Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 634: Aaron Hernandez Part I - Worst Case Scenario

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

This week, just in time for Football season, the boys dive deep into the tragic, twisted saga of Aaron Hernandez — NFL star turned convicted killer. From his abusive upbringing to his meteoric rise ...on the field, we trace the beginnings of the violent double life that would make him football’s ultimate “Worst Case Scenario.” For Live Shows, Merch, and More Visit: www.LastPodcastOnTheLeft.comKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Last Podcast on the Left ad-free, plus get Friday episodes a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 There's no place to escape to. This is the last hot test. On the left. That's when the cannibalism started. Who was that? Oh, shit! Aaron Hernandez, sucking on dicks, even though he says he's not gay. Who does he slay?
Starting point is 00:00:28 That's awful. That's terrible It's like me and Edward Sucker on penis all day Even though he's not gay I've worked so hard on this You worked so hard Me and Edward even like
Starting point is 00:00:40 Me and I were talking before It's like you know like the gay thing Like it's kind of hack To like go like right into it And it's like super and it's like Really like Batman is Bob because he's so gay You can't say
Starting point is 00:00:53 Yeah you're like yeah you know Who does he slay You know it's like so like insensitive To people and like You know, and it's really like something like, you know, like outing somebody's like a super big deal. He did it. Let's not talk about it until like the second episode or something like that. And then it's just like fucking, boom, man.
Starting point is 00:01:13 Why did you get you a job on that morning show that outered him? Hey, buddy, why did you try to make love to my butt? Welcome to the last podcast on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here with Beatles cover master. the weird owl of his generation Henry Zbrowski I swallowed an oat
Starting point is 00:01:35 I'm sorry Yeah he I'm sorry guys Marcus is gonna die He's up in his diet He had a single oats He was trying to make sure Before we started to eat So I had a power bar
Starting point is 00:01:47 And there was an oat in it And the oat is now caught Where my voice comes out of I was ready to fucking Heimlich his ass Dude he had to stop me It was pretty great Yeah you just like I was getting in
Starting point is 00:01:57 I gotta hear the word You know what's you can say a word, then you're not dying. You know who is super good at the Heimlich? Who? Aaron Hernandez. Henry. We don't know that.
Starting point is 00:02:07 I don't think he ever saved the life. That's not in my research. If it is to be, it is up to me. And we have the extraordinarily hardworking Ed Larson with us as well, Ed. How are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. This was emotional for me.
Starting point is 00:02:27 Yeah. I learned a lot about myself while I was doing this. And hopefully over the next week or two, that's going to keep going. But, man, the story is very tragic. Oh, it's extremely tragic. And it actually made me cry at one point. And so.
Starting point is 00:02:48 Fucking pussy. That's what's wrong with you? I could have brain damage. You never know. Yeah, you don't know. Who knows? I actually think that you don't seem to have, Like, you don't show weird aggressions and you don't, like, flip out, like, in that way.
Starting point is 00:03:01 You're very calm. Before weed, I got in lots of fights. But now you got weed. I do got weed. But it didn't help Aaron Hernandez. Let's get into it. Well, that's the thing is that today we are going to be starting a new series that's led by Mr. Ed Larson. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:15 Who, who 42? Who 42? Hot. Ha! Yeah, we got to balance everything out after the fucking three weeks of vampire the masquerade. Yeah. This is our straightening of the network. work? Yeah, we're going through three weeks of
Starting point is 00:03:29 Vampire the Masquerade to football. Wrong subject. Yes, Aaron Hernandez, of course, convicted murderer and football star, let's get into the story. All right. Aaron Hernandez was the worst case scenario for the NFL and the New England Patriots.
Starting point is 00:03:48 He only played three seasons of NFL football, but was on track to be one of the all-time greats at his position, and many would argue a future Hall of Famer. But this would never come to be because on June 17, 2013, he murdered Odin Lloyd in a dirt lot behind his house in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Why do he do that?
Starting point is 00:04:07 We'll get into it. I would say, still somewhat of a mystery. Why do we do that? Only convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd, it is assumed he killed a total of three men and possibly shot three more, including two in the head that survived, and ultimately took his own life in his prison cell in 2017. Thank God he wasn't a quarterback. I've heard some people...
Starting point is 00:04:35 If he was a quarterback, he never would have made it to the NFL because if you shoot two guys in the head... And they live? See, he's a receiver, Henry. He's used to getting it. Oh, I've heard that. Don't make that hacky fucking joke. It's too late.
Starting point is 00:04:48 It's too late. It's already out of the fuck. It's already out. I've heard some people call Aaron Hernandez a serial killer, but after my brief history on this show and the knowledge I've gained, I would disagree. I don't think Aaron Hernandez murdered people because he liked it. I think he was a feeble-minded, wannabe gangster who was raised in the violent machismo culture of football and made some bad friends who egged him on as he made poor decision after poor decision. I agree. That while also most likely being a closeted homosexual man and posthumously diagnosed with CTE, chronic, traumatic, and cepylopathy. A progressive degenerative
Starting point is 00:05:25 brain disease affecting people who had suffered repeated concussions through repetitive head impacts. All these things combined is why I refer to him as the worst case scenario. So over the next couple weeks, we're going to examine Aaron Hernandez's short life and what led a man who
Starting point is 00:05:41 was about to make $40 million over five years become a murderer. And even worse than that, a New England Patriot. Yes. Yeah. Fucker. Fuck the Patriots. Fuck the Patriots.
Starting point is 00:05:54 No, like, he also, like, it feels like I saw a lot of, in all of the documentary footage I was watching, but this idea of that he came from this high pressure environment and that's a part of what pushed him. But I feel like a lot of people are under high pressure and don't kill people randomly. Absolutely. I think a lot of people have CTE. I think a lot, and they don't become murderers. But I think that when you're already an incredibly violent person, it, you know, gives it a little looph. Well, I'm sorry. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:24 Yeah, it definitely pushed it. Yeah, I mean, it is true. Like, the environment that Aaron Hernandez grew up in plays out literally a million times every day in America when it comes to, like, high school football and it comes to the sort of pressure that parents put on kids when they're younger. But Aaron Hernandez, like, as Ed said, it's a worst case scenario. It's all of these things coming together. You remove even one of these elements, and it's possible he would not have become a murderer. He would have just been a violent person. But all of these things, together, it's a perfect storm. Yeah, there's lots of sliding doors moments in this where just like Marcus said, you take out any of those scenarios. I don't think he kills these people.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Yeah. So personally, I wanted to take on this story for last podcast on a left because his story was a tipping point for me falling out of love with football. Ed Larson, as the world knows, as a weed smoking hamaholic that worships the pristine hands of Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins. We know that. Yeah. But the truth is that I've since gotten older. I've realized that the personal trauma. Football has caused me as a player, sports bar employee, and as a Dolphins fan. And as I research Aaron Hernandez's young life, there's way too many similarities to my own childhood. I also had an overbearing borderline abusive football obsessed father, football coaches that taught me to hit with my head first, and sold drugs with low-level gangsters.
Starting point is 00:07:46 That's awesome. So far, so good. I don't think that I have CTE And most people who played football Never develop it But it is estimated that one third of NFL players suffer from the disease I think partially it's because of what
Starting point is 00:08:04 We had a little sidebar conversation once About how that and during our high school years They were way more focused on the neck Yes They wanted to save the neck And they wanted to be that was like the whole thing So it might have inadvertently protected your head Well they would teach me to hit with my face mask first
Starting point is 00:08:21 and to knock out other players. They would tell me to hit their helmet with my face mask. Real men's playing ball. Real boys tussling and grabbing and ripping. Yeah, the whole point, and I was taught the same thing. It's like definitely never go with your head like straight down because that was what they were always afraid. It was peril paralysis.
Starting point is 00:08:40 Jack Tatum. Yeah. And so what they taught you is to hit the other guy with your face mask and go up. Because what you're trying to do is you're trying to knock the other guy off of his feet. So, yeah, you are hitting your head into the other player over and over and over again. Yeah, good old fashion football. And I'm like nowadays, are they're handing out purses at the front goddamn gate? What is fucking happening?
Starting point is 00:09:02 I'm the man here, you have. I'm the man representative. And the thing about Aaron Hernandez is, like, when you watch his football, when you watch his tapes, when he was a kid, he, I have never in my life seen someone use their head so much when they're playing football. And he gets hit three, four, five times before. And he still doesn't get knocked down. He's like, that was what he was known for, just fucking running through.
Starting point is 00:09:28 He did boy. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, some of us are more fragile than others. I just, you know, broke four bones. Yes, I mostly commented upon football during the talent show. I got it hit so hard when I was in seventh grade. But our coach decided, like, let's put the junior high kids against the high school kids. and one of the high school kids
Starting point is 00:09:51 hit me so hard and I was such a small kid that I flew into the air and landed on my coxics and broke my tail bow I was like that's how hard I You must have been so fun to hit that's a funny memory that I don't have
Starting point is 00:10:10 they really loved it and that was my second bone broken playing football the first was when the kid picked me up and spiked me and broke my collarbone It's interesting. Let me get in there. That's one thing I kept thinking about during all of this because, like I said, I don't
Starting point is 00:10:25 think I have CTE. Who the fuck knows? I'm pretty sure my father did, by the way. He had to stop playing football because he had too many concussions in the 60s. Yeah, which means, yeah. You had a literal. Elephants everywhere. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:36 You had a literal dent in his forehead. Jesus. You know, and so, you know, and I can remember certain hits. Like, I just, like, they were, like, in my head. When Mavika hit me in practice, when I hit Jason Reed, like, there's certain things, like, I remember, like, I still see the stars from those exact hits, and they may not have been knocked me unconscious, but they were many concussions, I'm sure. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:58 And as far as CTE goes, unfortunately, there's no way to know for sure how many people have it, because the only way to properly get diagnosed is to examine the brain after you've already passed away. Of course, only a small fraction of football players that die have their brains examined for CTE. So we may never know how serious this epidemic has become. As of 2023, Dr. Anne McKee, Director of Boston University CTE Center and the foremost authority on the subject, has studied 376 former NFL players' brains donated to her center, and 345 of those brains were diagnosed with CTE. That's a whopping 91.7%. Obviously, the brains are usually from people.
Starting point is 00:11:46 or families that thought they were infected. Yeah, you need some control brains in there. Yeah, exactly. When they did a different survey, before she started studying this, she studied over 300 brains, and only one of them was found to have CTE, and that person played college football, and no one else did. Actually, I have a test. If you want to show it, come closer.
Starting point is 00:12:06 Yeah, right. You just knock on the cranium like that, and if it sounds hollow, you got it, you fucking CTE-Ridden Maniac. Oh, no. You're about to explode. So as far as Dr. Anne McKee's research goes, Aaron Hernandez was, in fact, one of the brains that she researched. But we will dive deeper into CTE and the NFL's cover up in our next episode.
Starting point is 00:12:31 Nice. Not just the NFL's cover up, the WWE's cover up. I'm sure there's quite a bit going on to the NHL as well. We're going to lose all of our contacts at the NHL. Let's not do this. Don't know. I was supposed to be the jester at the new Raiders. But before we jump into Aaron Hernandez's origin, let's acknowledge our sources today.
Starting point is 00:12:53 The rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez, All-American Murder, by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich, with Mike Harvkey. Also, we took some info from the Boston Globe series, Goliath by the Spotlight Team, Killer Inside, the mind of Aaron Hernandez, the Netflix stock, and a little from The Truth About Aaron by Jonathan D.J. Hernandez. I took what I could from DJ Hernandez's book because he is himself a flawed individual who for sure has reasons to not tell the entire truth. But he is the only one who was around in that home with Aaron growing up. So it could help fill in some of the blanks. Sure. Aaron Hernandez was born November 6, 1989 in Bristol, Connecticut, the home of ESPN to Dennis and Terry Hernandez. He was the youngest of two football playing boys. His brother, DJ, was three years older. Dennis Hernandez was a local football hero nicknamed the king by pretty much to everyone in
Starting point is 00:13:51 town. Dennis played college football at the University of Connecticut. In 1977, two days after Yukon lost their season-ending game in Dennis's junior year, a Plainview Connecticut police officer was killed during a home invasion. Detectives questioned Dennis. He was never charged with anything, but the team cut ties with him and he never played football again. Whether he had anything to do with the crime itself remains a mystery but this fueled Dennis to be obsessed with both of his boys playing football for Yukon. How do these
Starting point is 00:14:21 sports teams have so many connects to the football, to the fucking police? Like, even just the idea of waving this. Cops love football. They do. It's what they do. But even a cop-murdering football star. Well, I mean, he's not cop-murdering specifically.
Starting point is 00:14:37 It's rumored that he, like, it's thought that he may have helped some of the guys hide at, like, after they after they were involved in the shooting they may have gone to his house and be like, God fucking help me, bro! And he helped them. He's like, of course, when you come to the king,
Starting point is 00:14:52 you know, the king's ready to serve. That kind of was his thing. Everyone loved him. He's like he was a terror at the house. Good person in the streets. The Yukon mascot is a husky named Jonathan, which is what Dennis named his first son. But he went by DJ for Dennis,
Starting point is 00:15:12 of it. I could imagine if someone in my family is like, your name is Raider Red. Yeah. Because we're a Texas Tech family, you know, like, you know, my uncle played football for Texas Tech for, you know, when he was in college in the 80s, we're all huge Red Raider fans, you know, but yeah, to name someone
Starting point is 00:15:28 like, hey, that's Raider Red McMeans. Like, this is our son Grimmis, Hamburgler, Zabrowski. The obsession didn't stop there, though. They even bought a giant white husky and named the dog, Yukon. That's cute. That's a cool name. That's a good name for a husky.
Starting point is 00:15:46 Is it? Yeah, Yukon. Yeah, it's good. You know, because it kind of, you can, it's also like, you know, the Yukon, you know, up north and all that, and huskies are kind of Yukon-ish dogs. I guess, but it's like weird to, like naming your dog, FSU. It is. No, it is. It's weird.
Starting point is 00:16:00 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But to Dennis, the boys had no choice but to play at Yukon. And they would fulfill his failed legacy. I will say I do wish my father had a legacy that I could fail. Instead of being a security guard at Wacken Hut. Well, you could have been a cop.
Starting point is 00:16:17 God damn it, what I would have brought to the force. God fucking damn it, what I'm... A real man in the force. I'm like, these two pussies in here. This guy's getting out there laying down the law. I'll spake a man until he tells me what he's done. Well, I mean, Bristol, I find it really interesting how popular Dennis Hernandez was.
Starting point is 00:16:42 the fact that they called him the king. Because Bristol, Connecticut really was, it's a football town, which is, it's kind of rare in Connecticut. You know, up, this is the northeast. It's not like a bit, but this is where ESPN was. Yeah. You know, and this is also, like, it's a former industrial town that had fallen into disrepair. So, like, football was kind of the only thing they had left. It was sort of like a Texas, like, what you think of is, like, Texas football, this was in Bristol, Connecticut.
Starting point is 00:17:08 And with Dennis Hernandez, like, it's really interesting because they, like, they called him the King, but his job, he was a janitor. Yeah. He was like, it wasn't like he was a local, he wasn't like Buddy Garrity and Friday Night Lights where he like owns the local used car franchise. No, he was just an old-fashioned peaked in high school kind of guy.
Starting point is 00:17:26 He was, yeah. And he was a lot of fun. You know, he loved the party. He did drugs. You know, he helped like people place their sports bets. You know, he was like a known all over time. Yeah, cool guy. In DJ's book, he goes into detail about how physically abusive his father was to him
Starting point is 00:17:42 Aaron. The abuse was so frequent and barbaric that he once threatened to call the cops on his father. His dad replied, I'm going to beat you even harder, you and your brother. They're going to have to pull me off for you when they knock on the door. Jesus. Yeah. The Hernandez house was not
Starting point is 00:17:58 a happy place to say the lease. Dennis was arrested for trying to buy Coke from a cop. And they always have the worst Coke. It's so funny, literally the next thing I wrote is no blame. Cops always have the best Coke. Now, did this ask him, are you a cop?
Starting point is 00:18:17 Because if he did, he has to tell you. No, he probably just like, yeah. Then he was like, all right, good, here's the money. Oh, good, cocaine. I'm used to give him money to cops. His mother Terry was also arrested when an illegal sports gambling operation was busted in their basement. Wow. They divorced in 1991.
Starting point is 00:18:36 They remarried in 1996. And in 1999, they filed for bankruptcy. See, and according to Aaron, there was a lot to argue about in the house. Yeah, it just seemed like that. Yeah, but that's kind of romantic in a way. Oh, I guess so. But he did beat her up a lot. Well, yeah, but I'm just saying, yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:54 Yeah. Well, I mean, the divorce and remarrying, like... That's what I'm saying. I think it's sexy. It's a small town thing. Yeah, it is a small town thing. But, you know, in the documentaries, like, again and again, like, the things they really hammer down on is... you know, when, you know, Aaron's father goes away, like, that's when Aaron sort of, you know, that's when everything falls apart for him.
Starting point is 00:19:18 Yeah. But what about these five years when they were, when his parents were divorced? Like, was he living with his father during that time or? I don't know. Yeah. Like, because that seems important. I imagine, I think, what I'm pretty sure maybe he was living with his mother and his dad was just around all the time. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:19:33 He probably never even left the house. They were just divorced. Yeah. It's one of those situations. So Aaron and DJ, they went to central Bristol High School. school. Aaron was immediately a great player as a freshman. He started on the varsity
Starting point is 00:19:47 team at 13 years old. You're playing against 18 year olds. Yeah. That's like a big... I know that's five years isn't a big deal, but those are crucial five years. Oh, it's massive. As I was saying earlier, when my collar butt or when my fucking tailbone got broken by another kid,
Starting point is 00:20:03 that kid was 18 and I was 13. Yeah. You know, like, but the thing is that I was 13 and like 5-5. Aaron Hernandez was 13 and 6-2. Yeah, he could dunk a basketball in the seventh grade. Was he just gifted physically? Yes. Yeah, no, he was basically like, they knew from a very young age he was going to be a pro athlete.
Starting point is 00:20:22 That's the dream as a father. Yeah, really, he got his exact wish with Aaron. DJ, he was the quarterback senior year, and they would link up regularly and we're a great team. At the end of Aaron's first year, DJ graduated and got accepted into U.S. and eventually became their quarterback. Aaron was a pretty good kid in high school. The only trouble he got into was once he drunkenly jumped on a car and dented the hood, thus getting himself thrown out of the school dance.
Starting point is 00:20:51 He showed up to school the next day with a black guy and apologized. It is assumed Dennis gave him some old school discipline, as his coach put it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And this is all, like, this is all very important to, like, who Aaron Hernandez eventually became as a person. All of this, like, informs, like, the question. of like how does a guy with a $40 million contract
Starting point is 00:21:13 end up doing this? This is all part of it. Mean daddy. So with DJ off to Yukon, Aaron started to blossom as a varsity athlete. He was fast, he had great hands, was nimble, and was as strong as anyone else on the field.
Starting point is 00:21:32 Plus, his work ethic through training and practice was unmatched. By junior year, he was one of the best players in the country. This is the time when Aaron started to figure out who he was. He met his future fiancé, Cheyana Jenkins, and found his one true love. That sweet, sweet weed. Oh, yeah, fucker.
Starting point is 00:21:52 Aaron smoked a shit ton of weed. Yeah, he fucking did, son. Arguably more than I did. It was really bad for him. Yeah. He did, it wasn't good for him. He smoked before school, before games, after games, before practice. I made my brain green
Starting point is 00:22:09 It's me It's believed that the marijuana Helped him deal with being closeted In a hostile home environment If you smoke enough weed You could forget your gay apparently But you can also forget your straight as well So be careful out there
Starting point is 00:22:25 That's what's happening to me I would actually argue That the more he smoked weed The more he probably obsessed over being gay I imagine He was very paranoid person known for it it was the way lots of people described him
Starting point is 00:22:40 well like because his thing was he'd just kind of show the wiener right and go like it'd be the same for wasn't having sexed with well I mean you're making him out to be an absolute moron yeah he wasn't an absolute moron he wasn't no from everything I heard him speak he doesn't sound like
Starting point is 00:22:57 he's fucking Barack Obama he wasn't educated well yeah he did not care about school but as far as football goes yeah sure he was smarter than anybody that's what they said yeah He was incredibly brilliant when it came to football And when it came to thinking about things like that And we'll get to that here in a little bit
Starting point is 00:23:12 The reasons why, but he was I would not say he was an absolute moron I think he was He definitely had like a certain amount of intelligence It was just that football was the only thing That was given to him in life I get it, all I do is fucking comedy and fuck He was basically told by everyone in his life
Starting point is 00:23:33 Don't worry about school Of course you're going to You are a born football star. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. In fact, it's a waste of your time. You shouldn't be studying.
Starting point is 00:23:42 You should be out there doing split squats. Yeah. Once he got to college, they literally were like, your classes are getting in your way of football. Take these, like, shitty classes. Take bowling. Take, you know, like poverty. You know, and stuff like that. Which you got a D.N.
Starting point is 00:23:57 Hey, man. He's allergic to being poor. His brother DJ remembered at first, Aaron wanted to be a cheerleader because his cousins were cheerleaders. But his dad put an end to that real fast And what I imagine was in brutal fashion He also would change the way Aaron would stand And hold his hands because his father deemed it to be too feminine But he used a different F word of course
Starting point is 00:24:18 I will say though What's so girly about being a teapot You're not short and stuff You're tall I just want to be helpful Well and I think also like the way that he talked It was also a way to hide his sexual Oh, I totally understand that.
Starting point is 00:24:37 Yeah, because he wanted, like, he all... Ha, ha, ha, baby, what you want, baby. Everyone loved him. Yeah. Yeah, he was very charming. Yeah, and he always wanted to be seen as, like, tough. And it really is, like, sometimes there are people who think it's, like, being smart is gay. And by gay, I don't mean, like, stupid, I mean, like, you know, like, if you, I was called the F word quite a bit growing up.
Starting point is 00:25:02 For being, for having a... tiniest bits of intelligence You mean the major in creative writing In Texas Tech? No way! No way! No way! No way! But I think... I sure hope you want to kiss me. If not, I'm a beat you to death. But I think he just...
Starting point is 00:25:22 His is a story of overcompensation again and again. It also has to be stated that Aaron was sexually abused as a child, but is not confirmed by anyone who did it to him or when it happened, just that it did in fact happen. Is that proof? We know that somebody at least said that. Both his mom and his brother said it happened and
Starting point is 00:25:44 Aaron's lawyer. My mom thinks everybody's molested. Does she think you were molested? Well, she'll just say, you know, I mean... Oh, God. We should look into it. Yeah. And then I flipped it out on him, and I started sucking his dick, and I was like, you like this? You want me to be your whore?
Starting point is 00:26:04 Obviously, Dennis Hernandez sucked as a human being, but I'm torn on whether Aaron would have killed people if his father had stuck around longer. He was a strict homophobic football dad and someone who had a strict homophobic football father. It did suck. But Aaron may have benefited. And you weren't even gay, like literally. Like, imagine being closeted in dealing with it. Oh, my God. My first date, my father was so happy.
Starting point is 00:26:28 Because, like, when I said I wanted to do drama, he was so nervous. And then I was just like, and then when I went out with a girl, he was like, oh, my God. Thank God. Thank God. I was like, well, you know, it doesn't matter. But, you know, Aaron may have benefited from a stricter father. Certainly, constantly getting punched in the head as a child didn't help with the e-old CTE. Nope. And maybe not helpful as far as his career was concerned, but Dennis was the only person who held him accountable for his actions for his entire life. Aaron had a quote from his father tattooed on his body.
Starting point is 00:27:03 It read, if it is to be, it is up to me. And it wasn't until Dennis passed away. Did Aaron start to act out in social situations? His mother was cheating not so discreetly on Dennis with a man named Jeff Cummings. And boy, oh boy, he earned that name. Let's just say, Aaron wasn't the only shooter in the house. Come on. I apologize.
Starting point is 00:27:26 But Cummings wasn't some random dude. He was married to Dennis Hernandez's niece, Tanya. That's Aaron and DJ's first cousin. It's just so, it's just, man, you could be white trash anywhere, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bristol's, what, 60,000 people, some are around there. So small enough to be small towns. Growing up from Queens, Connecticut was always like, that's fancy.
Starting point is 00:27:50 It's not. That's where fancy people live. And it's like, no. No, there's like four fancy places, and the rest of it's actually quite dangerous. I did not know that. Yeah, it's like they've got ESPNs there, the WWE's there, and the rest of it is just like bad drivers. And again, they're just TV stations.
Starting point is 00:28:05 It's not like they were like they didn't, like a corporation made them. Yeah. Like, it's not like Benjamin Franklin was born there. He just made ESPN there. It's not born there. It was a natural part of the fabric of the universe. It's a company.
Starting point is 00:28:18 It's weird that it's there. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know why ESPN is specifically in Bristol. But yeah, but in WWE as well. But yeah, sometimes corporations have Connecticut headquarters. I say not so discreet. Because on September 25th, 2005, in the stands at a Yukon football game, Tanya confronted Terry in the stands and slapped her. DJ on the field at the time, happened to look in the stands at just the right time to see the whole thing go down.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Jerry Springer meets Friday night lights meets lead poisoning. Scandal. A scandal. Yeah, no, that is, I could not imagine anything more humiliating. Oh, my God. It's incredibly huge. humiliator. At the game. Yes. But that was a Dennis's game, not Aaron's
Starting point is 00:29:05 game. Just so, yeah. But even so, it tells you the volatility of this family. Oh, my God. Dude, they used to beat the shit out of each other all the fucking time. Yeah. You see Dennis Hernandez, with his troubles from his youth, far behind him, was a pillar of the community in Bristol. He knew the
Starting point is 00:29:21 whole town and was nicknamed the king by locals. If he saw a flat tire, he was the first one there of the jack. The whole town saw him as a hero, even if he was a fucking terror at home. It's almost like he did that so he could be a terror at home. And he did it with impunity. Or that he was trying to do everything.
Starting point is 00:29:38 A lot of these guys also do this. They do everything and their power to be nice to everyone around them because they think it makes up for the terror that they are at home. It does not. Also around this time, Dennis's brother, Dave, was dying from cancer. The whole town knew about it. So then in January, 2006, Dennis gets a hernia and goes in for surgery and ends up dying a couple days later from a bacterial infection.
Starting point is 00:30:01 When news spread in Bristol about Dennis's passing, everyone would correct them. They would say, no, you mean Dave died? No, Dave's like, I'm still here. I still live. You know, I spent my entire life dedicated to the medical sciences. I have three patents in my name, and my fucking janitor brother gets called the king. I'm fighting bravely against Kant's. every day
Starting point is 00:30:32 nobody cares oh but Dennis has football so he does his football just Connecticut allow kill me did they allow assistant suicide
Starting point is 00:30:46 because I'm done with this kill me I'll do it myself they booked the largest funeral home in Bristol and it was not big enough to house the service for the king Jefferson's funeral home the largest funeral home in Bristol
Starting point is 00:30:59 Listen, we'll do four at once We got a shit ton of chance Try the salad bar I actually just learned from David Dust Malton this week About the idea of leased caskets Oh yeah I didn't know you could lease a casket for a funeral Put you in the casket for the funeral
Starting point is 00:31:16 They then remove you And then bury you just like in a fucking Well they cremate you But this idea of like So we'll just reuse it Interesting how I actually thought it was illegal I thought there was a whole episode of six feet under where they talked about how it was illegal
Starting point is 00:31:31 to reuse a casket. I'm sure they have to tell you. They have to tell you. Yeah, I think if they don't tell you, then it's illegal. I mean, as someone who had to buy a couple caskets, a cheaper one's always nice. Caskets, you slay. Don't let dasmaltz in here, you say that.
Starting point is 00:31:49 I know, I know. I don't want to affect this bottom line. There was over an hour wait for people to pay their respects. Dennis was the most important person in Aaron's life, and he spent pretty much every moment outside of school with his father. At the funeral, Aaron showed little to no emotion. DJ was a mess.
Starting point is 00:32:07 The night after the funeral, Aaron had a basketball game and scored 30 points. When he dunked, the crowd went insane. The next night, he scored 31. No emotion. I'm the best at basketball now. So now, it's just... It's up to me. I just love his son. If he was taller, he probably could have been a professional basketball.
Starting point is 00:32:29 they say because he was so good but he was six too but he's also maybe because he was up against a bunch of kids that he was just physically so dominant yeah like I said he had incredible he could jump like a motherfucker big ups yeah yeah so he could dunk
Starting point is 00:32:43 in seventh grade which is pretty much unheard of yeah but that the way that he could jump also made him an incredible receiver oh he's quite good but also good from getting his feet taken out from under omen landed on your head you almost call him a power receiver
Starting point is 00:32:57 I don't even want to tell you what his actual fucking position was called because it's just going to come to me with the fucking The hacky ass fucking The hacky fucking boring zoo DJ They beat you to the joke many years ago Oh don't you worry about it So now it's just Terry and Aaron at the house
Starting point is 00:33:22 And she's had a pretty public affair going on with Jeffrey Cummings and Aaron ain't taking any of this shit, but he's on track to get out of there soon. He should have killed that guy. He thought about it. Yeah. He definitely fought him a couple times, I'm sure. But he's on track to get out of there soon.
Starting point is 00:33:41 At this point, to his father's wishes, he's verbally committed to Yukon, where his brother is the QB, and he's going to be the tight end. It's storybook. But during this time, Aaron, who doesn't really like hanging out with his mom, started buddying up with his cousin
Starting point is 00:33:58 Tanya. Jeffrey Cummings' ex-wife. It's really weird. Yeah, they had plenty of shit to talk together, so this trauma bonded them for life. Tanya kind of seems like almost like a weird witch woman. She's intense. Tanya's very, very intense. Very haunted.
Starting point is 00:34:16 But Tanya is just, she's one of those people, like, well, you know what, if I just let them drink here at my house, at least I know where they are. I know. Yes. Yes. And so she just She's the sort of woman that brings all the high school kids over to her house and hangs out with them. And lets them deal drugs and all that stuff. But it's like, well, as long as I, but really she's just wanting to fucking hang out.
Starting point is 00:34:36 She's lonely. She wants to be seen as cool by children. Exactly. So Jeff and Aaron, they even switched homes. Jeff moving with Terry and Aaron moved in with Tanya, his cousin that was 14 years older than him. Tanya's house was the hangout for lots of unsavory people. There was Uncle Tito and two other gangbangers important. to our story, Carlos Ortiz and Bo Wallace. This crew would end up being a bad influence on Aaron.
Starting point is 00:35:03 Ortiz and Wallace would be with him when he murdered Odin Lloyd seven-ish years later. In a recorded conversation with Terry from prison later on, Aaron accused his mother of never giving him his ADHD medication when he lived with her. She said, she hit him in the head with a hammer, and that was his medication. She considered his Adderall to be likened to cocaine, so she never let him take it. It's almost like, is it a doctor? And doesn't know what the medication does. Well, this for me, the ADHD thing, this is the skeleton key to understanding Aaron Hernandez. Because with somebody with, like, it sounds like he has severe ADHD and, you know,
Starting point is 00:35:44 severe ADHD, as I know from experience, it causes emotional dysregulation, it causes anger problems, it causes over sensitivity. Lack of impulse control. Lack of impulse control, and it also can make you extraordinarily good at one thing. Because it's things ADHD is also, like there are a lot of negative things to it, but there are also a lot of very positive things to it where you can lock into one thing and you can focus so hard on that one thing that you end up being incredible at it. And for Aaron Hernandez, that was football. He locked into football and he just had the mind for it because that's what his brain wanted.
Starting point is 00:36:23 It just, football always gave his ADHD brain what he wanted. He could hyper-focus on it. He could be incredible at it. But it also made him very emotionally disregulated at all times. Yeah. Even in high school, he spent up to 60 hours a week on football. Yeah. You know, and in the end, thank God it was football in terms of making money,
Starting point is 00:36:41 not like water coloring or something. Because it wouldn't have made anybody anything, you know? I think about who he would have murdered at the fucking art store. Bob Ross. Wow. I'll give you a happy little bit. Yeah, you want to see. But yeah, that emotional dysregulation, I think that paired with CTE is really fucking dangerous.
Starting point is 00:37:03 And the oversensitivity as well, you know, we're going to see a lot of times with some of these attempted murders as they will, I think, I believe are completely linked to oversensitivity and also extreme drug use because extreme drug use, especially weed. Not great for an ADHD brain. Aaron's verbal commitment to Yukon didn't stop college recruiters from going after Aaron anyway. With no one guiding him, he gets wooed by the then current national champions of Florida Gators. They invite him down to Gainesville, Florida. It's awesome. It's warm. The stadium is cool as shit.
Starting point is 00:37:43 They throw his name on the Jumbotron. He bought in a thousand percent. Aaron tells Yukon, you can go fuck yourself. I'm going to be a gator. Now, it's a, but UF is still a huge college football town. And it's cool. But is it bigger than Yukon? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:59 Way bigger. Way bigger. Youcon's more of a basketball school. But they're in the Big East and shit, and they do have football, but it's like, it's not even close. Children's sports scares me. I don't think children should be. I don't think you should be allowed to make money off of sports until you're 21 years old.
Starting point is 00:38:16 Yeah. Either way, I'm happy to work gators into the story. but um i believe that i believe the college football players should be paid they are starting to get paid i think they deserve it personally because most of them never go on and they've devoted their entire life to this and there's money there so why not pay the people fucking giving themselves but eddie i don't think you understand then how are they are supposed to make all that money
Starting point is 00:38:40 if they give it to these stupid kids they're just going to blow it on fucking gum you know how kids are they going to blow it on burritos they're not going to invest that money. Now, I'm not trying to make this thing a sports history podcast. In fact, I'm doing my best to not talk about football, the game, as much as possible in the story. This matters for Aaron Hernandez. Urban Meyer, the head coach at Florida at the time, knew getting Hernandez on his team would really help them stay champions. But at 17 years old, reeling from the sudden death of his father, Urban knew he had to get Aaron down to Florida early. So they worked it out that Aaron would graduate high school early, and then he would go to Florida that spring and skip his high school graduation.
Starting point is 00:39:28 Yeah. He didn't graduate early because he was good at class. No. They just let him go to Florida. That's awesome. And they pulled a lot of strings to make that happen because I actually tried graduating early, too, to get the fuck out. And it was difficult, like, even for me, who was, like, actually, like, a fucking student student. You were good at school.
Starting point is 00:39:48 Yeah, I was good at school. And there were so many hoops to jump through. And the thing is with Aaron Hernandez, whatever Aaron Hernandez wants, he gets. Yeah. And like I say, it's nice to be able to skip all that grieving. Yeah. Well, this is something Urban Meyer actually was known for doing. It was a tactic he would often use to make his teams great.
Starting point is 00:40:07 He get the kids in in January so they could study the playbook and practice with the team in spring, take summer classes, and be ready for football by the fall semester. That's awesome. Yes, sure. Well, I mean, it's... Man, fuck school, man. Yeah, it's a great tactic for fucking get for winning football games. Yeah. Man, they're just throwing these 17-year-old kids like into insane, insane situation.
Starting point is 00:40:30 But you know what's funny? I feel like when I was a younger man, I actually didn't understand pressure the way I understand it now. Like, when I was like 18, I was flung in front. I remember how many times I had to go in front of like 2,000 kids and just riff and like, and I didn't even think about it for a second. too, too. I would host the pep rallies. I would do an hour. And I would just like, if you told me I had to do that now, I'd have a panic
Starting point is 00:40:55 attack. Yeah, well, like, now, then I could have just, I didn't think about the pressure of it. Oh, shit, I did, man. I mean, because I was also the same way. Like, you know, performing was fine. Like, I could go up and perform in front of people that was whatever. But I, you know, I played football all throughout my, hell, my senior year.
Starting point is 00:41:11 You know, I was, I played safety, and I was pretty bad at it. I was not good. Both my brothers were incredible at football. I'd come from a very, very small town where football is incredibly important. Well, they're got big shoulders. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:23 Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah. They're very much, they're bigger than I am. Charlie's a big boy. Charlie's a very big boy, but Charlie works at it. But, you know, I'm, I was put out in this position. I was put back at safety. And, you know, there was a lot of hope for me.
Starting point is 00:41:38 There was a lot of hope like, there's another parks coming up. Like, all these parks is, like, parks are good at football. So he's going to come in and fucking Marcus once he gets in. Once he gets feet under. Hello, everyone. Yeah. It is I. I have you enjoyed the cure? No, I was actually pretty fucking good until I broke my leg my junior year.
Starting point is 00:41:55 And so I missed my entire junior year and then came back my senior year. And I was behind. I was in the wrong position. I should have been at fucking running back instead of safety. But since I was back there, every team that played against us knew that Parks is bad. Parks is a shitty safety. All you got to do is just keep throwing and he can't, you know, and we can beat. So we went three and seven that year, so I had to spend that entire year, like, sitting back there with these shitheads on the other side of the fucking fence going, come on, Parks, get your shit together.
Starting point is 00:42:28 Come on, Parks, come on, Yeager, come on, Parks! It's just like a whole fucking town. And the next day, no, dude, it, you have- You suck. You see me big and fat, suck on the big of a big-off. You suck, Marcus. You have good football. it fucked me up in ways that I'm still dealing with as a 42 year old man
Starting point is 00:42:53 of like you know having like you know in the next day he's like fuck you doing parks you know I'd be out at parties like parks you got to work it out man you got to figure shit out and it's just like the happiness of an entire town was placed on my shoulders I was so thankful to just utterly reject any of it I remember it's just so happy to just not feel that
Starting point is 00:43:14 Thank God I didn't have parents that gave a shit about any of that because as soon as I tried sports and as soon as I realized that I had limitations I was like, bye! Like I was like, oh no, I'm not a negative feedback, girlie. No, my parents were actually fine. My parents were actually very good about that.
Starting point is 00:43:30 They were, they supported me in the things that I was actually good at. But when after that season and basketball, after football was over and basketball came around was like, I'm not dealing with that shit anymore, I'm not playing. But it's a fucking pariah because I didn't because I didn't participate in basketball. But you just hated me because I sucked.
Starting point is 00:43:46 Yeah. No, exactly. You all just hated me because I sucked. I'm allowing another guy to take it. Nope. Dude, the same thing happened to me when I finally quit football for, you know, weed in theater. Yeah. They treated me like shit for years, the coaches.
Starting point is 00:44:00 They were, and then they would, like, they would try to talk me into coming back. And then one time I came back for a little bit, and then they wouldn't even let me practice and shit. So I was like, you know, what the fuck am I doing? Yeah. This is crazy. And, you know, I was all fucked up, too. Because I, like, my dad, like, if I had a. bad game, I would get like punished.
Starting point is 00:44:17 Yeah. You know, I would like get like grounded. At least I didn't get it that bad. I didn't get it. My parents were cool with that. They didn't, they didn't. I started taking steroids. It wasn't like steroids, steroids. I didn't know I was taking steroids. It was a, I bought it from GNC. It was a thing called Androsteen. Oh, yeah. And the, um, the, the, the spokesperson was Mark McGuire. And, uh, and, uh, he was fine. He was completely clean.
Starting point is 00:44:41 And I was popping those motherfuckers like crazy. I would go nuts. I would like eat grass. I tried to scare everyone. You know, it was like fucking intense, you know. Yeah, and you didn't realize it. And then when we found out it was steroids and they were taking it off the shelves, what do you think we did? We went to GNC and bought all of it. Yeah, of course.
Starting point is 00:44:56 And so I was all fucked up on that for a while at 16. So it's just, and that was just, like I said, and I turned out pretty normal. Yeah. You know, it's like, that's the crazy shit. No, there's a lot of sliding doors with this shit. But, yeah, so there are definitely ways in which this cut in which football really fucks up kids in this country in Aaron Hernandez is the, the, worst-case scenario of how badly football can
Starting point is 00:45:16 fuck up a kid. Yeah. The University of Florida, it's actually an amazing school to get an education at, and it should have been a perfect fit for Aaron. But he didn't give no shits about no damn school. Yep. And why should he? He's a guaranteed pro athlete.
Starting point is 00:45:33 Now, Gainesville, being a great town to go to college, is also a great town to party. And the only thing more important than education in this small town is the football team. I'd argue say it's the only important thing in that small town. Maybe. It's up there. Well, the hospital's great. Yeah, you got a lot of good doctors come out of here. Shands. Yes. And they helped Aaron get away with murder. Excuse the
Starting point is 00:45:55 expression. Truth is, he was known around campus as a fun, outgoing dude. But in Coach Meyer's office, he was often in there wailing about how much he missed his father. Meyer really put in the extra time with Aaron because Aaron needed it and he needed Aaron. Even as a freshman, Aaron was quickly turning into an on-campus celebrity. He was able to go into liquor stores and buy booze no problem at 17 years old. He would frequent a popular bar called The Swap. And this is exactly where he had his first violent brushup. First violent brushup that was reported.
Starting point is 00:46:30 Yes, that was, yeah, exactly. One night, he was hanging with Tim Tebow. Boom! And tennis player Sean Young, when a waitress came over with two shots, He took them no problem and went about his night. But as they went to leave, bar manager Michael Tapphorn presented him with a $12 bill. And Aaron said something similar to... I play football. We don't pay for shit.
Starting point is 00:46:57 That's right. Tebow and other patrons try to diffuse the situation. Let's pray on it, son. Let's pray on it, dog. Come on, let's play Christ together, dog. Come on, let's bring Christ in this, dog. Tim Debo can fucking suck my dick. What a guy is the worst. He is the most annoying football player
Starting point is 00:47:16 of all times. How is he more annoying than Aaron Hernandez? Legitimately, I think he's a worst person than Aaron Hernandez. Taphorn grabbed Hernandez and then Hernandez sucker punched him, rupturing Tapphorn's eardrum in the process, and then he ran away leaving his sneaker behind like a Cinderella in berserker boat. Only my true princess will fire my sneaker and bring it back to me. Later, a university lawyer would convince the bar manager and owners not to press charges, offering them tickets and an apology from Hernandez.
Starting point is 00:47:50 That's as good as money. They never got their apology, but occasionally Hernandez would creep by in his car, making intimidating finger gun gestures towards the employees. Jesus. Well, I mean, it's not just, you know, them convincing him to not press charges. You know, if this guy takes Aaron Hernandez out, if he takes their fucking, you know, star, if he takes the U of F star player out of circulation, his bar's done. Oh, yeah. No, they're fucked.
Starting point is 00:48:19 They're boycotting that bar. He loses his entire livelihood. That bar gets boycotted. People stop going there. And he's just fucking done because some shithead kid decided to punch him in his fucking head. Sports bars across the nation rely on football. If football ever ended, the restaurant industry would take a giant hit. Yes.
Starting point is 00:48:39 And I think that's one of the reasons. It's all connected. It's amazing. There's giant industries built on top of a billion-dollar industry. Because it's all feeding. It's very, very difficult. Yeah. Now, this may not seem like a crazy, important incident,
Starting point is 00:48:55 but this is really when Hernandez started to feel like he was untouchable. There was another incident when Aaron was with teammate Ronnie Wilson at a nightclub called XS, when they got into an argument with another Patriot. and Wilson went to his car, got his AK-47 to scare a guy, which worked. AK-37, maybe wouldn't have done the trick, but the 47, they're great for that. Hey, I had an AK-47 when I was their age, too. You're just like that. There must be a Florida thing.
Starting point is 00:49:28 Wow. Oh, you know, AK-47s were kind of weirdly prevalent. I bought mine on sale with my tax return. Nice. Well, in Texas, our drug dealers were much more like handgun guys. They always made sure to have it on the table When you went by to buy weed Yeah, I remember that
Starting point is 00:49:43 It was so much harder to keep the scale on the table with the AK You know, it takes up so much room Yeah, no, no, my guy just had a Glock You know, and then he'd make you sit there and watch weeds with them While you stared at the gun That's like me, that's like, oh We smoked out of the shotgun. Nice.
Starting point is 00:49:57 Yeah, that was cool. He called the, you were there for that, weren't you? He called the cops and Wilson fired the gun into the air, which gave Wilson a hundred hours community service and he was able to rejoin the team after he finished that slap on the wrist. Urban Meyer would start to take shit around town for his players
Starting point is 00:50:16 acting out. He was an advocate for second, third, and fourth chances, which worked back when he coached Utah. But this season in Florida, his loosey-goosey discipline made the Gators the most arrested team of all time. Florida State. Number two. Wow, great.
Starting point is 00:50:34 Later in a 2015 ESPN investigation, It was noted that University of Florida football and basketball players avoided criminal charges. Two-thirds of the time they were arrested. My God. Well, I mean, and that's the thing with Aaron Hernandez is that it's not just the people in his immediate life that let him get away with everything. He has existed in a system that lets people like him get away with anything and everything since he was about 14 years old. As long as he keeps putting up numbers.
Starting point is 00:51:03 Yeah, as long as he keeps playing, as long as he still. scores touchdowns that he's going to keep, he's going to believe that he's going to get out of whatever happens to him. Yeah, man. It's fucked up. You know, I really do think I hate football. Yeah, it's really changed. Yeah, it really has. I'm working on it, though. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel. We'll see how I feel after this. Fly from North Lane. Coach Meyer, um, determined to keep Hernandez on the right path. He put Tim Tebow in charge of him. Tebow, a known evangelical was
Starting point is 00:51:40 notoriously one of the most religious players of all time failure and he was he fucking failed NFL he was awful yeah he really did shit the bet isn't he playing for like Romania now
Starting point is 00:51:54 he's a commentator now he would kneel and pray anytime he scored a touchdown and it became so nationally known that he would do that it became a trend called T-boing T-bo would often write Bible verses on his eye black as well.
Starting point is 00:52:10 John 316 was his favorite. And it goes like this. For God so loved. Actually, Henry, you want to take the Bible quote? But God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not be Paris,
Starting point is 00:52:26 but have eternal life. John 316 would be written in blood on Hernandez's prison cell and in ink on his forehead when he would commit suicide years later. Yank! yeah that's a that's a yikers
Starting point is 00:52:41 that's a long that's a long kind of phrase for him to remember no he just wrote John 316 if you write that you don't have to write the other the rest of the phrase yeah that's the whole thing
Starting point is 00:52:51 you write John 316 is the others are you bad at the Bible God's going off the world that he gave his one I know it's on and Hernandez well Tebow annoying Jesus freak
Starting point is 00:53:08 that he is was a tenacious player. He would often finish games injured. In high school, he made a game-winning 29-yard run on a broken leg to win the game, and in Florida threw a game-winning TD to Hernandez with a separated shoulder.
Starting point is 00:53:23 I like my players not getting hurt. Then you don't like any players. Because they all play like this. No! Then on Sundays, he literally would be a preacher at church. So, Meyer made Tebow Hernandez's neighbor in Gainesville and roommate when he was on the road.
Starting point is 00:53:45 It was kind of working. Oh, my God. I'm fucking him just all day. I've been like, Aaron, come on, let's pray on this now. Come on. Let's hear Aaron. It's been like, what is prayer on? They prayed together.
Starting point is 00:53:57 They practice after practice and shit. But the problem was every time Aaron would go back home to Bristol, Connecticut, he would reconnect with his bad boy crew of cousin talking. Tony, Tito, Carlos Ortiz, and Bo Wallace. They would also often come to home games in Gainesville and cause trouble around town. His brother, DJ, would even plead with Coach Meyer to not let him come back home because he would just slide back into hanging out with these gangsters again. Every time Aaron came back to Gainesville from Bristol, it was like starting from scratch.
Starting point is 00:54:30 Aaron felt allegiance to them because they were the ones that were there for him when Dennis died. I, man, don't know how many times I got to say this, but just because someone was kind to you when you were younger, that does not mean that you have to fucking let those people bring you down for the rest of your fucking life. Well, also, he's the type of guy that is now living like his father. So Aaron Hernandez, he views himself, his father is as a role model. The father's the king, right?
Starting point is 00:54:54 Every decision he's made, everybody's lauded. Even though he ended his life in obscurity and sadly died, right? Like, you know, like he technically, you'd say his father, flamed out. Oh, very much so. Yeah, that's why I pushed his own kids so hard. Yes, but they viewed him as somebody that was a, you know, this perfect role model. So I could see Aaron Hernandez is walking around and he has an idiot's idea of what a confident man does and what a confident man chooses. And so in his way, he's like, those are my friends. They've always been my friends. And when you say that they're not my friends anymore, I get me because they're my friends. Because it's this whole
Starting point is 00:55:33 like he's he now views I think in his own way no I protect them now like they're I protect them they're all this is my coterie and they all suck his dick and they all like yeah or and whatever you want Aaron because they know he's going to be a millionaire yes yeah maybe but I mean I think it's like one of those things townie it's like a townie thing it is a towny thing yeah and I think a lot of it also has to do with with his intense need for structure and he's just always looking for it wherever he goes because you know with the severe ADHD like this is a guy he should have been on medication yeah he should have been in therapy he should have gotten structure at all points and I think when he goes back to Bristol he's looking for some sort of structure he's looking for something
Starting point is 00:56:15 but all he finds uh are people that are just telling him what he wants to hear he's literally sleeping on the couch while they're doing drugs around him yeah yeah and he just thinks it's he that is his version of what family and home is yeah yeah because it's because it's his cousin his first cousin that took him in and so he thinks all this is normal they can't be wrong they can't be wrong it's my family because she and also she loves me so much and she's the one and you know her mother is or errin hernandez his mother is hitting him in the head with a fucking hammer to try to cure his ADHD and you know his cousin tanya is patting his head and saying i love you and that's what he wants it's a tv version of what a happy family is and that's what he wants because that's all he can kind of remember
Starting point is 00:56:56 yeah all right so now let's get into the uh shooting incident in late September 2007, after UF lost an early division game to Auburn. Tensions were high, losing such a pivotal game so early in the season. Aaron Hernandez was out blowing off some steam with some other gaiters when an ex-gater, now NFL player Reggie Nelson, came back to town to celebrate. Everyone was partying at the nightclub, creatively called the venue. Along for the ride was the Pouncey Twins, who would be connected. connected to Hernandez for years to come.
Starting point is 00:57:33 They're... He even tattooed their initials on his body. It should be noted that... Those two guys. Was it two guys? Two guys. Mike Pouncy and I actually, I didn't take the time to learn how to pronounce the other Pouncey's name.
Starting point is 00:57:49 If you have a man whose last name is Pouncey tattooed on your body, you might be a homosexual. Well, it should be noted that Mike Pouncey later had a very public incident when he played for the Miami Dolphins. Him and offensive lineman Richie Incognito
Starting point is 00:58:09 tortured and bullied teammate Jonathan Martin for being gay. They were reprimanded and Martin quit football and later got in trouble for an IG post he made of a shotgun that was captioned when you're a bully victim and a coward, your options are suicide or revenge. It's interesting how these things keep coming around. A lot of themes that are repeated.
Starting point is 00:58:34 Oh, yeah. Now, the details vary between sources, but allegedly one of the pouncy twins got a chain stolen off his neck by some local gangster named Randall Kaysen, who had it out for UF players because one kicked the shit out of his brother a week prior. Never have an issue with the entire football team. It seems that, like, they might have a bunch of numbers against you and they might just beat the living fuck out of you to your dad. They're kind of strong. Yeah. Yeah. I was fucking tired.
Starting point is 00:59:03 The football players at Texas Tech. Oh, I can't even. You stayed away from the football. Like, they were- I gave the FSU players a wide berth. They were like, they were such dickheads that like when one, like, one of the fuck football players like got paralyzed during his season.
Starting point is 00:59:20 And everyone was like, good. I hate that. That guy, because he was a fucking monster around campus. He would go into parties and start punching people. I did not meet a nice one. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:59:29 They were very. frightening. And they were too big to be in school. He shouldn't have been let go. I think you get to a certain weight class. You can't be amongst other kids anymore. Like you've got to leave. You're too big. You're too dangerous.
Starting point is 00:59:43 I'm sure some of them are very nice. Sure. Man. And these schools are football is like a big fucking deal. Because when I was... It's not a true. Jamie Wilson, you just show up and just park halfway across all the handicapped spots. It's like, you can't say anything to it. Oh yeah, Chris Ricks, man. He always
Starting point is 00:59:59 get in trouble for parking in the handicapped spots. Jesus. Yeah, yeah. And they were just, I guess they were just mostly like, one day I'll make one. After the club closed, there was a quick scuffle in the parking lot. The Pouncy Twins are here. Hello, my name is Michael.
Starting point is 01:00:20 This is my twin, the Pouncy Twin. I can't pronounce my other name. He is unpronounceable, and thus he is ungovernable. I'm the Pounce. Pouncy twin. Tie the back of my costume. My butt is hanging. I don't worry about that.
Starting point is 01:00:34 I want to make sure that your butt is not open to the public. We're the pouncy twin. When Kaysen and one of his crew went up to them and said, fuck your chain and then showed him a gun in his waistband, which obviously made the pouncy twins and Hernandez pissed. But it was all broken up by the NFL or Nelson, and the night did not end there, unfortunately. The locals, led by Kaysen, were stuck in traffic.
Starting point is 01:00:59 and their crowned Vic. Late nights in college towns tend to be a standstill of drunk drivers when the bars let out on game nights. It's chaos. Yes. Because it's a bunch of people that are illegally drinking who also don't know how to drive. Yeah. In a traffic jam.
Starting point is 01:01:13 Yeah. It's the worst. Kaysen stuck his head out the window to holler at some chicks in the car next to him. He then noticed that they were being followed by a big black SUV with the players inside. But the 2 a.m. procession traffic had everyone at a standstill. All of the people in Kaysen's crowned Vic were strapped except Squirt, who was sitting in the passenger seat. Shit was being talked.
Starting point is 01:01:37 The tension started to develop. It was a developing situation. Yes. They were on University Drive, and a sign ahead of them said, welcome to the University of Florida. They were in the middle of everything. Then, according to Kaysen, apparently a man that looked exactly like Hernandez, walked up to the car, stuck a gun in the window, and fired five. times. Squirt was shot in the head and the driver was shot in the arm. Then as a distraction, someone threw some black cats in the street while the man who looked exactly like Hernandez
Starting point is 01:02:10 ran away. Let's go to the CTE Mobile. Other witnesses said the man who shot the gun was a black man with cornrows. Now at the hospital, Kaysen was... I certainly made squirt. Squirt. That's right. Now at the hospital, Kaysen was beside himself. He felt guilty that he was. He felt guilty that He gotten his friend Squirt shot in the head. Kaysen and the other fellows with guns in the car had local gang ties. But Squirt was just some dude in community college with shitty friends. My name's Squirt. Kaysen was screaming, it should have been me over and over again
Starting point is 01:02:46 when Detective Patty Nixon arrived to take his statement. He fingered Aaron Hernandez as the shooter and the pouncy twins as the instigators. I'm not an instigator. I am a master. I'm going to go shit. I'm not. the flippiliter. Even though uninvolved witnesses had
Starting point is 01:03:03 said the shooter was a 5-8 black man with cornrows, Hernandez was 6-2 Hispanic and covered in tattoos. Squirt, a black man was not dead and could not speak. Coincidence. But when ass who shot him, he kept pointing to
Starting point is 01:03:19 the palm of his hand, not the black side of his hand. He would like point at the black side of his hand and go like, no, and then turn his hand over and point at the palm. Yeah. They took this as it was possibly Aaron Hernandez who did the crime. It was the thing from the Adams family films. Or possibly it was just the side effect of being shot in the head.
Starting point is 01:03:40 Yeah, maybe. Yeah, yeah. He could probably report it to a little man. He's like, the little man will tell you. The little man knows. There's a witness in my hand. Detective Patty Nixon. Squirt Jr.
Starting point is 01:03:53 reached out to the university for them to help bring in the involved parties, but was confused on how it took them almost five hours to comply. They were getting their story straight with the football team's lawyer. Yeah, that's what's incredible about it is that it is every time Aaron Hernandez gets into trouble at the University of Florida, like he immediately gets a lawyer from the university itself that it gets him out of trouble every time and tells him what to do and what not to do. He's a real good football player. He was the best. He was incredible.
Starting point is 01:04:25 They had two national championships when he was there. Yeah, the lawyer, his name was Huntley, I believe. And he was like an effortlessly good player. Yes. He was like one of those guys that just showed up and he just was immediately better than everybody else. He could party all night long and show up and fucking murder it. He was also 24 and 20th. He was like, but I mean, even so, man.
Starting point is 01:04:47 Like I had a hard time fucking, you know, showing up to play well when I was, you know, I remember our coach would always say, smells like a goddamn brewery out here. Oh, you fucking boys. I know you've been drinking last night because we were all playing like shit because we had been drinking the night before. It takes a special kind of person
Starting point is 01:05:03 to party all night and show up and still play. Yeah. The lawyer. The lawyer, Huntley? He said, he's a dog. Yeah, he's got a dog. He's got a dog. That's me, man.
Starting point is 01:05:15 I got that fucking dog, man. It's little. No, yeah. The lawyer, Huntley, he had a signed picture of the team from Urban Meyer in his office. and Urban Meyer wrote on there Thanks for all your help
Starting point is 01:05:31 You're the 12th member of our team Basically Well that is the lawyer For the most arrested college team of all time What can I say I know when the getting's good Yeah thank you guys And there's nothing I love more than getting Children off for violent crimes
Starting point is 01:05:46 And possibly sexual ones as well All I'll tell you is you keep them crimes coming I'll keep lawyering You know what I say Fuck the victim Let's get another championship Because that's what matters. When held for questioning, the Pouncy Twins stories matched mostly,
Starting point is 01:06:03 saying the man stole Mike Pouncey's chain at the club, approached them in the parking lot and showed them a chain and a gun. Yeah, you shit-head children bullshit. Yeah. Then the football players went to a friend's apartment, got checkers, and went home at 2.30 in the morning. The only thing is, one Pouncey Twins said Aaron went home with them, and another said he went walking around.
Starting point is 01:06:25 When Detective Nixon went to question Hernandez, she was a little upset to find him fast asleep in the interrogation room. He's always at ease. Yeah. They said that's what his closest friend said is that they never saw him show fear once, ever, for anything. After some time, she released the pounceies and Nelson and then went to wake up and question Hernandez. After getting his rights read to him, he simply stated, I'm not going to say anything. I want my lawyer present.
Starting point is 01:06:53 I'm sorry my lawyer told me to say that Direct quote So between the great UF lawyers And the unreliable witnesses And most of the victims Being gangsters themselves No one ever was charged in the incident Aaron never mentioned
Starting point is 01:07:11 That he had a visitor with him that night Neither did the Pouncey Twins The detail was only shared by Aaron's mother In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel After Aaron's suicide Squirt, who ended up living, but had to learn how to speak and walk again, never got any retribution for getting shot in the head.
Starting point is 01:07:31 When asked about it today, his mother just simply says, we live in Gator Country. With a stadium that fits 88,000 people and is usually oversold for games in a city of less than 150,000 residents, it's hard to argue at Squirt's mom. There's a lot of money in the Florida Gators being a winning football team
Starting point is 01:07:52 and the players getting special treatment to make sure that no matter what, they were on the field ready to play on Saturday. Urban Meyer, as complicit as he may be in Aaron developing his superiority complex, did his best to keep Aaron on the right path. Aaron even lived with him for a while. His phone was always open to him night and day,
Starting point is 01:08:14 and his wife, a psychologist, would often hold private sessions with him. Ooh. In the end, sexy. In the end, though, he looked past some of Aaron's troubles more than he should have, but the pressure
Starting point is 01:08:32 to win for a high-level coach can cloud your judgment. Even being a two-time national champion, you're only as good as you are this season, and your job is on the line just about every single year, no matter how good you are. All the pain comes rolling down from the very,
Starting point is 01:08:48 very top. It's called the viciousness of capitalism. Yep. The Pressure. Pressure starts up top and just goes all the way down. Yeah, man. Aaron Hernandez was one of those it players. He was as good as any one coach Meyer had ever coached. He really was. Yeah, but his off-the-field incidents continued to pile up between fights, heavy marijuana use, and hanging around with unsavory characters back in Bristol,
Starting point is 01:09:14 made his baggage more than the coach was willing to continue with. Aaron missed the first game of the 2008 season from a failed, drug test. Too little weed. Coach Meyer had him listed as hurt, but put a boot on his foot. A player suddenly on the sideline with a boot on his foot usually meant they weren't hurt. They were there for disciplinary reasons. He would have a good season as the Gators won the BCS championship.
Starting point is 01:09:41 His daily marijuana use continued to be a problem, and he was not hiding it, but finding ways to pass the drug test with clean urine. He would push the clean urine through a fake penis if being watched. That was very common. Yes. I remember these things were being called Wizzinators. Yes. I had one for a job interview.
Starting point is 01:10:02 Really? Yeah, I only had to take one drug test my whole life. And I did get clean for it. You know what the job was? What? Janitor. They fucking, yeah, I worked that job for like two years. But yeah, they were like, yeah, you know, we want to hire you full time,
Starting point is 01:10:16 but you're going to take a drug test. I'm like, if you want to hire me full time, You can have to wait a month. And then we'll take the drug test, and then we'll see. Yeah, yeah, because, God. You need drugs. You need drugs. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:26 I want you to be on drugs as a gym. The 2009 season, Aaron Hernandez, had an amazing junior year as a Florida Gator and won the Mackie Award, which goes out to the best tight end in college football. This award will usually guarantee a first round draft pick and a huge contract in the NFL. But Hernandez, knowing that he was maybe knowing that he was not mature enough. to move on to the NFL, decided to stay in college football for one more season. I bet you it's also just kind of, you don't know. You don't really know what you're going to be like once you go into the NFL. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:59 I think that you, he obviously has a lot of confidence, but people's, it all changes once you're on the big, once you're in the big fucking lakes. In Urban Meyer, even though he knew how talented and a straight up force of nature he was on the field, told him there was no room for him on the team anymore and that he should enter the NFL draft. I didn't know this. I did not because every documentary I saw always said like
Starting point is 01:11:22 Aaron Hernandez decided to go to the NFL I didn't know the Urban Meyer said like I don't want to deal with you anymore get the fuck out of Yeah he's like there's no he just figured he was going Yeah and then when Aaron was like hey listen I'm going to stick around He's like you can't Yeah yeah you got to go wow so he just failed him up Yeah he just told him to get out of there
Starting point is 01:11:39 That's incredible for him Well I'm sure Irbyr probably had planned He'd probably recruited and so like okay here's my next tight end like that's going to come up after Aaron Hernandez and like, yeah, why are you? No, get out of here. I mean, the same thing happened to me in theater. They're like, you can't go to districts this year because we're working on the junior. You're a senior.
Starting point is 01:11:58 And I was just like, well, but I'm a senior. I finally got my spot. I've only got the fucking spot. I mean, I wasn't that good. But you won in the end, didn't you? I did. I'm here. He could no longer handle Hernandez's weed smoking, his overall bullshit and off-the-field violence. The onto field violence was more than welcome.
Starting point is 01:12:16 Of course. So now, Aaron declares to enter the NFL draft on the fourth anniversary of his father's death and is ready to kiss Florida goodbye for now. He signed with Brian Murphy of Athlete's First Sports Agency. Murphy knew Aaron was arguably the most physically superior athlete entering the NFL draft. But he didn't just have baggage. This dude had luggage and no one was helping him carry it. So Murphy told Hernandez Fuck taking your statistics class again
Starting point is 01:12:47 Come on out to Cali with your brother DJ And we'll get you trained up And ready for the NFL Combine The NFL Combine sounds like it's fun Yeah well the NFL Combine Is an insane experience That has been compared by some as a slave auction Oh
Starting point is 01:13:01 329 players are invited to show their strength, speed, agility and intelligence Whoa in their curiosity with their creativity their whimsy their whimsy know what is it they all in their underwear
Starting point is 01:13:17 their creativity uniqueness nerve and talent that's what they need to show charisma uniqueness nervin talent yes Hernandez showed up
Starting point is 01:13:29 you've scored three on the cunt scale thanks you have to play for the Cleveland Browns oh no not the brookies they named their team after shit
Starting point is 01:13:41 dukees Hernandez showed up to the combine with a torn muscle in his back so he sat on the sidelines for most of the time but the scouts still were drawn to him watching him weigh in and get measured look how big and legs they're in their underwear
Starting point is 01:13:58 it's weird that's why people compare it to a slave auction because it's like they do everything but check their teeth yeah they watch your teeth watch their gate yeah check under their tails yeah then came the intelligent test now Aaron Hernandez might not have been the best student in the world, but he knew football just as well as
Starting point is 01:14:16 anyone. And he scored well. So what's this? That's a football. And what's this? That's a helmet. Ten out of ten. Well, he scored ten out of ten for focus and mental quickness. ADHD. Nine out of ten for self-efficacy. What does that even mean? I don't know. And seven out of ten for dedication. But the category of social maturity, he scored one out of ten. What's you talking about? Fuck you. Oh, man. They came out his ass hard, dude.
Starting point is 01:14:50 They pressed him about his shitty friends back home, his failed drug tests, his off-the-field incidents, his dead dad, his dad being able not to stay in school, and who murdered the cop and his mom's new shitty husband, anything they could do to get a rise out of him to see how he reacted. You shut the fuck up! You shut the fuck up! Basically how he reacted.
Starting point is 01:15:11 Not a good way to beat her. in the combat. It's not. No, it's, it's like almost like he's the Ghostbusters two mood slime. And they're trying to get him to bubble over. Rumors started to develop about his gang ties. You're not about an unstable molecule!
Starting point is 01:15:28 Football players having gang ties is not a new concept. It happens often, actually. Most players come from poverty-stricken neighborhoods around many unsavory characters, but Aaron loved his gang affiliated members back home and considered them to be family.
Starting point is 01:15:44 Then came the pro-day workouts back in Gainesville. He had to overperform there, as well did Tim Tebow, who didn't have a great combine as well. It turns out that was because he was a bad football player. Yeah. He just choked. It happens to quarterbacks a lot. They are amazing in college, and then they just go to the NFL, and they just shit the bad.
Starting point is 01:16:04 Was it Johnny Football from A&M? Yeah. God helps though. So you better be good. Tebow was good for, like, one season in the NFL. then everyone figured out how to go against them and he never could do it again. Hernandez overperformed at the pro-day workouts, though,
Starting point is 01:16:19 back in Gainesville. You got a 4-5-40-yard dash. You could bench-press more than any other tight end, but his character would continue to be called into question. Now, April 22nd, 2010... Yeah, man, for this thing, man, Greta Turnburg isn't fucking there. If Greta Turnburg could put a fucking 285,
Starting point is 01:16:37 you'd use her. Now, April 22nd, 2010 was the first day of the NFL draft. Aaron should be a top 10 pick, but the teams are passing on him. Three of his teammates, including Tebow and Pouncy, are picked in the first round. Rao.
Starting point is 01:16:57 Because the Ponce, Mike Pouncy, is always a first round gentleman. Everybody needs a little kitty cat. Everybody needs a big old sneaky cat. I hope I go to the Detroit Lion. Myon. Four more players from the Florida Gators would be picked before Hernandez.
Starting point is 01:17:18 Many of them, not without their own issues, including DUIs and one linebacker, Brandon Spikes, that served a suspension for trying to rip out another player's eyes. Honestly, I think it's a plus. Yeah, man, you mess with Brandon. Yeah, don't fuck with Spikes. Yeah, don't fuck with him. My God, those linebackers. That's funny.
Starting point is 01:17:36 And he's trying to rip out of teammates' eyes? Of opposing player. Oh, see, again, that's a problem. Yeah, that is a pro, yeah. Finally, during the fourth round on the last day of the draft, with the 113th pick, the bitch-ass New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, and Bill Belichick picked Aaron Hernandez. Excited as he was to be playing for his favorite childhood team, he did not take it well getting picked so low. He had only one failed drug test on record, but rumors said that he had failed six and UF covered it up.
Starting point is 01:18:09 Bill Belichick, evil gross fucker that he is, knew how to manipulate the NFL draft. Tom Brady was a sixth round pick a couple years earlier, and in the second round of the same draft, the Patriots selected Rob Garnkowski, who just retired as one of the greatest tight ends of all time. Not just that, Belichick was also known for turning troubled players and his successful winners at the Patriots. He had done so with players like Randy Moss and Brian Cox. They even drafted the eyeball
Starting point is 01:18:40 Popper branded spikes. So this should have been the best case scenario for Aaron Hernandez. I'm starting to think that there's something wrong with Bill Belichin. Realize like all these guys are essentially criminals. Yeah, it's like the Patriots are like
Starting point is 01:18:56 13 ghosts. He's like pulling together all the things. And I specifically choose the murderers. Now, that's the Oakland Raiders. Yeah. A real team with real men. Playing real ball. I guess the Las Vegas Raiders now.
Starting point is 01:19:11 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll always be Oakland to me. They were in Los Angeles for a long time as well. Yeah. Either way, fuck Al Davis. There you go. But joining the New England Patriots might have been one of Aaron's sliding door moments as well. And many believe if Hernandez had been drafted by any other team, he may not have ended up becoming a murderer.
Starting point is 01:19:31 You see, the New England Patriots play in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Just a two and a half hour drive from Bristol, Connecticut, the home of all of Aaron Hernandez's criminal friends. So with a $200,000 signing bonus in his pocket, Aaron Hernandez is moving back to where his troubled pass had begun. He hired two buddies with criminal pass as his assistants, and one of them was his weed dealer, so that's convenient. That is called a promotion.
Starting point is 01:19:58 That is an assistant. He is assisting him in getting weed. Yes, absolutely. His life back home in Bristol was no treat. his mom had married his cousin Tanya's ex-husband Jeff Cummings Aaron had refused to go to the wedding he did not approve of the union
Starting point is 01:20:14 he hated the man his mom had been publicly cheating on his dad with and the fact that he was now living at his old home really pissed him off as well also it's fair to say that Cummings was a total fuckhead himself he had a rap sheet that including hitting women and children
Starting point is 01:20:29 one night just one month before Aaron was due to report to the Patriots he got drunk and slashed Aaron's mom's in the face and with a butcher knife. She was... That's Jeff, that's Cummings. Cummings did this. Yes, Jeff Cummings
Starting point is 01:20:43 slashed Terry Hernandez in the face with a butcher knife. She was able to escape to a neighbor and called 911 and he was found in the backyard and the cops took him to jail. Not the best welcome home for Erie. They're all just drama monsters. Yes. Yes, they are.
Starting point is 01:20:59 But I don't know if I agree with the with the assumption that if he would have been drafted to any other team he would never have killed anyone. I just think it would have taken longer. Yeah. I think he would have eventually because he would have found a network of shitheads.
Starting point is 01:21:13 Well, I think just the stories that they tell and like the emotional dysregulation that he had and how bad the CTE was and how much he would just fucking flip. Yeah. Like if he would have been drafted to another team, maybe, maybe not but the possibility was always still there. Yeah. It's not like he was
Starting point is 01:21:29 well behaved in Florida. No, it was not. And those guys weren't around when he was in Florida for the most part. They were there sometimes, But, you know, they weren't there when he fucking popped that guy's eardrum. They weren't there when he allegedly fired a gun into those other two guys' car. Like, he was cruising for a bruise. Yeah. When he was, when he popped the dude's eardrum, he was with a tennis player and the most religious man in football.
Starting point is 01:21:51 Exactly. That's true, but never forget the Meninas brothers, also tennis players. Oh, wow. Cute. When Hernandez joined the Patriots, he was an emotional disaster. during his first week he almost fought Wes Welker Wellker well I love Wes Walker too
Starting point is 01:22:10 He played a he played a Texas Tech when I was there Oh yeah it was a great he was a great dolphin Yeah then you was He was like the only guy who like returned a kick return for a touchdown punted the ball Returned a punt and made a tackle in the same game Yeah he's a great record He was incredible to watch in in college
Starting point is 01:22:27 And he was actually a nice guy from what I hear Yeah well well well That's nice I'm out of my depth But you know why also? I think the other thing, too, West Welker, not a big guy. No, he was a tiny dude. He was a route runner.
Starting point is 01:22:40 Yeah, it was really quick cuts. Yeah, and there's something about, like, the bigger guys. Like, the guy that I talked about earlier that everyone hated, he was gigantic. That's why he was massive. The smaller guys, nicer. Always. Well, the reason he tried to fight Welker is because Welker wouldn't help him figure out a weightlifting machine. Welker just giving the rookie a hard time, said figure it out for yourself.
Starting point is 01:23:00 Other than that incident, though, he was often. referred to as a sweet guy. They called him Chico. He's a buddy around. And then he would, but the thing was, he would openly cry when he made mistakes or he was ridiculed. It's not normal locker room behavior. But it is normal ADHD behavior. The over, the oversensitivity. His is just out of control in every way. Yeah. There was one reporter who had a good relationship with Aaron Hernandez. He and Hernandez developed a relationship early on. Hernandez, you know, always available to be interviewed. He was a rookie, you know, and Hernandez wasn't popular yet, and
Starting point is 01:23:39 he was always available for an interview. And one day he told the reporter, I like you, but if you ever fuck me over, I'll kill you. Seemed out of nowhere, but the statement stuck with the reporter for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we talked last... He's a huge man. Yeah, we talked last week about the, like, the Kentucky vampire kids who, like, would always talk about
Starting point is 01:24:00 they would kill this person or kill that person. It's like, don't take him seriously. We're 95 pounds soaking wet. Take this guy seriously. This is a guy that, like, should not be throwing around, like, you know, I'll fucking kill you. I'm going to kill you. Yeah, like, he is not fucking around. You know, sometimes I look at my hand that I just wonder, my hat's going to kill the day.
Starting point is 01:24:20 He was always smiling. Yeah, that's why I'm doing it like this. You don't try to fuck with me. Yeah. Yeah, he's always like, that's crazy. You're crazy. Wow, yeah. That's crazy.
Starting point is 01:24:33 That's crazy. Yeah, he would get very, very angry, though. And, yeah, just fucking, just the way he would say, I'll kill you. And there was also, like, one of his other friends. I bet you he came loudly. Yeah. One of his other friends said that if Aaron Hernandez said that he was going to do something, whether it was big or small, if he said that he was going to do it, he was going to do it.
Starting point is 01:24:53 Yeah. Like, that was like a part of his character. Yeah, he was a, definitely follow through. Yeah. The 2011 season, Rob Grunkowski and Aaron Hernandez were on. unstoppable as a tight-end duo. Even as rookies, they were both top five tight-ends in the league
Starting point is 01:25:09 and combined for more yards and touchdowns than any other tight-end duo in NFL history. And the two of them had a great relationship. Belichick had figured out something no other team had before. These two were unstoppable together. The AFC championship
Starting point is 01:25:25 game that year was against Tim Tebow in the Denver Broncos. Tim Tebow was all John 316ed out. I hate him. I hate him. The previous week, he wrote John 316 on his eye black and coincidentally threw for 316 yards, averaging 31.6 yards per completion, through 16 passes in the first three quarters, accused rapist, two-time accused rapist, Ben Rafflesberger, threw an interception on 3rd and 16, and the ratings for the game were 31.6 million viewers. John 316 was all anyone could ever talk about. Even God thought it was a little on the nose. It didn't matter, though.
Starting point is 01:26:09 The Patriots kicked the shit out of them the following week, 45 to 10. God isn't real. Yeah, killing God. The Patriots did good. The Patriots were headed back to the Super Bowl. But in the fourth quarter, Aaron Hernandez had to leave the game with a head injury. But you know that shit wasn't going to stop him from playing in the Super Bowl in two weeks. weeks. I mean, playing with head injuries. I mean, this is a guy that's about to play the Super
Starting point is 01:26:34 Bowl. When I was in fucking high school, I was like a sophomore, my buddy, a friend of mine got hit in the head so hard during a game that he was wandering the sidelines yelling, Ball State wants me! They want me! And the coach just told him like, hey, Gary, yo, calm down, just it'd be okay. And then after about, I don't know, a couple of possessions, he fucking shook his head and went right back into the game. Wow. And he was hallucinating on the sidelines. I wonder how he's doing.
Starting point is 01:27:09 You know, I don't know. I'm actually not sure. I haven't talked to him in a very long time. I don't know how he's doing these days. It's good you got off Facebook. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't know how he's doing. I hope he's doing well. He was a close friend when I was a kid.
Starting point is 01:27:23 But yeah, he was, that was a high school football game. It wasn't even a district game. Yeah. Like, this was just like, this was before the district games even came, and he got back into the game after a hallucinatory concussion. Dude, I dislocated my shoulder and popped it and went back in and did a long snap. You just did that shit because you thought that's what you had to do. Oh, that was what they told you. That's what they fed that that's, yeah, that's what you do to show commitment.
Starting point is 01:27:48 No, when I broke my leg, I walked, it was there in practice, I walked all the way back to the field house because I didn't want the coat. I didn't want to ride in the coach's truck and be seen as a pussy. and then I took a shower I drove myself to you know my parents' job and walked in and said I need to go to the hospital right now but the whole time and that's not even playing
Starting point is 01:28:09 that wasn't even playing football that was like just like not being want to be seen as a pussy during practice oh yes and think about the fucking you know the pressure of playing in the Super Bowl yeah I know it's fucking nuts so Super Bowl Sunday during Kelly Clarkson's national anthem
Starting point is 01:28:26 the cameras turned to air Hernandez. He stood there, visibly lost in thought, swaying with his mouth agape. Aaron Hernandez scored a Super Bowl touchdown in the third quarter, but ultimately was unable to catch the last second Hail Mary and the Patriots lost their second Super Bowl to Eli Manning and the Giants. Yeah. Yeah. During this offseason, Aaron Hernandez's life would take a turn for certain disaster. And it's with that that we pick up back next week when we discuss Aaron Hernandez and killing a bunch of people.
Starting point is 01:29:03 Eddie, great job. Yeah, this is fantastic. Yeah, it's intense, man. Yeah. I've tried to fill it with jokes, but it just made me so sad. It's my job. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:29:15 It's a very sad story. Like, you know, like in so many ways, like Aaron Hernandez is a shithead. In so many ways you made other people's lives miserable. But in so many other ways, know you hear people talk about him like he was a nice guy he was nice to be around you know like he was a like his well like for and he it's what's so strange is like there's like his wife or i guess fiance at the time but like never said anything about any kind of domestic abuse like he was
Starting point is 01:29:44 apparently like you know there for his kids like he was a good friend but also just this violence there's just living underneath at all times you know and just this idea that he has an entire system, a national system, set up to protect him and to keep him from seeing any sort of consequences for any action that he does. And it doesn't matter who you are or what you do. If a human being does not face consequences for their actions, they're going to be a bad person. They're going to do bad shit. It just fucking happens. Yeah, look at Lawrence Taylor's now on the fitness, the new fitness board for the White House. Yeah, so is, so was Tua. Lawrence Taylor, the former crack cocaine addict
Starting point is 01:30:28 who also slept to the 14-year-old girl? 15, Marcus. 15? Yeah, he was a sex worker that he bought, and he said the only reason he bought an underage sex worker was because he couldn't turn down how cheap it was. And he's always more of a deal on her. And he's working for the White House now.
Starting point is 01:30:48 Yes. He was my favorite football player growing up. No, I loved LT. Did I show you? I said it to Eddie. He made his speech and he said, I don't know why I'm here and I don't know what we're doing, but I'm happy. And then Trump
Starting point is 01:31:01 literally was like, isn't he great? Jesus. The country currently has CTE. Patreon.com slash last podcast to the left and you can watch us talk about this. Eddie, honestly, such a good job. And next week we're going to get even deeper into it. Great job. At LPion, on the left, they're going for all your social
Starting point is 01:31:21 media needs. Yes. And Don't forget to go and check out all of our YouTube channels someplace underneath LPN Romancey. Who's the B, Foreign Report, No Dogs in Space Podcasts in LPNTV, and don't forget to come see us on tour this year. That's right. We're going to be in St. Paul, Minnesota, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Oakland, California, Cleveland, Ohio, and Portland, Oregon. Go and check last podcast on Aleph.com for all of our dates and stay up to date on what we are fucking doing. man let's go
Starting point is 01:31:52 let's go bang our heads together I want to get I want to get my brains pushing up but then how getting it and I'm going to hail today is I'm going to let the cat out of the bag
Starting point is 01:32:05 today is August 18th it's Brody Stevens day so hail Brody Stevens another great athlete we lost too soon yeah that's very nice yeah I love my boy
Starting point is 01:32:15 I miss it all right guys goodbye Thank you.

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