The true story behind ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’

FX’s series “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” which premiered on Sept. 17, follows the story of former NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez, who was found guilty of murder and later died in prison.
Hernandez was the first active NFL player to be charged with multiple murders, and his story has gained plenty of notoriety and attention, per Today. Prior to the new FX series, a docuseries and podcast covered his story, adding to other media coverage over the years.
The new show is a spinoff of Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” series. Each season of the show “re-examines a prominent event involving a sports figure,” according to Variety.
“American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” dramatizes Hernandez’s real life. Here’s the true story.
Hernandez played tight end for three years for the New England Patriots, according to Biography.
His path to the NFL began in his childhood. Hernandez was raised in Bristol, Connecticut, by his parents Dennis and Terri Hernandez.
During his senior year of high school, Hernandez was named Connecticut’s Gatorade Player of the Year for football. His father Dennis passed away during his senior year.
After graduating early from high school, Hernandez joined the University of Florida football team as a 17-year-old freshman, per The New York Times.
Hernandez played for the Gators from 2007-2009 and worked under head coach Urban Meyer and with quarterback Tim Tebow.
He helped the Gators win a national championship in 2008. Hernandez earned All American honors in 2009, and that same year he received the John Mackey Award naming him the best collegiate tight end in the country, per Biography.
While in college, Hernandez got in trouble more than once. In 2007, he was questioned by police over a shooting in Gainesville, Florida, which injured two men, but there were no charges filed, according to Sporting News.
Hernandez was a person of interest in the case until 2017, when a witness who identified him recanted.
Hernandez also punched a man in a bar during his time at Florida, his teammate Tebow intervened to try and stop the altercation, according to Biography. No charges were filed.
Hernandez failed drug test as he was using marijuana while playing for Florida. Meyer, Florida’s head coach, became frustrated with Hernandez’s class absences and use of marijuana. He told Hernandez he should declare for the NFL draft because he wouldn’t be accepted back on Florida’s team for his senior year, according to Today.
According to Biography, NFL teams were hesitant to draft Hernandez “due to his admitted flunking of a drug test.” Additionally, a lot of teams “also worried about his association with gang types from his neighborhood back home.”
“He fell to the fourth round in the 2010 NFL draft before the New England Patriots selected him with the 113th overall pick,” per Biography.
The Patriots were led at the time by head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. Being on the team kept Hernandez close to where he was raised in Connecticut, per The New York Times.
Hernandez was the youngest person in the NFL during his first season and his 45 catches set a team record for rookie tight ends, according to Biography. Hernandez was a star on the team.
He and Rob Gronkowski worked together as a powerhouse tight end duo. The two helped the Patriots reach the Superbowl in 2012, which they lost to the New York Giants.
In August of 2012, Hernandez was awarded a five-year $40 million contract extension.
During Hernandez’s career with the Patriots, Odin Lloyd was one of his friends. He was a semi-professional football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee, per Today.
Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez’s home in Attleboro, Massachusetts, on June 17, 2013.
Police quickly traced evidence in the case back to Hernandez, according to Biography. Hernandez was arrested at his home for the murder of Lloyd on June 26, 2013. He was charged with first-degree murder and five firearms violations.
Within two hours of Hernandez’s arrest, the Patriots announced he had been released from the team.
According to Biography, Hernandez had gotten upset at Lloyd during a night out in Boston. Hernandez and two others were accused of driving Lloyd around the area before shooting him multiple times around 3:30 a.m. on June 17.
Footage from near where the body was found showed Hernandez’s rental car and other footage showed him arriving home with a gun shortly after Lloyd was killed, the article said. There were also .45-caliber casings found in the rented car and a condo owned by Hernandez which matched those at the murder scene.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to the murder of Lloyd.
The trial for the murder of Lloyd began in January 2015 and lasted more than two months. Hernandez was eventually found guilty of first-degree murder.
According to Massachusetts law, Hernandez automatically received life in prison without parole, per Biography.
Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado were both killed in a drive-by shooting in July 2012 in Boston.
Both Furtado and Abreu were at “at the same Boston nightclub as Hernandez on the night of the murders,” according to Biography. “Hernandez was suspected of targeting them after they left the club, shooting them in their car at a traffic light.”
In May 2014, Hernandez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder by a grand jury in Boston. In connection with the double murder case, he also faced assault and weapons charges.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. He was found not guilty of the murder charges on April 14, 2017, per Sporting News.
Just days after Hernandez was found not guilty of the double murder of de Abreu and Furtado, he was found dead in his prison cell, per Sporting News. He was 27.
His death was officially ruled as a suicide on April 20, 2017.
According to Biography, “Following Hernandez’s death, a judge erased his murder conviction, abiding by Massachusetts case law which calls for convictions to be vacated if the defendant dies before an appeal can be heard.”
Hernandez left behind a daughter, Avielle, born in 2012 to his fiancee Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez.
In Sept. of 2017, Hernandez was posthumously diagnosed with a severe case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. He was diagnosed by Boston University’s center for the study of CTE, per The New York Times.
CTE is caused by repeated head trauma and is commonly found in football players and other athletes who play high-impact sports, the article noted.
During his football career, Hernandez had a history of concussion-related injuries.
“CTE is often marked by problems with controlling aggression, mood swings, lapses in judgment and varying degrees of dementia. Doctors said that Hernandez was found to have the most severe form of the disease they had ever seen in a 27-year-old,” per Biography.
The first two episode of “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” released on Sept. 17 and additional episodes have been releasing on Tuesdays ever since.
There will be 10 total episodes of the series with the final episode releasing on Nov. 12, per Cosmopolitan.
“American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” can be streamed on Hulu.
“American Sports Story” on FX isn’t the first show about Hernandez.
Here are two other shows about his life.
In 2020, Netflix released a three-part docuseries covering Hernandez’s story. It was called “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez”.
Using interviews with friends, players and insiders, the docuseries explored how Hernandez went from football star to convicted killer.
The docuseries is rated TV-MA for language, smoking and self harm. It’s streaming on Netflix.
The podcast “Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc” also traces Hernandez’s life, according to Today.
Created by The Boston Globe and Wondery, the six-part series covers Hernandez’s life from growing up in Connecticut, to becoming a football star, to being convicted of murder.
“Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Footbal Inc” can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Wondery.