in addition to going to the website, which again, we'll put up right here, it's criminalcoffeeco.com. You can also follow our social media. So for, if you're not following, you obviously should be following Crime Weekly. You already know that one, Crime Weekly Pod, very simple on both, but criminal coffee for Twitter is drink criminal, all one word. If it's on

Instagram, it's drink criminal coffee. Again, all one word there. So check it out. Follow us there. Please share it. If you guys end up pre-ordering, post it, tag it, let us know. We're going to be looking at that stuff. We're really excited about spreading the word, getting this out there to as many people as possible, and hopefully making a difference while drinking some good coffee. Any final thoughts, Stephanie? No, if you guys are at CrimeCon, come and say hi. Don't forget to say hello to us. We're going to be doing the live to announce Criminal Coffee and give some more details. So if you have not seen that or you weren't there on the live, it'll be on our channel. Go and check it out. Thank you guys so much. We will see you next week for the continuation of this series.

Let us know what you're thinking of it so far. And until then, goodbye. Bye.