He played a Super Bowl, committed suicide in jail and even Netflix made a documentary: the disturbing story of Aaron Hernandez

02/02/2020 - 12:18

• Clarín.com
• international
• sports

The Super Bowl 2020 is coming and, with the game, lots of stories come back to light. And there is one of them difficult to forget. And it is that of Aaron Hernandez , who on June 17, 2013 started his day as a football star, but ended up accused of the murder of a friend.

At just 23 years old, life smiled at Hernandez as few in the world. He had a mansion, a millionaire contract with the England Patriots of the NFL: by then he had signed for five years in 2012, and included million dollar figures, something that had never been offered to a player in that position.

He also enjoyed a couple who loved him, Shayanna Jenkins , and a newborn daughter.

Although the evidence pointed against him, he maintained his innocence. In the course of the trial, a double life full of traumatic situations, drug addiction, violence, crimes and excesses came to light.

But his true ending came on April 19, 2017, when he was found in his lifeless cell , hanged with a sheet.

Player Aaron Hernández was arrested in June 2013. (Reuter)

The tragic and intriguing story of the sports figure was captured in a three-chapter documentary that premiered on Netflix on January 15. “Killer Inside: The mind of Aaron Hernández” (The killer hidden: In the mind of Aaron Hernandez) gathers exclusive interviews with family, friends, police and doctors, as well as calls that the athlete kept from prison.

Aaron was the main suspect in the murder of Odin Lloyd , a 27-year-old amateur football player who dated his fiancée's sister.

The evidence was overwhelming: evidence of his DNA in a marijuana cigarette next to the corpse, bullet caps found in a car he had rented coincided with those of the murder and the street security cameras showed him picking up the victim by his house Shortly before his death.

The picture became even darker when the police raided the house of a cousin that Aaron saw as his second mother: they found a truck that had been involved in a double unsolved murder in Boston on July 16, 2012.

As in many pain stories, a complicated childhood appears. Aaron's father had problems with alcohol. "Once he hit my mother until she passed out," Jonathan, her other son, recalled in his book "The truth about Aaron Hernandez: My journey to understand my brother."

In another chapter he recalled when his brother disappeared for a long time and claims to be linked to abuse.

Aaron Hernandez celebrating with Tom Brady the title of conference champion in 2011 (AP)

Aaron's sexuality also slipped through the problems. Dennis SanSoucie, one of his high school friends , confirmed in the Netflix documentary that they "experienced" homosexual relationships . "He was extremely terrified that his father found out," he said.

In 2006, his father died during a hernia operation that did not appear risky. Aaron, who was 16, lost his guide. Months later, his mother began dating Tanya's ex-husband, his cousin. "You made the worst decisions, you screwed my life," he later recriminated from prison. And they say he lamented with a phrase that continued to rumble: "You're going to die without even knowing your son . That's the craziest thing of all."

Shayanna Jenkins, Hernandez's fiancée, recently spoke on the Netflix documentary. While he did not criticize it openly, he said he would be full of conjecture because nobody really knew what was going on in his mind: "Although I have a son with Aaron, I still can't tell you how he felt inside. No one can," he said. to The Associated Press.