Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Trending Tuesday: The Disturbing History of Aaron Hernandez - 1/21/2020

Episode Date: January 21, 2020

It is Trending-on-Twitter Tuesday. Join host Mike D’Abate and guest Ian Glendon of Full Press Coverage as the duo take a look at the tragic history of former New England Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez. Particularly, they will discuss the Netflix documentary titled “Killer Inside. The Mind of Aaron Hernandez” and it’s impact on society and the Patriots organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all of you Foxborough faithful. It is Trending on Twitter Tuesday here on Locked On Patriots, your daily home for news, notes, and analysis, seasoned with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. I'm Mike DeBate, your host of Locked On Patriots, which of course is a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Always feel free to reach out to me and follow me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC. And of course, while you're at it, follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Patriots fans, there's been a lot of trending news lately regarding your New England Patriots. Most of it's surrounding Tom Brady. And here on Locked On Patriots, I and

my special guests have definitely given that it's just due. So today we're going to take a much-deserved break from some of the Brady coverage. And I turn my attention to a topic out there that's been trending for the past couple of weeks now, and it's one I've yet to address throughout my entire tenure here at Locked On Patriots, and that's because it's an unpleasant topic. And its ramifications go far beyond the football field, but it's also a subject that I can't in good conscience ignore or neglect any longer. So this being Trending on Twitter Tuesday, we are going to take a look at the tragic

history of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. And I'm going to pay particularly close attention to the new Netflix documentary that's been released titled Killer Inside the Mind of Aaron Hernandez. Now that's been a very popular topic across the Twitterverse lately. Some of you may have seen it, some of you may not have seen it yet, but today my good friend Ian Glendon of Full Press Coverage is going to join me to discuss that documentary. Of course we'll give you our opinions on it, but mostly we're going to be talking about the impact this story has had on us. Both of us being from the New England area and having covered the Patriots,

we've covered this story almost since its inception. In fact, there were times where we covered this story in tandem. So seeing that both Ian and I have seen this documentary, I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to share the microphone today and provide you with our thoughts and also what our opinions are on the impact this documentary has on the New England Patriots organization. So sit tight, folks. I hope that today's podcast gives you some insight on the documentary and its place in this disturbing and tragic saga. But before I welcome in Ian today, and for the benefit of those of you that may not have a lot of prior knowledge on Aaron Hernandez,

he had a very bright future ahead of him on a football field. Aaron was an extremely talented football player, there's no question about it. But his story took a very dark and sinister turn, and it ended in a very tragic and a very disturbing manner. Those are adjectives you're going to hear a lot today in this broadcast, and quite frankly, there really aren't much better terms to describe the life and death of Aaron Hernandez than tragic and disturbing. But from a Patriots fan's perspective, folks, it didn't start out that way. He was an All-American at the University of Florida,

drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft, and alongside Rob Gronkowski, he was about to form one of the most prolific tight end tandems in NFL history. They were one of the most dominant. They were the first pair of tight ends to score at least five touchdowns in each of the consecutive seasons for the same team. During his career, he did impair in one Super Bowl. That was Super Bowl XLVI.

But that bright future came to an abrupt end. In the offseason of 2013, Hernandez was arrested and charged for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Lloyd was also a football player. He was a semi-pro. He was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée, Cheyenne Jenkins. Following his arrest, Hernandez was immediately released by the New England Patriots, and he was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015, and as a result, Hernandez was sentenced to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Now, while on trial for Lloyd's murder,

he was also indicted for the 2012 double homicide of Daniel D'Abreu and Safiro Teixeira Furtado. While serving the life sentence for Lloyd's murder, he was put on trial for those two homicides. He was actually acquitted of those in 2017. Just days after being acquitted of the double homicide, Hernandez was tragically found dead in his cell. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging, and at the age of 27, Hernandez was now gone, leaving behind both his fiancee and a young daughter. Now, at the time of his death, Hernandez was in the process of appealing his conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Because he died during that appeal, a Massachusetts statute was put into effect, and that was called the Doctrine of Abatement Ob Initio.

Essentially, what that means, folks, is it posthumously vacated his murder conviction of Odin Lloyd. That doctrine stood until 2019, when following an appeal from prosecutors and Odin Lloyd's family, that conviction was reinstated. So as we sit here today in 2020, the final record indicates that Aaron Hernandez was convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd. And if we're being honest folks, a predominant opinion of guilt has surrounded Hernandez since he was first arrested for the crime in 2013. But since his death in 2017, there's been a lot of information that's come out leading to a lot of speculation as

to why a life of crime surrounded Aaron Hernandez. He typically, throughout much of his life, surrounded himself with an element that was both seedy and criminal. Some have stated that it was because of a contestuous relationship with his mother and father. Others have indicated that a hiding of his sexuality weighed heavily on Aaron. Because of that, he often found himself in dangerous circumstances, and ultimately that led him to a life of crime. There was also a posthumous investigation done by Boston University's medical team shortly after Hernandez's death. They determined that Hernandez's behavior could have been caused by chronic traumatic encephalopathy. You know it better as CTE.

Their findings indicated that Hernandez not only suffered from CTE, but from one of the most severe cases they have ever diagnosed. So all of these factors lay the groundwork for the documentary that Ian and I will be discussing in a moment. But first, keep in mind that sports talk like that which you hear on Locked On Patriots each and every day generally leads itself to talk about physical fitness. Let's face it, we talk about it a lot. Conditioning, injuries, you name it. But there's another side to the game that's just as important. I'm talking

about mental fitness calm the number one app for sleep and meditation has teamed up with nba superstar lebron james to help you train your mind lebron and calm know that your mind is like any other muscle in your body and calm can help you train your brain so you sleep better have less stress and perform at your best for lebronron James and for so many of your favorite athletes, sleep is an important part of their mental fitness routine. In fact, LeBron says that getting good sleep and finding time to rest is one of the most valuable things he can do for his body and his mind. And if you head to Calm.com slash LockedOn, you'll get 40% off a Calm Premium membership.

With Calm, you'll have access to the nature scenes LeBron loves, like rain or leaves, and so much more, like sleep stories and meditations. Unlock content to help you focus, ease stress, and sleep better. Get started at Calm.com slash Locked On. That's Calm.com slash Locked On. Once again, folks, it's trending on Twitter Tuesday here on Locked On Patriots. And while providing the power of positivity is one of the main reasons I usually welcome my guests today here to the podcast, this story, unfortunately, folks, is devoid of a positive spin.

And, of course, I'm speaking of the tragic and disturbing story of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. Now, as we all know, it's been resurrected by the Netflix documentary, Killer Inside the Mind of Aaron Hernandez. And as a result, this topic has become one of the most prominent social media topics lately, especially when it comes to your New England Patriots. And my guest and I, we kind of cut our journalistic teeth in this business by covering this story almost since its inception. And today, we share the microphone to discuss the latest chapter in this gut-wrenching saga. My guest today is the editor-in-chief of Full Press Coverage, managing editor of Full Press NHL, and the host of numerous shows on Full Press Radio, including my personal favorite

FPC Radio Live. He is my great friend. Ian Glendon joins me today. Ian, hello. La, la, la. Hey, buddy. How you doing? And I must say, you may be a little bit biased when it comes to liking Full Press Radio, but I agree with you. I think it's my favorite show, too. Well, you know, we have to give the people what they want, and that's all about them. One of the big reasons why you're here, my friend. Always well received, always well downloaded, which I appreciate. But it's always a blast sharing the microphone with you. And look, we always have a lot of fun when we share the microphone together.

We have for a number of years now and hopefully will continue to from. But this was a subject that really, I think, hit us both where we live. And when I say that, I say that in a way of not diminishing what this story is from a Patriots fan perspective, but it really hits home and it reminds you of the fact that we never really know our heroes, our sports heroes especially,

the way we think that they do. And, you know, we know this story all too well, both as fans and as covering this team, we felt the shock and the disgust as this continued to unfold. And watching this documentary brought back a lot of those feelings for me. As you watch this, Ian, what made the biggest impact to you? And also what surprised you the most about the way this documentary was presented? You know, I'd say the biggest impact was was more or less a reminder of how just horribly sad this whole story was from every angle because again you know when it happened uh you know i was still living in

the massachusetts area obviously you know having grown up there and following the team all that stuff and and to watch it unfold on the news like it did was pretty, you know, eye opening. Because again, you know, nowadays we're fairly used to a lot of things occurring in real time and on camera with camera phones and everything like that. But even then, we're still relatively new to that era of just sort of coverage in general. And Aaron Hernandez being such a high profile person in that area obviously got all the attention. And, you know, again, just I remember sitting there watching, you know, the state police just camped outside his house, you know, pretty much every day. And then, you know, until that final time where, you know,

I'm sitting there drinking my coffee and eat my breakfast. And all of a sudden, you know until that that final time where you know i'm i'm sitting there uh drinking my coffee and and eat my breakfast and all of a sudden you know you watch live as aaron hernandez you know takes his last breath as a free man and it's again i do think that the documentary did a did a did a pretty good job of of making sure that the the actual, you know, the guy, the people that lost their lives and the families were pretty well portrayed in this. I mean, I, you know, again, obviously you're not going to, you know, sway too far from the topic, which is Aaron Hernandez. But I think they did a pretty good job of reminding us, you know, who the guys, you know, who the people were that were killed as a result of his decisions and actions. So, again, overall, just it's just very sad from every angle, you know, and it's just it's surreal, really. Yeah, it really is. I mean, you mentioned bringing those feelings back. And as you were describing that all, you know know you really you start to feel those things again

i remember watching aaron going and being arrested and you see him with his arms tucked into his white t-shirt and he's got the handcuffs on and the red shorts and he's coming out and you're sitting there saying i can't believe this is unfolding i can't believe this is going on and it's a team that we grew up idolizing it's a team that we've covered and a team that we know very well. And to see it happen right where you live, like I said earlier on, it's a shock. Some of the things in the documentary surprised me. I thought, again, I thought you hit the nail right on the head when it came to giving a voice to the victims in all of this, because ultimately that's all what this comes down to. And we will get into that in a minute one of the things that surprised me the most about this documentary though as i was watching it unfold is they did make a lot of mention to aaron's sexuality and his sexual orientation

and granted i think that was definitely a part of some of the reason behind some of his behavior and some of the difficulties that he ultimately had. It's never truly been proven, but I think some of the ambiguity surrounding that was a lot and it weighed a lot on him. One of the things that I thought the documentary really put on the back burner, however, was the severe case of CTE that Aaron was diagnosed with posthumously. The medical examiner at Boston University that performed the, I don't want to say the, sort of the posthumous autopsy and discovered the level of CTE that he lived with was one of the most severe cases he had ever seen. They compared Aaron at 27 to having the brain of

an 80-year-old victim of CTE. Now, in no way am I sitting there and equating his behavior with that or excusing it in any fashion, folks. But the bottom line is, is that I was a little bit surprised that this wasn't more of a prominent part of the story did that surprise you at all or do you think they gave enough coverage to that and really lent itself in or focused on a little bit more about what maybe motivated aaron hernandez and some of the sinister behavior that he exhibited throughout his life no i you know i think you're right i mean they really did kind of put it on the back burner because they didn't really make mention of it until towards the very end of i believe the third part or maybe towards the end of the second part. So but even so, even when it was mentioned, there were there were obviously, like you mentioned, other topics that were more prominently featured,

which, you know, again, I I understand why they presented all these circumstances, because, again, you know, the whole idea was getting into the mind of Aaron Hernandez and trying to figure out what you potentially could have led to these, what factors could have accelerated this process. And, you know, again, featuring these these situations, you know, I think is appropriate. Obviously, you know, they did spend a lot of time on his supposed sexuality and, you know, given the environment that he's in it, I think what they tried to do in that sense was highlight, you know, some of the struggles that, that, you know, those who don't identify that way don't understand and don't go through, especially in the environment that is football and everything. So, and, you know, you couple that with obviously the, the growing up and, you know, you couple that with obviously the growing up and kind of, you know, his backstory there and his reaction to his father's death.

And then eventually you mentioned the CTE. I mean, again, like you, I'm not trying to excuse any of his actions. I mean, he ultimately made the decision to do the things that he did. However, these are the circumstances that led to it because, you know, there's no, like not every person gets to that point the same way. And I do think it's sort of important to understand who Aaron Hernandez is without losing sight of what he did and who he impacted.

And that is the, the lives of, you know, three families and, you know, multiple people, you know, in the wake of, you know, three families and, you know, multiple people, you know, in the wake of that. So, yeah, I thought they were going to feature it a little bit more, in my opinion, but, you know, it's a fine line between an educational documentary and a,

you know, excuse propaganda or however you want to label it. Yeah, absolutely. And I think you, again, I think you made a great point, especially when it comes to excuse propaganda versus a factual documentary. They also delved in a lot to Aaron's childhood and the difficulties he had with his father, with his mother, especially after his father's death. I mean, this really portrayed the family in a very negative light and let you understand why he might have been lured into the type of life that he was lured into simply because I think he was looking for a way to belong and looking for something to latch on to a familial type relationship that really just completely went astray. And look,

ultimately that's never an excuse. And we have both used every platform that we could possibly imagine to relay to our listeners that we're in no way excusing his behavior or in any way lessening his behavior. What he did was reprehensible, and he paid the ultimate price for that. But ultimately, I think a lot of the factors did make this an interesting and compelling story. But it's always tough to bring stories like this back to the football field because ultimately that's really not what this story is all about. And I'll get into that in just a minute as well. But Patriots fans look at Aaron as the ultimate what if.

Purely from an on-field perspective, the Patriots were clearly high on him. They gave him the contract extension, had big plans for him on the field, and he was delivering. You take a look at what he could have accomplished on the football field, and it really is a tragic thing when you take a look at it and what, you know, the type of future he could have had and threw away completely. As I watched the documentary, it seemed to me like the Patriots organization, particularly Robert Kraft and to an extent Bill Belichick, had moments that portrayed them as villains and then some moments that portrayed them as sympathetic and maybe even admirable. First of all, did you see that in the documentary? And do you think this document did anything to paint the Patriots in a more positive or negative light going forward as we look back on the legacy of this tragedy.

Yeah, I mean, look, there were some odd moments of connecting the dots that they kind of threw out there for the for the watchers, in particular, the the comment they made about how Aaron Hernandez requested a trade. Belichick denied him and then he committed a homicide. And that was the connection that they kind of drew to. And I thought that was a little irresponsible because, again, if you want to paint the Patriots in a negative light short of guys with sketchy pasts. So, you know, this shouldn't have fallen on the Patriots. I think it was kind of strange because they at one point made Robert Kraft looked out, looked like a bad guy. And then on the other hand, you know, they portrayed him also in a very positive light. So, you know, I do think that they tried to, again, try to stay right down the middle when it comes to this. And to me, I, you know, the biggest thing that really had the biggest impact on how I viewed this whole thing was was the jailhouse calls between Aaron Hernandez. accurate depiction of who he was both positively and negatively and you can see how um how kind of you know childish and in a positive way like you know happy humorous like kind of goofing around

type character he was by just some of the phone calls and you can sit there and say yeah i can see how robert kraft you know thought he was a different person than who he was and you know what i mean so uh and then at the same time, you can listen to some of those phone calls and even in his tone and his demeanor and his thought process, you can realize, okay, this is how it,

you know, could potentially go very, very wrong with him because of how he thinks and how he reacts to that. So, um, I do think the Patriots kind of got it 50, 50. I do think that,

that kind of of loose connection made with Belichick not granting him a trade was was was a little irresponsible and it kind of came across as pretty pretty negative without explicitly saying it. So other than that, you know, again, it's it's a Netflix documentary. I don't actually expect them to to get all the nuances of a football team and football operations correct, because that's not what they're in the business of doing. Right. No, I agree. And I think in a lot of ways, I think that really is the perfect point to make. And I'm so glad that you made that is that this is a documentary that's meant for a broader viewing audience than just football fans. People all over are intrigued by stories like this.

And it's sad, but it's a commentary on what really kind of stimulates the national conscience. And ultimately, people are going to watch this, whether they're football fans or not. I agree with you. I think the Patriots came off a little bit 50-50. I don't think they necessarily, I don't think it hurt their legacy in this. I don't think it did anything to really help it. People are going to believe what they want to believe

about the Patriots. If they have a certain bias toward them because of what happens on the football field, this documentary is not going to portray that in any more of a light. Naturally, if you're a Patriots fan, you're not going to look at this and say, oh, the Patriots really were responsible for all this. I don't think anybody can say that.

Ultimately, Aaron's responsible for his own decisions. And that leads me into my last question today, buddy. This story really is not about the Patriots, ultimately. It's not about the attorneys. It's not about the journalists that covered it. At its heart, it's about Hernandez, but it's about Odin Lloyd. It's about Daniel de Abreu. It's about Safira Tashira Furtado. The loss of life and the tragic aftermath, all of those men are dead. And whether you believe in the conviction that Aaron Hernandez was convicted in a court of law for, or whether you believe it on the periphery he was in some way shape or form responsible for that most people believe it was he that pulled the trigger and it was he that

was responsible directly responsible for their deaths but there are some out there after this documentary was published by netflix and a lot of people watching it i'm seeing a lot more sympathy for about him than I ever have before. And in a lot of ways, I think that maybe was the purpose of this documentary. In your opinion, my friend, does this documentary make Aaron Hernandez a more sympathetic figure? But maybe the better question here is, should it? I don't know if it necessarily makes them more sympathetic. I think people understand more of who he was. And I think that can sometimes be mistaken for sympathy. Because, again, when you hear his story growing up, I mean, a lot of people, I'm sure, person does. So now you're sitting there thinking, okay, well, you know, I went through a lot of the similar things. Now, again, there's certain, you know, curves and paths that he took that ultimately led him down this road that he is, that sways from, you know, the everyday normal person. And again, when you hear about his

health condition when it comes to CTE and what he was dealing with, given such the advanced state of that disease. I mean, it's hard not to be sympathetic toward a little bit, but overall, I think if you believed he was innocent before this, you still believe he was innocent. If you believe he was guilty, as I do, and as many people do, you know, he's still guilty and you're not going to come away with this thinking, oh, you know what? You know, he maybe he was just a pretty good guy. Like, look, at the end of the day, he you know, only bad people are capable of committing these type of crimes, regardless of what conditions or circumstances you're you're around. It's it's it's ultimately it comes down to a choice when you're facing these decisions. And he made the choice to take it a step further, whereas other people learn to deal with their issues and learn to evolve and adapt. And he didn't. So sympathy, no. Understanding in the sense of like exactly who he was, I think, is a little bit more, you know, appropriate in that sense. So, yeah, I would say no. Yeah, once again, we're like-minded. Big surprise there. But I do agree with you that I believe he

was indeed guilty of these crimes. And I think in a lot of ways, when it comes to the sympathy that you're seeing from people, I think it was, I think it is a lot of identifying, and I think you put that very eloquently, is that people are identifying with maybe some of the problems he had growing up. A lot of the issues that he had, things that really were beyond his control at that point, when you're being raised by parents that are not necessarily acting in your best interest, that's something you can't control as a child. That's something that ultimately can shape you and can mold you into the type of lifestyle that Aaron ended up leading. The CTE, definitely, that contributes to some of the conversations and things of that nature. You saw both sides of the Aaron Hernandez perspective, and sometimes they were jarring, you you saw both sides of the aaron hernandez perspective and

sometimes they were jarring uh you know in terms of the type of person that you thought he could be and then the type of person that he could be in the blink of an eye it was very very disturbing but ultimately and again we look at aaron hernandez he was definitely capable of rational thought more often than not and because of, to use any of these environmental or health factors as an excuse as to why he was connected and intricately involved in these murders is probably disingenuous. And I think that's something that a lot of people have to remember when looking at this. The Patriots clearly recognize that. They cut ties with him immediately upon news breaking about this,

his arrest. He was essentially wiped clean of the Patriots' legacy at that point. But from a really, I think, a most important perspective is always remember the connection that had three human beings lost their lives as a result of terrible decisions and just sinister and evil decisions that have no place in society. So ultimately it's just a tragic, sad story. And hopefully this documentary, if you do view it, brings that to light and just brings the light to the need for people to seek help when you need to seek it. And if, you know, there's nothing else that can be done. I mean, you always have to, you know, do your best to live the best life that you possibly can. And ultimately, that's not what happened here. And as a result of it, we've seen the tragic aftermath that that can leave in its wake., you're a great man, a great friend.

I know this was a little bit more of a downer conversation than we usually have, but I appreciate your candor and your insight. We've been connected on this story for quite a while, and to me, you were the perfect person to bring in today to share the microphone with and to lend your wisdom and counsel on this documentary. Folks, he is a great friend of mine, but he is great at what he does and that's the reason why i tell you to follow him on twitter at iglen31 you can find his great work and the work of all of the great writers at fullpresscoverage.com also on the airwaves on shows like fpc nfl pregame

fpc radio live cheap pop and the big bad bruins con podcast that he hosts with another good friend of ours ch Chris Blackie. That is a great listen, folks. Gets better each and every time I listen to it. If you're a fan of the Spoke to Be, definitely want to check that out. Highly recommended. Ian, thank you for joining me today, my friend. Always an honor and a pleasure.

Yeah, and always. Invite me on any time and I'll be there. Absolutely. And you know we will as we move closer to the season as we move closer to the draft a lot of topics to talk about when it comes to the New England Patriots and you know there's a certain free agent out there that's going to make a decision sooner or later and when he makes that decision you're going to be one of the first calls that I make so thanks a lot bud have a great day and thanks again for coming on today absolutely take care

and before wrapping things up here at Locked On Patriots we are proud to say that this episode Absolutely. Take care. with the same FDA-approved active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis. You can take them anytime, day or night, even on a full stomach. And since they're chewable, they work up to twice as fast as a pill, so you can be ready whenever an opportunity arises. Blue Chew is prescribed online by licensed physicians, so you don't have to go to the doctor's office or wait in line at the pharmacy. Right now, we've got a special deal for our listeners. Visit bluechew.com and get your first shipment free when you use our special promo code LOCKEDON. Just pay

$5 shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-Chew.com promo code LOCKEDON to try it for free. BlueChew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring today's podcast. And as for me, folks, I will be back tomorrow to continue to bring the latest news, notes,

and analysis, sprinkled in with the occasional opinion, on your six-time Super Bowl champions. As always, please be sure to join me each and every day here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Subscribe and download via your preferred podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank Ian Glendon for his appearance and his insight today. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening

and for staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Have a great day, everyone.