Episode 634: Aaron Hernandez Part I - Worst Case Scenario

Summary

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Last Podcast On The Left

Episode 634: Aaron Hernandez Part I – Worst Case Scenario

Date: September 12, 2025
Host(s): Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ed Larson

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Overview

This episode marks the beginning of a multi-part deep dive into the life and crimes of Aaron Hernandez, the NFL star turned convicted murderer. Helmed by Ed Larson, the discussion explores Hernandez's rise from a troubled childhood to NFL stardom, the toxic environment of football culture, personal trauma, and the systemic factors that contributed to his downfall. The tone is classic LPoTL: darkly comic, honest, and unflinching about football, masculinity, American institutions, and cycles of violence.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction & Tone Setting

• The hosts riff on Aaron Hernandez, quickly setting a comedic yet serious tone (01:35).
• Early jokes about Hernandez’s sexuality and “outing” are flagged as hacky and insensitive, foreshadowing the show's intention to treat the subject’s complexities with some care (01:53).

2. Aaron Hernandez: The NFL’s "Worst Case Scenario"

Ed: “Aaron Hernandez was the worst case scenario for the NFL and the New England Patriots. He only played three seasons of NFL football, but was on track to be one of the all time greats at his position ... But this would never come to be because on June 17, 2013, he murdered Odin Lloyd...” (04:56)

• Hernandez’s career trajectory: Prodigious athletic talent; only three NFL seasons; convicted for the murder of Odin Lloyd (05:20).
• Alleged body count: Hernandez likely killed three in total, shot three more—including two survivors—and died by suicide in prison in 2017 (05:30).
• Ed pushes back on labeling Hernandez a "serial killer," arguing that he was a violent, impulsive man shaped by toxic football/machismo, poor decisions, closeted sexuality, and severe CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) (06:06).

3. Personal Connections to Football Violence

• Ed shares personal stories about football-induced trauma, overbearing coaching, concussions, and similarities between his and Hernandez’s upbringing (08:07).
• The hosts relate their own football injuries and struggles with parental expectations, underscoring the cultural violence endemic to American football (11:06–11:25, 46:08–47:29).

4. The CTE Crisis

• Extensive discussion on the devastating toll of brain trauma in football, highlighted through Dr. Ann McKee’s research: "345 of [376] brains were diagnosed with CTE. That’s a whopping 91.7%" (12:13).
• CTE symptoms—impulsivity, aggression, poor emotional regulation—are linked to Hernandez's behavior (13:33).

5. Family Dysfunction and Upbringing

• Ed outlines Aaron’s troubled family: hero-worshipped but abusive father Dennis (“the King”), a mother with legal issues, domestic violence, instability, and Dennis’s shady past (14:47–16:22).
• Deep dive into Bristol, CT’s football culture: “Bristol…was a football town ... football was kind of the only thing they had left” (17:50).
• Abuse: “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…’” (18:58).
• Parental pressure and allegations of sexual abuse—though specifics remain unclear—playing a formative role (29:49).

6. Early Athletic Prowess & High School Years

• Hernandez dominated varsity football from age 13, physically advanced and recognized as a prodigy (21:06–21:27).
• Discipline at home was “old school”; after minor trouble he showed up with a black eye and apologized, assumed to be corporal punishment (22:13).

7. Substance Use, Sexuality, & Personality

• Early, heavy marijuana use—possibly coping with sexuality and family stress. Ed jokes: “If you smoke enough weed, you could forget you’re gay, apparently. But you can also forget you’re straight as well. So be careful out there.” (26:41)
• Aaron was “paranoid” and increasingly involved with Bristol’s criminal element, especially after his father’s death (27:59).
• His father suppressed any sign of femininity; the toxic impact of homophobia is explored (28:21).

8. Critical Family Upheaval

• After his father’s death (botched hernia surgery), Aaron showed little emotion—Ed and Marcus discuss emotional regulation, football as solace, and the effect of losing his only “accountability” figure (36:13–36:38, 31:21).

9. Adolescence, ADHD, and Structure

• Hernandez’s severe, untreated ADHD framed as a “skeleton key” to understanding his impulsivity, violence, and total obsession with football (39:54). Marcus: “With someone with severe ADHD…emotional dysregulation, it causes anger problems, over sensitivity… But it also can make you good at one thing… Aaron Hernandez, that was football.” (39:54–40:39)

10. College Recruitment, University of Florida, & "Cover-ups"

• Urban Meyer leverages loopholes to get Aaron to Florida early (43:25).
• Hernandez’s criminal behavior escalates: underage drinking, assaulting a bar manager, avoiding prosecution with university lawyers and “special treatment,” emboldening his sense of untouchability: Ed: “This is really when Hernandez started to feel like he was untouchable.” (53:12)
• Frequent mention of Florida’s culture enabling star players: “two-thirds of the time they were arrested,” major athletes avoided charges (54:56).
• Partnership with Tim Tebow: “Coach Meyer determined to keep Hernandez on the right path. He put Tim Tebow in charge…” (59:10). John 3:16, which would later be written in blood by Hernandez, becomes a haunting motif.

11. Crime, Violence, and Football's Warp

• Early brush with violence: alleged involvement in a nightclub shooting that left one man brain-damaged (“Squirt”), and how witnesses and the university circled the wagons to protect football stars (69:24–75:18).
• “With a stadium that fits 88,000 people…in a city of 150,000… It’s hard to argue with Squirt’s mom: ‘We live in Gator Country.’” (75:18)
• The culture of second, third, fourth chances for talent is dissected, and its disastrous outcomes for everyone but the programs (54:22, 75:18).

12. NFL Draft and Return Home

• At the NFL combine, Hernandez stuns with athletic ability but receives a “1 out of 10” for social maturity (82:24).
• Drafted much lower than his talent merited due to “baggage”—picked by the New England Patriots in the 4th round (85:25).
• Proximity to Bristol, CT, enables a rapid slide back into toxic relationships. Upon returning home, he faces more family drama and violence (87:00–88:22).

13. NFL: Foreshadowing Disaster

• Hernandez joins the Patriots, emotionally volatile: “He would openly cry when he made mistakes...not normal locker room behavior, but it is normal ADHD behavior.” (90:58)
• “If Aaron Hernandez said he was going to do something…he was going to do it.” (92:25)
• On the field: legendary tight end duo with Rob Gronkowski, Super Bowl appearances, playing through severe injuries (91:40–94:12).
• Off the field: growing violence, heavy drug use, lack of accountability, and a support system protecting him at every turn.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ed: "I don't think Aaron Hernandez murdered people because he liked it. I think he was a feeble minded wannabe gangster…also most likely being a closeted homosexual man and posthumously diagnosed with CTE…all these things combined is why I refer to him as the worst case scenario.” (06:06)
• Ed: “As far as CTE goes, unfortunately… the only way to properly get diagnosed is to examine the brain after you’ve already passed away… As of 2023… 91.7% [of 376 NFL brains studied] were diagnosed with CTE.” (12:13)
• Marcus (on untreated ADHD): "This for me...this is the skeleton key to understanding Aaron Hernandez." (39:54)
• Henry: “I want to be helpful. I just want to be a teapot.” (28:46)
• Ed (on parental abuse): “He once threatened to call the cops on his father. His dad replied, ‘I’m going to beat you even harder’” (18:58)
• Marcus: “It does not matter who you are or what you do; if a human being does not face consequences for their actions, they're going to do bad shit.” (97:53)
• Henry (on football star units): "If Greta Thunberg could put up 285, you'd use her." (84:12)
• Ed (on NFL Combine): “It has been compared by some as a slave auction...they do everything but check their teeth.” (80:36, 81:40)
• Henry (on urban myth): “If you have a man whose last name is Pouncy tattooed on your body, you might be a homosexual.” (65:35)
• Marcus: “We live in Gator Country.” (75:18)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 01:35: Opening jokes about Aaron Hernandez—sets tone
• 04:56: Ed’s formal introduction: Setting out “worst case scenario” thesis
• 12:13: CTE—Dr. Ann McKee’s shocking findings
• 14:47–18:22: Aaron’s family background, father’s history, household violence
• 21:05: Early athletic dominance & family discipline
• 26:12: Substance use and its psychological roots
• 29:49: Allegations of childhood sexual abuse and impact
• 39:54: ADHD’s central role in Aaron’s life and behavior
• 43:25: College years, Urban Meyer’s strategy, and corruption
• 54:22–55:08: Systemic enabling of football player crime at Florida
• 59:10: Tebow, religious culture, and Hernandez (John 3:16 motif)
• 69:24–75:18: Gainesville shooting, cover-ups, and Gator football’s power over justice
• 82:24: NFL Combine; character evaluation
• 85:25: The Patriots and the “sliding doors” moment
• 90:58: Locker room behavior; Hernandez’s emotional volatility
• 92:25: “If he said he would do something — he would do it.”
• 93:40–96:28: NFL success, proximity to home, and snowballing problems
• 97:53: Conclusion: Consequence-free culture and its consequences

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Conclusion: Setting the Stage for Part II

The episode ends with the hosts reflecting on the tragedy of Aaron Hernandez—both the devastation he wrought and the deeply broken systems that enabled it. Ed, visibly moved, contextualizes Hernandez as a living tragedy of American football’s violent legacy. Marcus notes that Hernandez, for all his pain inflicted, was also “a good friend... a good father,” and cautions about the perils of a society that grants talented men invincibility.

Henry (summary): “The country currently has CTE.”

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Summary At-a-Glance

• Main theme: The making of Aaron Hernandez as a “worst case scenario”—football stardom, violence, trauma, CTE, and a system rigged to protect talent at any cost.
• Key topics: Family abuse, sports culture, untreated mental illness, corruption and coverups, toxic masculinity, and the tragic inevitability of Hernandez’s fall.
• Tone: Unapologetically dark, honest, laced with gallows humor, but often raw and sobering.

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End of Part I. Next episode: Aaron Hernandez’s turn to murder.

Transcript

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[Marcus Parks]

There'S no place to escape to.

[Ed Larson]

This is the last on the left. Rise from your glade. That's when the cannibalism started. What was that?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Aaron Hernandez sucking on dicks even though he says he's not gay. Who does he slay?

[Marcus Parks]

That's awful. That's just terrible.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's like me and Edward Hernandez sucking on penis all day even though he's not gay.

[Ed Larson]

I've worked so hard on this.

[Marcus Parks]

You worked so hard. Me and Edward even, like, 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, yeah, like, yeah, you know, who does he slay? You know, like, 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. Like, let's not talk about it until like the second episode or something like that. And then it's just like fucking boom.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Hey, man, why don't you get you.

[Marcus Parks]

A job on that morning show that outed him?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Hey, buddy, why'd you try to make love to my butt?

[Marcus Parks]

Welcome to last podcast on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Parks. I'm here With Beatles cover master, the Weird Al of his generation, Henry Zabrowski. I swallowed an oat. I'm sorry.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, he. I'm sorry, guys. Marcus is gonna die today.

[Ed Larson]

He's upping his diet. He had a single oat.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm trying to make before I, before we started to eat. So I had a power bar and there was an oat in it. And the oat is now caught where my voice comes out of.

[Ed Larson]

I was ready to fucking Heimlich his ass, dude. He had to stop me. It was pretty great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You just getting in. I was like, you got to hear the word. You know, once you can say a word, then you're not dying.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know who's super good at the Heimlich?

[Marcus Parks]

Okay. Aaron Hernandez. Henry.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I don't think he ever saved a life.

[Ed Larson]

That's not in my research.

[Henry Zebrowski]

If it is to be, it is up to me.

[Marcus Parks]

And we have the extraordinarily hardworking Ed Larson with us as well. Ed, how you doing?

[Ed Larson]

I'm doing good. I'm doing good. This was emotional for me. Yeah, I, I, I learned a lot about myself while I was, while I was doing this. And hopefully over the next next week or two, it's going to keep going. But, man, the story is very tragic and it, uh, it actually, uh, made me cry and so his ass.

[Marcus Parks]

You never know.

[Ed Larson]

I could have, I could have brain damage. You never know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, you don't know. I actually think that you don't, you don't seem to have, like, you don't show weird aggressions and you don't like, flip out. Like in that way. You're very calm.

[Ed Larson]

Before weed, I got into lots of.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Fights, but now you got weed.

[Ed Larson]

I do got weed, but it didn't help Aaron Hernandez. Let's get into it.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, that's the thing is that today we are going to be starting a new series that's led by Mr. Ed Larson.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Blue 42. Blue 42.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. We got to balance everything out after the three weeks of Vampire the Masquerade.

[Henry Zebrowski]

This is our straightening of the network.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. We're going three weeks of Vampire the Masquerade to football.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Wrong subject.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes, sir. Aaron Hernandez, of course, convicted murderer and football star. Let's get into the story.

[Ed Larson]

All right. Aaron Hernandez was the worst case scenario for the NFL and the New England Patriots. 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 Attleborough, Massachusetts.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Why'd he do that?

[Ed Larson]

We'll get into it.

[Marcus Parks]

I would say. Still somewhat of a mystery why we do that.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Thank God he wasn't a quarterback.

[Ed Larson]

I've heard some people, if he was.

[Marcus Parks]

A quarterback, he never would have made it to the NFL. Because if you shoot 2gu in the.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Head and they live.

[Marcus Parks]

See, he's a receiver, Henry. He's used to getting it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, I've heard that.

[Marcus Parks]

Don't make that. That. Don't make that hacky joke.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Too late. It's too late already. It's already out of the. It's already out.

[Ed Larson]

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 as he made poor decision after poor decision. I agree that while also most likely being a closeted homosexual man and postmusly diagnosed with cte, Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive degenerative 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 was about to make $40 million over five years become a murderer. And even worse than that, a New England patriot.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

The Patriots.

[Henry Zebrowski]

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.

[Ed Larson]

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 oomph, Bob.

[Marcus Parks]

So, yeah, yeah, it definitely pushed it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, it is true. Like the. 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 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.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

But all of these things together, it's a perfect storm.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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 hammock that worships the pristine hands of Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We know that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Awesome. So far so good.

[Ed Larson]

I don't think that I have CTE and most people who played football never develop it, but it, it is estimated that onethird of NFL players suffer from the disease.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I think partially it's because of what we had a little sidebar conversation once about how that. And during our high school years they were way more focused on the neck.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They wanted to save the neck and they wanted to. That was like the whole thing. So it might have inadvertently protected your head.

[Ed Larson]

Well, they would te me to hit with my face mask first and to knock out other players. They would tell me to hit their helmet with my face mask.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Ball boys tussling and grabbing and ripping.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, the, the whole point. And I was taught the, the same thing is like don't definitely never go with your head like straight down. Cuz you know that that was what they were always afraid of was 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, is you're trying to knock the other guy off of his feet. So yeah, you, you are hitting your head into the other player over and over and over again.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Good old fashioned football. And I'm like, nowadays they're handing out purses at the front goddamn gate. Why is happen? I'm the man here today. I'm the man representative.

[Marcus Parks]

And the thing about Aaron Hernandez is like, when you watch his football, when you watch his tapes and when he was a kid, he. I have never in my life seen someone use their head so much when they're. 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 running through. He did more.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. But you know, some of us are more fragile than others. I just, you know, broke four bones.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes. I mostly commented upon football during the talent show. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I got 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 hit me so hard and I was such a small kid that I flew into the air and landed on my coccyx and broke it, broke my tailbone. I was like, that's how hard I.

[Ed Larson]

You must have been so fun to hit.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Such a. Fun. That's a funny memory that I don't have.

[Marcus Parks]

They really loved it. They. And that was just. That was my second bone broken playing football. The first was when the kid picked me up and spiked me and broke my collarbone.

[Ed Larson]

It's interesting.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let me get in there.

[Ed Larson]

It's one thing I. I kept thinking about during all of this cu. Like I said, I don't think I have cte. Who the knows? I'm pretty sure my father did, by the way.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

He had to stop playing football because he had too many concussions in the 60s.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Which means.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Elephants everywhere.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Yeah. He 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're like in my head when Mavica 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 been knock me unconscious, but they were mini concussions, I'm sure.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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. Ann 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 or families that thought they were infected.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, you need some control brains in there.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, exactly. When they. They did a different survey when she. Before she started studying this, she studied over 300 brains and only one of them was found to be to have CTE. And that person played college football and no one else did.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Actually, I have a test if you want to show. Come, come closer.

[Ed Larson]

Look here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You knock on the cranium like that, and if it sounds hollow, you got it. You CTE written maniac. You're about to explode.

[Ed Larson]

So as far as Dr. Ann McKee's research goes, Aaron Hernandez was in fact one of the BR that she researched. But we will dive deeper into CTE and the NFL's cover up in our next episode.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, not just the NFL's cover up, the WWE's cover up. I'm sure there's quite a bit going on in the NHL as well. Like we're gonna lose all of our.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Contacts at the NHL. Let's not do this. No, no. I was supposed to be the jester at the new Raiders stadium.

[Ed Larson]

But before we jump into Aaron Hernandez's origin, let's acknowledge our sources today. The rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez, All American Murder by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich with Mike Harvey. Also, we took some info from the Boston Globe series Goliath by the Spotlight Team Killer, Inside the Mind of Aaron Hernandez, the Netflix doc, and a little from the Truth about aaron by Jonathan D.J. hernandez. I took what I could from D.J. 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.

[Marcus Parks]

Sure.

[Ed Larson]

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 D.J. was three years older. Dennis Hernandez was a local football hero, nicknamed the King by pretty much everyone in town. Dennis played college football at the University of Connecticut. In 1977, two days after UConn 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 UConn.

[Henry Zebrowski]

How do these sports teams have so many connects to the football, to the fucking police? Like, even just the idea of waving this.

[Ed Larson]

Cops love football.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They do.

[Ed Larson]

It's what they do.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But even a cop murdering football star.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, he's not cop murdering specifically. It's rumored that he, like, it's thought that he may have helped some of the guys hide, like after they kill. After they were involved in the shooting, they may have gone to his house.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And be like, you got help me, bro?

[Marcus Parks]

And he helped them.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's like, of course, when you come to the gang, you know, you know, the king's ready to serve.

[Ed Larson]

That's kind of was his thing. Everyone loved him. Like, that is 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.

[Marcus Parks]

Jonathan, I could imagine if someone in my family is like, your name is Raider Red.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

We'Re a Texas Tech family, you know, like, you know, my uncle played football for. For Texas Tech for, you know, when was in College in the 80s, were all huge Red Raider fans, you know. But yeah, to name someone like, hey, that's Raider Red mc, this is our.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Son, Grimace Hamburglars of Brows.

[Ed Larson]

The obsession didn't stop there, though. They even bought a giant white husky and named the dog Yukon.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's cute.

[Marcus Parks]

That's a cool. That's a good name for a husky.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Is it?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, Yukon, like, you know, you like 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes.

[Ed Larson]

But it's like weird to like naming your dog fsu.

[Marcus Parks]

It is. No, it is. It's weird.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. But to Dennis, the boys had no choice but to play play at Yukon and they would fulfill his failed legacy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I will say I do wish my father had a legacy that I could fail.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Instead of being a security guard at Wacken Hut.

[Ed Larson]

Well, you could have been a cop.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And God damn it, what I would have brought to the force. God damn it. When I'm a real man in the force, I'm like, these two in here. This guy's getting out there, laying down the Law, I'll spank a man until he tells me what he's done.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, Bristol, I find it really interesting that, like, how popular Dennis Hernandez was and 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.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

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, and with Dennis Hernandez, like, it's really interesting because they, like, they called him the King, but his job, he was a janitor.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, he. He was not. Like, it wasn't like he was a. A local. He wasn't like Buddy Garrity in Friday Night Lights where he, like, owns the local used car franchise.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, he was just an old fashioned, peaked in high school kind of guy.

[Marcus Parks]

He was. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And he was a lot of fun.

[Ed Larson]

You know, he loved the party, did drugs. You know, he like, people placed their sports bets. You know, he was like, no.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, cool guy.

[Ed Larson]

In DJ's book, he goes into detail about how physically abusive his father was to him and Aaron.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Jesus.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. The Hernandez house was not a happy place to say the least. Dennis was arrested for trying to buy coke from a cop.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And they always have the. The worst coke.

[Ed Larson]

Well, it's so funny. I literally. The next thing I wrote is, no blame cop is cops always have the best coke.

[Marcus Parks]

Now, did his. Did. Didn't ask him, are you a cop? Because if that, if he did, he has to tell you.

[Ed Larson]

No, he probably just like, yeah. Then he was like, all right, good. Here's the money we used to give him money to cops. His mother, Terry, was also arrested when an illegal sports gambling operation was busted in their basement.

[Marcus Parks]

Wow.

[Ed Larson]

They divorced in 1991. They remarried in 1996, and in 1999, they filed for bankruptcy. And according to Aaron, there was a lot to argue about in the house.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it just seemed like that.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. But that's kind of romantic in a way.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, I guess so. But he did beat her up a lot.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, yeah, but I'm just saying.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, the divorce and remarrying.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Like, that's what I'm saying. I think it's sexy.

[Ed Larson]

It's a small town thing.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it is a small town thing.

[Ed Larson]

But.

[Marcus Parks]

But, you know, in the. 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. But what about these five years when they were divorced? When his parents were divorced? Like, was he living with his father during that time or.

[Ed Larson]

I don't know.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, like. Because that seems important, I imagine.

[Ed Larson]

I think what I. I'm pretty sure maybe he was living with his mother and his dad was just around all the time.

[Marcus Parks]

Gotcha.

[Ed Larson]

He probably never even left the house. They divorced.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

It's one of those situations. So Aaron and dj, they went to Central Bristol High School. Aaron was immediately a great player. As a freshman, he started on the varsity team at 13 years old. You're playing against 18 year olds.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

That's like a big. I know that's five years isn't a big deal, but those are crucial five years.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, it's massive. No, well, as I was saying earlier, when my collarbone or when my tailbone got broken by another kid. Kid. That kid was 18 and I was 13.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, like, but the thing is that I was 13 and like five' five. Aaron Hernandez was 13 and six' two.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. He could dunk a basketball in the seventh grade.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Was he just gifted physically?

[Ed Larson]

Yes. Yeah. No, he was basically like. They knew from a very young age he was gonna be a pro athlete.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's the dream as a father.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. He really. He got it. He got his exact wish with. With Aaron. 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, D.J. graduated and got accepted into UConn 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. He showed up to school the next day with a black eye and apologized. It is assumed Dennis gave him some old school discipline, as his coach put it.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is all, like. This is all very important to, like, who Aaron Hernandez eventually became as a person. Like, all of this like informs like the question of, like, how does a guy with a $40 million contract end up doing this? This is all part of it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Mean Daddy.

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[Ed Larson]

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. 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 fiance, Shayana Jenkins, and found his one true love. That sweet, sweet weed.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Aaron smoked a ton of weed.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, he did, son.

[Ed Larson]

Arguably more than I did.

[Marcus Parks]

Really bad for him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it did. It wasn't good for him.

[Ed Larson]

Smoked before school, before games, after games, before practice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I made my brain green. It's me.

[Ed Larson]

It's believed that the marijuana helped him deal with being closeted in a hostile home environment.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm. What?

[Ed Larson]

If you smoke enough weed, you could forget you're gay, apparently. But you can also forget you're straight as well. So be careful out there.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's what's happening to me.

[Marcus Parks]

I would, I would actually argue that the more he smoked weed, the more he probably obsessed over being gay.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Gay.

[Ed Larson]

I imagine he was very paranoid person.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Known for it. It was, it was the way lots of people described him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, like, because his thing was he'd just kind of show the wiener right. And go like it'd be the same if it wasn't having sex with.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, you're making him out to be an absolute.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He wasn't an absolute moron.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He wasn't. No. From everything I heard him speak, he doesn't sound like he's Barack Obama.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's what they said.

[Marcus Parks]

Ye was he was incredibly brilliant when it came to football and when it came to thinking about things like that. We'll get to that here in a little bit. The reasons why. But, but he, I, I would not say he was an absolute. I, I, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I get it. All I do is comedy. And yeah, he was basically told by.

[Ed Larson]

Everyone in this life, don't worry about.

[Henry Zebrowski]

School, of course you're going to. You are a born football star.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry about it. In fact, it's a waste of your time. You, you shouldn't be studying. You should be out there doing split squats.

[Ed Larson]

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 to dn. Hey man.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's allergic to being poor.

[Ed Larson]

His brother DJ remembered at first Aaron wanted to be a cheerleader because his cousins were cheerleade leaders. 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I will say though, I was so girly about being a teapot.

[Marcus Parks]

You're not short and st. You're tall.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I just want to be helpful.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, and I think also like the way that he talked, it was also a way to hide his sexuality.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Understand that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Cuz he, he wanted like he always.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He was that guy, he's the ha. Baby what you want baby.

[Ed Larson]

Everyone loved him. Yeah, yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He was very charming.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And he always, he and he always wanted to be seen as like tough and I, and it really is like sometimes there are people who think it's like being smart is gay. And by 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 for having a tiniest bit of intelligence.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The major in creative writing in Texas Tech. No way.

[Marcus Parks]

No way. No no, no way.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But I, I think I sure hope you want to kiss me because if not I'm gonna beat you to death.

[Marcus Parks]

But I think he, he just he over his, his is a story of overcompensation.

[Ed Larson]

Oh yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Again and again.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Does that. Is that proof we know that somebody at least said that, Right?

[Ed Larson]

And both his mom and his brother said it happened. And Aaron's lawyer.

[Henry Zebrowski]

My mom thinks everybody's molested.

[Ed Larson]

Did she think you were molested?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, she'll just say, you know, I.

[Ed Larson]

Mean, oh, God, we should look into it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And then I flipped it on him and I started sucking his dick. And I was like, you like this? You want me to be your.

[Ed Larson]

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 been.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You weren't even gay. Like, literally, like, imagine being closeted in.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, my God. My first date, my father was so happy. Happy because, like, when I said I wanted to do drama, he was so nervous. And then it was just like. And then when I went out with a girl, he was like, oh, my God, thank God. I was like, well, you know, it doesn't matter. Yeah, 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 old cte, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Life.

[Ed Larson]

Aaron had a quote from his father tattooed on his body. 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.

[Marcus Parks]

Come on.

[Ed Larson]

I apologize. But Cummings wasn't some random dude. He was married to Dennis Hernandez's niece, Tanya. That's Aaron and DJ's first cousin.

[Henry Zebrowski]

So it's just. God, man, you could be white trash anywhere, dude.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Bristol's what, 60,000 people somewhere around there. So small enough to be small town.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Growing up from Queens, Connecticut, was always like, that's fancy.

[Marcus Parks]

It's not.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's where fancy people live. And it's like, no, no.

[Ed Larson]

There's like, four fancy places, and the rest of it's actually quite dangero.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I did not know that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, very much. It's like, they've got ESPN's there the WWE's there, and then the rest of it is just like bad drivers.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They're just TV stations. It's not like they were. Like, they didn't. Like a corporation made them.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Like, it's not like Benjamin Franklin was born there. He just made ESPN there. It's not born there. It isn't a natural part of the fabric of the universe.

[Ed Larson]

It's a company.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why ESPN is specifically in Bristol, but. Yeah, but. But. And WWE as well. But yeah. Sometimes you corporations have Connecticut headquarters.

[Ed Larson]

I say not so discreetly, because on September 25, 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. Jerry Springer meets Friday Night Lights meets lead poisoning.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Scandal.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. No, that is. I could not imagine anything more humiliating.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, my God.

[Marcus Parks]

It's incredibly humiliating. At the.

[Henry Zebrowski]

At the game.

[Ed Larson]

Yes, but that was a Dennis's game, not Aaron's game. So just so.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, but even so, it. It. It tells you the volatility of this family.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, my God, dude. They used to beat the. Out of each other all the time.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You see, Dennis Hernandez, with his troubles from his youth far behind him, was a pillar of the community and Bristol. He knew the whole town and was nicknamed the King by locals. If he saw a flat tire, he was the first one there with a jack. The whole town saw him as a hero, even if he was a terror at home.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's almost like he did that so he could be a terror at home and he did it with impunity.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Or that he was trying to do everything. A lot of these guys also do this. They do everything in their power to be nice to everyone around them because they think it makes up for the terror that they are. House also does not.

[Ed Larson]

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. When news spread in Bristol about Dennis's passing, everyone would correct them. They would say, no.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You mean Dave died? No, Dave's like, I'm still here. I still live.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, I spent my entire life.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Dedicated to the medical sciences.

[Marcus Parks]

I have three patents in my name.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And my fucking janitor brother gets called the King. I'm fighting bravely against gangs every day. Nobody cares. Oh, But Dennis has football, so he does his football. Does Connecticut allow Kill me. Does he allow us to assisted suicide? Because I'm done with this Kill me. I'll do it myself.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

The largest funeral home in Bristol.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, we need the. Listen, we'll do four at once.

[Ed Larson]

We got a ton of chance. Try the salad bar.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I actually just learned from David Dust Mountain this week about the idea of least cat caskets.

[Ed Larson]

Oh yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I didn't know you could lease a casket for a funeral. Put you in the casket for the funeral. They then remove you and then bury you just like in a well.

[Ed Larson]

They cremate you.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well the. That. But it's the idea of like. So we'll just reuse it.

[Marcus Parks]

Interesting how I thought. 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 to use a c. Reuse a cast.

[Ed Larson]

I'm sure they have to tell you.

[Marcus Parks]

They have to tell. Yeah. I think if they don't tell you, then it's illegal out there.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, as someone who had to buy a couple caskets, a cheaper one's always nice casket useless. Oh, there. Don't let das mulch in here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I know, I know. I don't want to affect this bottom line.

[Ed Larson]

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. Emotion. DJ was a mess. 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm the best at basketball now.

[Ed Larson]

So now it's just.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's up to me. I just love his.

[Ed Larson]

If he was taller, he probably could have been a professional basketball player. They say because he was so good. But he was 6 2.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But it's also maybe because he was up against a bunch of kids that he was just physically so dominant.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, like I said, he had incredible. He could jump like a Big ups. Yeah. Yeah. So he could dunk at seventh in seventh grade, which is pretty much unheard of.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, but that. But the way that he could jump also made him an incredible receiver.

[Ed Larson]

No, he's quite good, but also good from getting his feet taken out from under him and landed on your head.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You'd almost call Him a power receiver.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. So I don't even want to tell you what his actual position was called because that the hacky Morning Zoo DJs, they beat you. They beat you to the joke many years ago.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, don't you worry about it.

[Ed Larson]

So now it's just Terry and Aaron at the house and she's had a pretty public affair going on with Jeffrey Cummings. And Aaron ain't taking any of this, but he's on track to get out of there soon.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He should have killed that guy.

[Ed Larson]

He thought about it.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

He definitely fought him a couple times, I'm sure. But he's on track to get out of there soon. 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 Tom Tanya, Jeffrey Cummings ex wife.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's really weird.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. They had plenty of to talk together so this trauma bonded them for life.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tanya kind of seems like a, like a, like almost like a weird witch woman.

[Ed Larson]

She, she's intense.

[Marcus Parks]

Tanya's very, very intense, Very haunted. But Tanya is just, she's one of those people like, well, you know, what if I just let him drink here at my house? At least I know where they are.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I know.

[Marcus Parks]

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. It's like, well, as long as I. But really she's just wanting to hang out. She's lonely.

[Henry Zebrowski]

She wants to be seen as cool by children.

[Marcus Parks]

Exactly.

[Ed Larson]

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 gang bangers important to our story, Carlos Ortiz and Bo Wallace. This crew would end up being a bad influence on Aaron Ortiz and Wallace would be with him when he murdered Odin Lloyd 7ish 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 said she hit him in the head with a hammer and that was his medication. She considered his Aderall to be likened to cocaine. So she never let him take it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's almost like she isn't A doctor and doesn't know what the medication does.

[Marcus Parks]

Well the, this for me the, the ADHD thing, this is the skeleton key to understanding Aaron Hernandez. Cuz with somebody with like it sounds like he has severe ADHD and, and you know severe ADHD as I know from experience it causes emotional dysregulation, it causes anger problems, it causes over sensitivity.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Lack of impulse control.

[Marcus Parks]

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 Aaron Hernandez, that was football.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He locked into football and he just had the mind for it because that's what his brain wanted. It just football always gave his ADHD brain what he wanted. He could hyperfocus on it. He could be incredible at it. But it also made him very emotionally dysregulated at all times.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Even in high school he spent up to 60 hours a week on football.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know and in the end thank God it was football in terms of making money. Not like watercoloring or something because it wouldn't have made anybody anything, you know. You know and think about who we would have murdered at the art store.

[Ed Larson]

Bob Ross. Give you a happy little.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. You want to see.

[Marcus Parks]

But yeah, that, that emotional dysregulation I, I think that paired with CTE is really dangerous. 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, I believe are completely linked to oversensitivity and also extreme drug use. Cuz extreme drug use, especially weed. Not great for an ADHD brain.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. 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 they throw his name on the jumbotron on he bought in a thousand percent. Aaron tells Yukon. Yukon, go yourself. I'm gonna be a gator.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now it's a. But UF is still a huge college football town and it's cool. But is it bigger than Yukon? Yeah, way bigger.

[Marcus Parks]

Way bigger.

[Ed Larson]

Yukon's more of a basketball school but they're Football. They're in the Big east, and. And they. They do have football, but it's like. It's not even close.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Children's sports scare scares me. Yeah. 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.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Either way, I'm happy to work Gators into the story, but the.

[Marcus Parks]

I believe that. I believe the college football players should be paid.

[Ed Larson]

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 giving themselves cte?

[Henry Zebrowski]

But, Eddie, I don't think you understand. Then how are they are supposed to make all that money?

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

If they give it to these stupid kids, they're just gonna blow it on fucking gum. You know how kids are. They're gonna blow it on burritos. They're not gonna invest that money.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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. Yeah, he didn't graduate early because he was good at class. No, they just let him go to Florida.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's awes.

[Marcus Parks]

And they pulled straight, like, they pulled a lot of strings to make that happen because I actually tried graduating early, too, to get the out, and it was difficult even for me, who's, like, actually like a student.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You were good at school.

[Marcus Parks]

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.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And like I say, it's nice to be able to skip all that grieving.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Well, this is something Urban Meyer actually was known for doing. It was a tactic he would often use to make his teams great. 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's awesome.

[Ed Larson]

Yes, sure.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, I mean, it's a school.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. It's a great tactic for get. For winning football games, man. They're just throwing these 17 year old kids like into insane, insane situations.

[Henry Zebrowski]

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 of. Remember how many times I like go in front of like 2,000 kids and just riff and like. And I didn't even think about it for a second. I.

[Ed Larson]

Me too. I would host the pep rallies. I would do an hour. Yeah. And I was just like, if you told me I had to do that now, I'd have a panic attack.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. We're like now then I could have just. I, I didn't think about the pressure of it.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, I did, man. I mean, because I, I was also the same way. Like, you know, performing was fine. Like up and perform in front of people, that was whatever. But I, you know, I played football all throughout my hell my senior year. 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 and come from a very, very small town where football is incredibly important.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, they got big shoulders.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, they're very, they're much, they're bigger than a big boy. Charlie's a very big boy. But Charlie works at it. But, 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. There was a lot of hope. Like there's another Parks coming up. Like all these Parks, like Parks are good at football. So he's going to come in and Marcus, once he gets in, once he.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Gets feet under everyone, it is. I, I have everyone enjoy the cure.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I was actually, I was actually pretty good until I broke my leg my junior year. And so I missed my entire junior year. Junior year and then came back my senior year and I was behind. I was in the wrong position. I should have been at running back instead of safety. But since I was back there, every team that played against us knew that Parks is bad. Parks is all you got. Like 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 on the other side of the fence going, come on porks, get your together.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Come on Pors.

[Marcus Parks]

Come on J.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Come on Por.

[Marcus Parks]

It's just like a whole town and the. And the next day. No, dude, it suck.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You hear me? Be big and fat sucking on. You suck, Marcus. You have good football.

[Marcus Parks]

It me up in ways that, that I'm still dealing with as a 42 year old man of like, you know, having like, you know, in the next day, like you doing parks, you know, I'd be out at parties like parks. You got to. You got to work it out, man. You got to figure out, see, just. And like the. The happiness of an entire town was placed on my shoulders.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I was so thankful to just utterly reject any of it. I remember just so happy to just not feel that. Thank God I didn't have parents that gave a. About any of that because as soon as I, I tried sports and as soon as I realized that I had limitations, I by like, I was like. I was like, oh no, I'm not a negative feedback girly.

[Marcus Parks]

No, my parents were actually fine. My parents were actually very good about that. They. They were like, 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, I was like, I'm not dealing with that anymore. I'm not playing. It was a fucking pariah because I didn't. Because I didn't participate in basketball and my last name was Sucked. Yeah. Yeah, no, exactly.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Just hated because I suck. I'm allowing another guy to take it.

[Marcus Parks]

Nope.

[Ed Larson]

Dude. The same thing happened to me when I finally quit football for, you know, weed and theater. Yeah. They. They treated me like, for, for years, the coaches, 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 so I was like, you know, what the am I doing? This is crazy. And you know that I was all up too, because I like my dad. Like, if I had a bad game, I would get like punch punished.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know, I would like get like grounded.

[Marcus Parks]

At least. I didn't get. I didn't get it that bad. I didn't get. My parents were cool with that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They didn't.

[Marcus Parks]

They didn't.

[Ed Larson]

I started taking steroids. It wasn't like steroid steroids. I didn't know I was taking steroids. It was. I bought it from gnc. It was a thing called Androstein.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh yeah. The.

[Ed Larson]

The. The. The spokesperson was Mark McGuire and he was fine.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He was completely clean.

[Ed Larson]

And I was popping those like crazy. I would Go nuts. I would, like, eat grass. I'd try to scare everyone. You know, it was like intense, you know, Idea.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know, and so I was all up on that for a while at 16. So it's just. That was just like I said, and I turned out pretty normal.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

You know, it's like, that's the crazy shit.

[Marcus Parks]

No, there's a lot of sliding doors with this shit. But yes, they're, they're, they're definitely ways in which this, in which football really up kids in this country. And Aaron Hernandez is the worst case scenario of how badly football can up a kid.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yep.

[Ed Larson]

And why should he? He's a guaranteed pro athlete now. Gainesville, being a great town to go to college, is also a great town to party in. And the only thing more important than education in this small town is the football team.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'd argue, say it's the, the only important thing in that small town.

[Ed Larson]

Maybe it's up there. Well, the hospital's great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. You got a lot of good, A lot of good doctors come out of here, Chance.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. And they helped Aaron get away with murder. Excuse the 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, 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 Swamp. And this is exactly where he had his first violent brush up.

[Marcus Parks]

First violent brush up that was reported?

[Ed Larson]

Yes, that was. Yeah, exactly one night he was hanging with Tim Tebow 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 Taphorn presented him with a $12 bill. And Aaron said something similar to.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I play football. We don't pay for.

[Ed Larson]

That's right. Tebow and other patrons tried to diffuse the situation.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let's pray on it. Son, let's pray on it, dog.

[Ed Larson]

Come on.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let's pray Christ together, dog. Come on. Let's bring Christ in this dog. Tim Tebo can suck my dick.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, my God. He's the worst. The worst.

[Ed Larson]

He is the most annoying football player of all time. How is he more annoying than Aaron Hernandez?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Legitimately, I think he's a worse person than Aaron Hernandez.

[Ed Larson]

Tap Horn grabbed Hernandez and then Hernandez sucker punched him, rupturing Tap Horn's eardrum in the process. And then he ran away, leaving his sneaker behind like a Cinderella in berserker mode.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Only my true princess will find my sneaker and bring it back to me later.

[Ed Larson]

A university lawyer convince the bar manager and owners not to press charges, offering them tickets and an apology from Hernandez.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's as good as money.

[Ed Larson]

That's right. They never got their apology. But occasionally, Hernandez would creep by in his car, making intimidating finger gun gestures towards the employees.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, it's not just, you know, them convincing him to. To not press charges. You know, if this guy takes Aaron Hernandez out, if he. He takes their, you know, star. If he takes the U of F star player circulation, his bar's done.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, yeah, they're.

[Marcus Parks]

They're boycotting that bar. He loses his entire livelihood. That bar gets boycotted, people stop going there, and he's just done because some kid decided to punch him in his. In his head.

[Ed Larson]

Sports bars across the nation rely on football. If football ever ended, the restaurant industry would take a giant hit.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Ed Larson]

And I think that's one of the reasons.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it's all connected.

[Ed Larson]

It's amazing.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Industries built on top of a billion dollar industry because of the. Because it's all feed. It's very, very difficult.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Now, this may not seem like a crazy, important incident, 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 patron. And Wilson went to his car, got his AK47 to scare a guy. Which worked.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

AK37 maybe wouldn't have done the trick, but the.47, they're great. Hey, I had an AK47 when I was their age, too.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You're just like them.

[Marcus Parks]

That must be a Florida thing. Wow.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah. No. AK47s were kind of weirdly prevalent.

[Ed Larson]

I bought mine on sale with my tax return.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Nice.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, in Texas, they were. Our drug dealers are much more like handgun guys. They always made sure to have it on the table when you went by to buy weed.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Ed Larson]

It was so much harder to keep the scale on the table with the ak, you know, it takes up so much room.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, I know. Now 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.

[Ed Larson]

That's like, oh, we smoked out of the shotgun.

[Marcus Parks]

Nice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, that was cool. He called the.

[Ed Larson]

You were there for that, weren't you? Nice. He called the cops and Wilson fired the gun into the air, which gave Wilson 100 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 around town for his players acting out. He was an advocate for second, third and fourth chamber, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Wow. Great.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

As long as he keeps putting up numbers.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, as long. As long as he keeps playing. As long as he keep. As long as he still scores touchdowns, like he's going to keep. He's going to believe that he's going to get out of whatever happens to him.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, man, it's up. You know, I really, really do think I hate football.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, it's really changed.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, it really has. I'm working on it, though. I might. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel. We'll see how I feel after this.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'll tell you about the factors that keep me going. They're saucy and delicious. Between busy schedules and summer plans, sometimes all you got is a couple of minutes. Factor helps you eat smarter with tasty chef prep meals that are dietitian approved and delivered right to your door. Again, I really, I can't stress this enough. It is not food made by dogs for people. That's come up quite a bit. That's not what it is. It's made by people for people, not dogs for people. Get that straight. Here at lpn, we love our factor meals. They come in a brick, they go into the microwave and they come out soft. My crew is snacking up a monster them big time. They like the chicken and they like the vegetables and I think many of them like the sauces involved. Rob loves the Tomato factor. God I love it as well. I love watching him eat it. And that's my favorite part about Factor is watching the smiles of my employees faces as they shovel it into their mouths. And I watch them. They're all eating and loving and going thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm like, yeah, you're right. Yeah, you can own a thing. Thank for that. Factor Eat smart@Factor Meals.com left 50 off and use code left 50 off to get 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's code left 50 off@Factor Meals.com for 50 off your first box plus free Breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renew and subscription purchase if you're sleeping.

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[Ed Larson]

Debt Relief.com Coach Meyer determined to keep Hernandez on the right path. He put Tim Tebow in charge of him. Tebow, a known evangelical, was notoriously one of the most religious players of all time.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Failure. And he was.

[Marcus Parks]

He failed.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Was awful. This. Yeah, he really did the bed. Isn't he playing for like Romania now?

[Ed Larson]

He's a commentator now. Ah. 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 bowing. Tebow would often write Bible verses on his eye black as well. John 3:16 was his favorite. And it goes like this for God. So love the. Actually, Henry, you want to take the.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Bible quote, but God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not be perished, but have eternal life.

[Ed Larson]

John 3:16 would be written in blood on Hernandez's prison cell and in ink on his forehead when he would commit suicide years later.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yikes.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that's.

[Ed Larson]

That's a Yikers.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Honestly, it's a long. That's a long kind of phrase for him.

[Marcus Parks]

No, he just.

[Ed Larson]

John 3:16.

[Henry Zebrowski]

If you write that, you don't have.

[Ed Larson]

To write the other. The rest of the ph. Yeah, that's the whole thing is you.

[Marcus Parks]

Write John, you just write John 3:16. Others.

[Ed Larson]

Are you bad at the Bible.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That he gave his one and only son?

[Ed Larson]

Well, Tebow, annoying Jesus freak 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 if Florida threw a game winning TD to Hernandez with a separated shoulder.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I like my players not getting hurt.

[Marcus Parks]

Then you don't like any players because they all play like this.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No.

[Ed Larson]

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. It was kind of working.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh my God. Just him, just all day being like, Aaron, come on, let's pray on this now. Come on, let's get Aaron praying. Like what is pray?

[Ed Larson]

They prayed together. They practice after practice and. But the problem was every time Aaron would go back home to Bristol, Connecticut, he would reconnect with his bad boy crew of cousin Tanya, 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. Aaron felt allegiance to them because they were the ones that were there for him when Dennis died.

[Marcus Parks]

I, man, don't know how many times I got to say this, but just cuz someone was kind to you when you were younger, that does not mean that you have to let those people bring you down for the rest of your life.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, also, he's the type of guy, guy that is now living like his father. So Aaron Hernandez, he views himself as his father, is a role model. The father's the king. Right. 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, he technically you'd, you'd say his father flamed out.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, very much so. But yeah, that's why he pushed his own kids so hard. Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

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 haven't. 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 mad because they're my friends. Because it's this whole 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.

[Ed Larson]

Because they know he's going to be a millionaire.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, maybe.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I mean, I think like one of those things, Tony, it's like a townie thing.

[Marcus Parks]

It is a townie 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.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He should have been in therapy. He should have gotten structure at all points. And I. He goes back to Bristol, he's looking for some sort of structure. He's looking for something, but all he finds are people that are just telling them what he wants to hear.

[Ed Larson]

He's literally sleeping on the couch while they're doing drugs around him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. And he just thinks it's he. That is his version of what family and home is.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah. Cuz it's. Cuz it's his cousin, his first cousin that took him in. And so he thinks all this is normal. They can't be wrong.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's my family, cuz she.

[Marcus Parks]

And also she loves me so much. And she's the one. And you know, her mother is. Or Aaron Hernandez's mother is hitting him in the head with a 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

All right, so now let's get into the shooting incident in late September 2007. After UF lost an early division game 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 gators when an ex gator, 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 Pouncy twins, who would be connected to Hernandez for years to come. Yeah. He even tattooed their initial initials on his body. Oh, it should be noted that was it two guys. Two guys. Mike Pouncy and I. Actually, I didn't take the time to learn how to pronounce the other. Pounce his name.

[Henry Zebrowski]

If you have a man's whose last name is Pouncy.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tattooed on your body, you might be a homosexual.

[Ed Larson]

Well, it should be noted that Mike Pouncy later had a very public incident when he played for the Miami Dolphins. Him and offensive lineman Richie Incognito 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.

[Marcus Parks]

A lot of themes that are repeated.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

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 Cason, who had it out for UF players because one kicked the out of his brother a week prior.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Never have an issue with entire football team. Yeah, it seems that like they might have a bunch of numbers against you and they might just Beat the living out of you to your dad.

[Ed Larson]

They're kind of strong.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, I was. Ted, the football player is a Texas Tech. Can't even stayed away from the football like they.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I gave the FSU players a wide berth.

[Marcus Parks]

They were like. They were such that like when one like one of the football players, like, got paralyzed during his season and everyone was like, good. I hate that. That guy because he was a monster around campus. He would go into parties, start punching people.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I did not meet a nice one. Yeah, they were very frightening.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And they were too big to be in school. He should have been let go. I think you get to a certain weight class, you can't be be amongst other kids anymore. Like, you got to leave. You're too big, you're too dangerous.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm sure some of them are very nice, man. At these schools or football is like a big deal. Cuz when I would.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Jamie Wilson used to show up and just park halfway across all the handicap spots and just like, you can't say anything to him.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, yeah, Chris Ricks, man. He always get in trouble for parking in the handicap spots.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Jesus. Yeah, and they're just. I guess they're just mostly be like.

[Ed Larson]

One day I'll make one. After the club closed, there was a quick scuffle in the parking lot.

[Marcus Parks]

Jason, the Pouncey twins are here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Hello.

[Marcus Parks]

My name is Michael. This is my twin, the Pouncey twin.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I can't pronounce my other name.

[Marcus Parks]

He is unpronounceable, and thus he is ungovernable.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm the Ponzi twin. Tie the back of my costume. My bot is hanging.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, don't worry about that. I want to make sure that your butt is not open to the public.

[Ed Larson]

When Casein and one of his crew went up to them and said, 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 Cason, were stuck in traffic and their Crown Vic. Late nights in college towns 10 tend to be a standstill of drunk drivers. When the bars let out on game nights, it's chaos.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes, because there's a bunch of people that are illegally drinking who also don't.

[Ed Larson]

Know how to drive. Yeah, in a traffic jam, yeah, it's the worst. Casein 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 2am Procession traffic had everyone at a certain standstill. All of the people in Casein's Crown Vic were strapped, except Squirt, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was being talked. The tension started to develop.

[Marcus Parks]

It was a developing situation.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes.

[Ed Larson]

They were on University Drive. And a sign ahead of them said, welcome to the University of Florida. They're in the middle of everything. Then, according to Kayson, apparently a man that looked exactly like Hernandez walked up to the car, stuck a gun in the window and fired from 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 ran away.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Let's go to the CTE mobile.

[Ed Larson]

Other witnesses said the man who shot the gun was a black man with cornrows.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Now, at the hospital, Kason was certainly made Squirt.

[Ed Larson]

Squirt, that's right. Now at the hospital, Kayson was beside himself. He felt guilty that he gotten his friend Squirt shot and that head. Kayson and the other fellas with guns in the car had local gang ties. But Squirt was just some dude in community college with shitty friends.

[Henry Zebrowski]

My name's Squirt.

[Ed Larson]

Kason was screaming it should have been me over and over again. When Detective Patty Nixon arrived to take a statement. He fingered Aaron Hernandez as the shooter and the Pouncy twins as the instigators.

[Marcus Parks]

I'm not an instigator. I am a master.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm a negotiator.

[Ed Larson]

Even though in uninvolved witnesses had 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Coincidence.

[Ed Larson]

But when asked who shot him, he kept pointing to 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.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

They took. Took this as it was possibly Aaron Hernandez who did the crime.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It was the thing from the Adams family film.

[Ed Larson]

Or possibly it was just the side effect of being shot in the head.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? He probably pointed to a little man. He's like, the little man will tell.

[Ed Larson]

You, man, there's a witness in my hand. Detective Patty Nixon. Squirt Jr. 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.

[Marcus Parks]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And he's a real good football player.

[Marcus Parks]

He, he was the best. He was incredible. They had two national championships when he was there.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, the lawyer, his name was Huntley.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I believe, and he was like an effortlessly good player.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, he was like one of those guys that just showed up and he just was immediately better than everybody else.

[Marcus Parks]

He could party all night long and show up and fucking murder it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

24 and 23, he was like.

[Marcus Parks]

But I mean even so, man, like I couldn't, like I had a hard time, 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. All you boys, I know you've been drinking last night because we were all playing like cuz we had been drinking the night before. It takes a special kind of person to show, to party all night and show up and still play.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, the lawyer.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Cool guy.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, the lawyer Huntley.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, he said that he's a dog.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He got a dog.

[Ed Larson]

That's me, man.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I got a dog, man. It's little.

[Ed Larson]

Oh yeah, the lawyer Huntley, he, he had a signed picture of the team from Urban Meer in his office and Urban Meyer wrote on there, thanks for all help. You're the 12th member of our team, basically.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, that is the lawyer for the most arrested college team of all time.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What can I say? I know when the getting's good. Yeah. Thank you guys.

[Marcus Parks]

And there's nothing I love more than getting children off for violent crimes and possibly sexual ones as well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

All I'll tell you is you keep them crimes coming, I'll keep lawyering.

[Marcus Parks]

You know what I say the victim, let's get another championship because that's what matters here in Gainesville.

[Ed Larson]

When held for questioning, the Pouncy twins stories matched, mostly saying the man stole Mike Pouncey's chain at the club, approached them in the parking lot and showed them the chain and a gun.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Your had children?

[Ed Larson]

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 Pouncy twin said Aaron went home with them and another said he went walking around. When Detective Nixon went to question Hernandez, she was a little upset to find him fast asleep in the interrogation room.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's always at ease.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, they said that's what his closest friend said, is that they never saw him show fear once, ever for anything.

[Ed Larson]

After some time, she released the Pouncies 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I want my lawyer present. I'm sorry, my lawyer told me to say that.

[Ed Larson]

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 that he had a visitor with him that night. Neither did the Pouncy 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. When asked about it today, his mother just simply says, we live in Gator Country.

[Marcus Parks]

Yep.

[Ed Larson]

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 with Squirt's mom. There's a lot of money in the Florida Gators being a winning football team and the players getting special treatment to make sure that no matter what, they were on the field ready to play. 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, and his wife, a psychologist, would often hold private sessions with him. In the end, sexy. In the end, though, he looked past some of Aaron's troubles more than he should have. But the pressure 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The pain comes rolling down from the very, very top. It's called the viciousness of capitalism.

[Marcus Parks]

Yep. The pressure. Pressure starts up top and just goes all the way down.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, man. Aaron. Aaron Hernandez was one of those IT players. He was as good as any one Coach Meyer had ever coached.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He really was.

[Ed Larson]

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 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 to 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. His daily marijuana use continued to be a problem and he was not hiding it. But finding ways to pass the drug test was with clean urine. He would push the clean urine through a fake penis if being watched.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That was very common.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. I remember these things were being called wizinators.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yes. I had one for a job interview.

[Ed Larson]

Really?

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, I, I, I only had to take one drug test my whole life and I did get clean for it. You know what the job was?

[Ed Larson]

What?

[Marcus Parks]

Janitor. They Yeah, I would, I worked that job for like two years. But yeah, they were like, yeah, you know, we want to hire you full time, but you're going to take a drug test. I'm like, yeah, if you want to hire me full time, you have to wait a month.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, and then we'll take the drug.

[Marcus Parks]

Test and then we'll see.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Because first thing I clean was yourself.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, I want you to be on drugs as a gym.

[Ed Larson]

The 2009 season, Aaron Hernandez had an amazing junior year as a Florida Gator and won the Mackey 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

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. Like, 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 leagues.

[Ed Larson]

In Urban Meer, even though he knew how talented and a straight up force of nature he was, was on the field, told him there was no room for him on the team anymore and that he should enter the NFL draft.

[Marcus Parks]

See, I didn't know this. I did not. Because every documentary I saw always said, like, Aaron Hernandez decided to go to the NFL. I didn't know that. Urban Meyer said, like, I don't want to deal with you anymore. Get the out of here.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, he's like, there's no. He just figured he was going.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

And then when Aaron was like, hey, listen, I'm gonna stick around, he's like, you can't.

[Marcus Parks]

You know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, you gotta go. Wow. So he just failed him up.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, he just told him to get out of there. That's incredible for him.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I'm sure Remy probably. 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.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, the same thing happened to me in theater. They were like, you can't go to districts this year because we're working on the junior. You're a senior. And I was just like, well, but I'm a scene.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I finally got the spot.

[Ed Larson]

I mean, I wasn't that good, so.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But you won in the end, didn't you?

[Ed Larson]

I did. I'm here. He could no longer handle Hernandez's weed smoking, his overall and off the field violence. Violence was more than welcome, 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 Athletes 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, taking your statistics class again? Come on out to Cali with your brother DJ and we'll get you trained up and ready for the NFL Combine.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The NFL Combine sounds like it's fun.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. Well, the NFL Combine is an insane experience that has been compared by some as a slave auction. Oh.329 players are invited to show their strength, speed, agility and intelligence. Whoa.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And their curiosity with their creativity.

[Marcus Parks]

Their whimsy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Their whimsy.

[Marcus Parks]

You know, what is it?

[Ed Larson]

They all in their underwear.

[Marcus Parks]

Their create the. Their creativity, uniqueness, nerve and talent.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's what they need to show.

[Marcus Parks]

Charisma, uniqueness, nerve and tough.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. Hernandez showed up.

[Marcus Parks]

You've scored three on the scale.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Thanks.

[Marcus Parks]

You have to play for the Cleveland Browns.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, no, no.

[Marcus Parks]

Not the brute.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Not the dookies.

[Ed Larson]

They named their team after 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Look how big his legs are long his arms are.

[Ed Larson]

They're in their underwear.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's weird.

[Marcus Parks]

No, it, that. That's why people compare it to a slave auction. Because it's like they do everything but check their teeth.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, they watch your teeth. Teeth. Watch their gate.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Check under their tails.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, they. 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 anyone and scored well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

So what's this? That's a football. And what's this? That's a helmet. 10 out of 10.

[Ed Larson]

Well, he. He did. He scored 10 out of 10 for focus and mental quickness. ADHD, 9 out of 10 for self efficacy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What does that even mean?

[Ed Larson]

I don't know. And 7 out of 10 dedication. But the category of social maturity. He scored 1 out of 10.

[Henry Zebrowski]

What you talking about?

[Ed Larson]

Oh man, they came at his ass hard, dude. They pressed him about his shitty friends back home, his failed drug test, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He shut up the up. You shut the up.

[Ed Larson]

Basically how he reacted.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Not a good way to be during the combine.

[Marcus Parks]

It's not, no, it's. It's like almost like he's the Ghostbusters 2 mood slime and they're trying, and they're trying to get him to bubble over.

[Ed Larson]

Rumors started to develop about his gang unstable molecule. 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. Then came the pro day workouts back in Gainesville. He had to over perform there as well. Did Tim Tebow who didn't have a great combine as well.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It turns out that was because he was a bad football player.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, he just choked. It happens. It happens to quarterbacks a lot. They are amazing in college and then they just go to the NFL and they just. The bed was a Johnny Football from A and M. Him.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

God helps though. That helps themselves. So you better be good.

[Ed Larson]

God was good for like one season in the NFL and then everyone figured out how to go against them and he never could do it again.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Hernandez overperformed at the pro day workouts though. Back in Gainesville he got a 4, 5, 40 yard dash. He could bench Press more than any other tight end. But his character would continue to be called into question. Now, April 22, 2010.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, man. This thing, man. Greta Turnberg isn't there. If Greta Turnberg could put a 285, you'd use.

[Ed Larson]

Now, April 22, 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 Pouncey, are picked in the first round.

[Marcus Parks]

Because the Pouncey, Mike Pouncey is always a first round gentleman.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Everybody needs a little kitty cat. Everybody needs a big old stinky cat. All right.

[Marcus Parks]

Hope I go to the Detroit Lion.

[Ed Larson]

Four more players from the Florida Gators would be picked before Hernandez, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Honestly, I think it's a plus.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, man, you mess with Brandon.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Don't Spikes, don't with him. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

My God, those linebackers.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's funny.

[Marcus Parks]

And he's trying to rip out of.

[Ed Larson]

Teammates eyes of opposing players again.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's a pro.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, that is a pro. Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Finally, during the fourth round, on the last day of the draft, with the 113th pick, the 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 pick so low. He had only one failed drug test on record, but rumors said that he had failed six and UF covered it up. Bill Belichick, evil gross that he is, knew how to manipulate the NFL draft. Tom Brady was a six 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 into successful winners. At the Patriots, he had done so with players like Randy Moss and Brian Cox. They even drafted the eyeball popper Brandon Spikes. So this should have been the best case scenario for Aaron Hernandez.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm starting to think that there's something wrong with Bill Belichick. These guys are essentially criminals.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, it's like fucking like the people patriots are like 13 ghosts pulling together all.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I specifically choose the murderers Now.

[Marcus Parks]

That's the Oakland Raiders.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. A real team with real men playing real ball.

[Marcus Parks]

I guess they're Los. The Las Vegas Raiders now.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, they'll. They'll always be Oakland to me.

[Ed Larson]

They were in Los Angeles for a long time as well.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

Either way, Al Davis.

[Marcus Parks]

There you go.

[Ed Larson]

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. You see the New England Patriots play in Foxboro, 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 trouble passes pass had begun. He hired two buddies with criminal past as his assistants and one of them was his weed dealer. So that's convenient.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That is called a promotion.

[Marcus Parks]

That is an assistant. He is assisting him getting weed.

[Ed Larson]

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. He hated the man his mom had been publicly cheating on his, 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 himself. He had a rap sheet that including hitting women and children. 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.

[Marcus Parks]

That's Jeff. That's Cummings.

[Ed Larson]

Cummings did this. Yes. Check Jeff Cummings 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 Eric.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They're all just drama monsters.

[Ed Larson]

Yes.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes they are. But I don't, I don't know if I agree with the. But with the assumption that if he would have been drafted any other team, he would never have killed anyone. I just think it would have taken longer. I think he would have eventually because.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He would have found a network of, of.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I think just the stories that they tell and like the, the emotional disregulation that he had and how bad the CTE was and how much he would just flip. Yeah. Like if he would have been drafted to another team. Maybe, maybe not. But the possibility was always still there.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. It's not like he was well behaved in Florida.

[Marcus Parks]

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 popped that guy's eardrum. They weren't there when he fired a gun. When he allegedly fired a gun until those other two guys car like he was cruising for a bruise.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. When he was. When he popped the dude's ear drum, he was with a tennis player and the most religious man in football, so.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Exactly.

[Marcus Parks]

That's true. But never forget the Menz brothers, also tennis players.

[Ed Larson]

Oh.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, wow. Cute.

[Ed Larson]

When Hernandez joined the Patriots, he was an emotional disaster. During his first week, he almost fought Wes Welker.

[Marcus Parks]

Welker. Well, sorry you.

[Ed Larson]

I love Wes Welker too.

[Marcus Parks]

He played it. He played at Texas Tech when I was there.

[Ed Larson]

Oh, yeah. It was a great. He was a great Dolphin.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, he was.

[Ed Larson]

He was like the only guy who like returned a kick, returned for a touchdown, punted the ball, returned a punt and made a tackle in the same game. Yeah. Is a great record.

[Marcus Parks]

He was incredible to watch in. In college and he was actually a nice guy from what I hear.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, well, nice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm out of my depth, but you know why?

[Marcus Parks]

Also I think the other thing too. Wes Welker not a big guy.

[Ed Larson]

No. He was a tiny dude. He was a route runner.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

He quick cuts.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. And there's something about like the bigger guys, like the guy that I talked about earlier that everyone hated. He was gigantic.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's why. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

They massive the smaller guys nicer always.

[Ed Larson]

Well, the reason he tried to fight Welker is cuz Welker wouldn't help him figure out a weightlifting machine. Welker just giving the rookie a hard time, said, figure it out for yourself. Other than that incident though, he was often referred to as a sweet guy. They called him Chico. They all, you know, he's a buddy around in. 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.

[Marcus Parks]

It is normal ADHD behavior. The over the oversensitivity and his is just out of control in every way.

[Ed Larson]

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. And Hernandez wasn't popular yet. And he was always available for an interview. And one day he told the reporter.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I like you, but if you ever me over, I'll kill you.

[Ed Larson]

Seemed out of nowhere. But the statement stuck with the reporter for sure.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Yeah. You know, we talked last.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Huge man.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, we talked last week about the like the Kentucky Vampire kids who like, would always talk about they would kill this person or kill that person. It's like, don't take him seriously.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They were 95 pounds soaking wet.

[Marcus Parks]

Take this guy seriously.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

This is a guy that, like, should not be throwing around like, you know, I'll kill you.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm gonna kill you. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Like, he is not around.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I look at my hands and I just wonder, my hat's gonna kill the day.

[Ed Larson]

He was always smiling.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, that's why I'm doing it. Like.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You don't try to with me. Yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

He's always like, that's crazy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You're crazy. Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. He would get very, very angry though. And. Yeah, just the, just the, the way he would say, I'll kill you. And there was also like one of his other.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He came loudly.

[Marcus Parks]

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. Yeah, like, that was like a part of his character.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, he was definitely follow through.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

The 2011 season, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were unstoppable as a tight end duo. Even as rookies, they were both top five tight ends in the league 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 game that year was against Tim Tebow in the Denver Broncos. Tim tebow was all, John 3:16 doubt.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I hate him. I hate him.

[Ed Larson]

The previous week he wrote John 316:16 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 Hope Two time accused rapist Ben Roethlisberger threw an interception on third and 16 and the ratings for the game were 31.6 million viewers. John 3:16 was all anyone could ask ever talk about. Even God thought it was a little on the nose. It didn't matter though. The Patriots kicked the out of them the following week, 45 to 10. God isn't real.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, killing God.

[Ed Larson]

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 wasn't going to stop him from playing in the super bowl in two weeks.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, playing with head injuries. I mean, this is a guy that's about to play the Super Bowl. When I was in 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

They want me.

[Marcus Parks]

And the coach just told him like, hey, Gary, y. Calm down. Just it be okay. And then after about, I don't know, a couple of possessions, he shook his head and went right back into the game. And he was, he was hallucinating.

[Ed Larson]

Yes.

[Marcus Parks]

On the sidelines and that was how he's doing. And you know, I don't know. I'm actually, I'm actually not sure. Haven't talked to him in a very long time. I don't know how he's doing these days.

[Ed Larson]

But you got off Facebook.

[Marcus Parks]

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, but. 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.

[Ed Larson]

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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Well, that was what they told you. That's what they fed that. That's. Yeah, that's what you do to show commitment.

[Marcus Parks]

No, when I, When I broke my leg, I walked. It was during 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. Yeah. And then I took a shower. I drove myself to, you know, my parents job and walked in and said I need to. To the hospital right now. But the. But the whole time and that's not even playing. That wasn't even playing football. That was like, just like not being. Want to be seen as a. During practice. I mean, and think about the, you know, the pressure of playing in the Super Bowl.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, I know, it's nuts. So Super Bowl Sunday, during Kelly Clarkson's national anthem, the cameras turned to Aaron Hernandez. He stood there visibly, like 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ed Larson]

During this off season, 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Eddie, great job.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, this is fantastic.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, it's intense, man. Yeah, I tried to fill it with jokes, but it just made me so sad.

[Marcus Parks]

It's.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's my job.

[Ed Larson]

You.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's.

[Marcus Parks]

It's a very sad story. Like, you know, like in. In so many ways, like, Aaron Hernandez is a. In so many ways he met other people. People's lives miserable, but in so many other ways, you know, you hear people talk about him like he was a nice guy, he was nice to be around. You know, like he was like his, like for any. It's. What's so strange is like there's like his wife or I guess a fiance at the time, but like never said anything about any kind of domestic abuse. Like he was apparently like, you know, there for his kids. Like, he was a good friend, but also just this violence is 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Look at. Lawrence Taylor is now on the fitness. The. The new fitness board for the White.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah, so is. So is to Lawrence Taylor, the.

[Marcus Parks]

The former crack cocaine addict who also.

[Ed Larson]

Slept with a 14 year old girl. Fifteen. Marcus. Yeah. He was. She 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.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And you see. So he's more of an hunter and.

[Marcus Parks]

He'S working for the wife. White House.

[Ed Larson]

Yes. He was my favorite football player growing up.

[Marcus Parks]

No, I loved lt. Did I show you.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I said it to Eddie. He was. 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.

[Ed Larson]

And then Trump literally was like, isn't he great?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Jesus.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The country currently has CTE patreon.com 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 great job at LP on the left are going for all your social media needs.

[Marcus Parks]

Yes. And don't forget to go and check out all of our YouTube channels. Someplace underneath LPN Romany. Who's the B Foreign report? No Dogs in Space podcast and LPN tv. And don't forget to come see us long tour this year.

[Ed Larson]

That's right. We're going to be in St. Paul, Minnesota Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Oakland, California, Cleveland, Ohio and Portland, Oregon, Oregon. Go and check last podcast on a left.com for all of our dates and stay up to date on what we are doing. Ma'.

[Marcus Parks]

Am.

[Ed Larson]

Let's go. Let's go bang our heads together.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I won't get my brains pushed up.

[Marcus Parks]

Well then how can then yes.

[Ed Larson]

And I'm gonna hail today is I'm gonna I'm let the cat out of the bag. Today is August 18th. It's Brody Stevens day. So hail Brody Stevens. Another great athlete. We lost too soon. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's very nice.

[Ed Larson]

Yeah. I love my boy. I miss him. All right, guys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Goodbye.

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[Marcus Parks]

I'm taking you home with me.

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