Episode 635: Aaron Hernandez Part II - Inside the Meat Grinder

Summary

Last Podcast On The Left

Episode 635: Aaron Hernandez Part II - Inside the Meat Grinder

Release Date: September 19, 2025
Hosts: Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ed Larson

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Episode Overview

This episode continues the deep dive into the life and crimes of Aaron Hernandez, focusing on the massive role chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and NFL culture played in shaping his violent trajectory. The hosts—blending humor and horror—explore the dark underbelly of professional football, the NFL's history of head trauma denial, and how Hernandez’s paranoia, violence, and eventual downfall were entangled in institutional neglect, toxic masculinity, and American obsessions with sports. The episode transitions from the general horrors of brain injuries in football to the granular details of Hernandez’s escalating criminal acts, culminating in a tense narrative of murder, betrayal, and blurred lines between friendship and animosity.

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Key Sections & Breakdown

1. Setting the Stage: Sports, CTE & NFL Culture

[04:33–16:11]

• The hosts introduce the core topic: how NFL head injuries (especially CTE) have shaped player behavior and are pervasive in the league.
• They joke about "context festivals," but Marcus (the research maven) insists context is everything, laying the groundwork for understanding Aaron Hernandez’s background.
• The NFL is described as a $18 billion juggernaut, “more nation than league” (06:02), with immensely talented yet disposable athletes.
• Introduction of Mike Webster, legendary center who suffered horrifying post-retirement symptoms due to undiagnosed brain trauma, becoming the “defining brain to explain CTE.”

“His teeth were falling out so much that he super glued them back in his head. His back pain was so bad that he couldn't sleep without tasing himself unconscious, which I didn’t know would work.”
— Ed, [09:24]

• The discovery of CTE: Dr. Bennett Omalu’s autopsy on Webster marks the medical turning point; his findings of tau protein in the brain reveal the horror of repeated minor concussion.

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2. NFL Denial, Propaganda, and Science Wars

[16:11–32:17]

• Omalu’s findings are initially ignored, then attacked by the NFL, which forms the “Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee” led by non-experts.
• The NFL’s playbook is described: assemble bad-faith science panels to delay and obfuscate, avoid accountability, and cast doubt on legitimate research.
• Host Ed vents long-standing hatred of the New York Jets, whose doctor (Pelman) symbolizes NFL incompetence.
• Racial undertones of the NFL’s attack on Omalu’s "voodoo science" are pointed out.

“They assembled a committee, and to run it, they needed someone incompetent…Please look no further than the New York Jets.”
— Marcus, [17:11]

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3. The Mounting Case for CTE and NFL Stonewalling

[22:51–41:05]

• Dr. Ann McKee steps in as the primary researcher, gathering brains with help from former WWE wrestler Chris Nowinski (the “brain repo man”).
• High-profile tragic cases: Junior Seau, suicidal at 43, with advanced CTE; staggering study shows 92% of former NFL brains examined have CTE ([27:03]).
• The NFL only acts when class-action lawsuits threaten the bottom line. In 2016, they agree to a $765 million settlement, which equates to a paltry sum for each affected player and does not admit wrongdoing.

“That’s like $38,000 a player... They can’t live the rest of their brain-damaged lives off of $38,000.”
— Marcus, [33:15]

• The NFL fears that if just 10% of American mothers decide football is too dangerous, youth participation collapses—“the game is dead” ([41:30]).
• The problems start in youth football, with heartbreaking examples of CTE in teenagers.

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4. Masculinity, Violence & The American Obsession

[41:03–54:47]

• Hosts discuss how the NFL’s “war” metaphor translates to real-world suffering, drawing comparisons to other corporate cover-ups like tobacco and Agent Orange ([49:13]).
• Football’s primal, violent appeal becomes a proxy for “war by other means” in American society.

“Watching men kill each other is an ancient process...for people that don’t get to go kill people, so they get to watch it.”
— Henry, [53:03]

• The hosts question their own relationships with football, peer pressure, and the tension between fandom and social responsibility.

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5. Aaron Hernandez: Paranoia, Partying, Murders

[54:48–98:35]

Fast Transition: Hernandez’s Life Unraveling

• Hernandez, now rich and world-famous at 22, is deep into clubbing, drugs, and paranoia.
• Key figure introduced: Alexander Bradley, Hernandez’s close friend, drug dealer, and “assistant.” The relationship is both codependent and toxic ([57:15]).
• Hernandez smoked up to 4 ounces of weed per week and was increasingly paranoid—“One of Aaron’s pet peeves was people looking at him” ([62:32]).

Boston Double Murder

[68:06–73:01]

• July 2012: Hernandez bumps into two men at a Boston club, Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado. A minor accidental hip bump leads to fury.
• Hernandez, convinced he’s being disrespected and followed, has Bradley pull up beside their car and shoots, killing both men. The case quickly goes cold due to the randomness of the crime and his unexpected status as a suspect.

“The murder had been so random and so pointless that the case quickly went cold for the police.”
— Marcus, [72:55]

Attempted Murder of Alexander Bradley

[80:03–83:43]

• After a falling out on a Miami trip—money, paranoia, and disputes over Bradley’s phone—Hernandez shoots Bradley in the face and hand, leaving him for dead. Bradley survives and refuses to “snitch,” instead later seeking blackmail.

Dark Codependency & Violent Bromance (Text Message Theater)

[85:30–98:35]

• Hosts perform a dramatic reading of real, bizarre text exchanges between Hernandez and Bradley—oscillating between threats, declarations of love, and invocations of street code.

“I love you and always will. No homo.”
— Henry as Hernandez, [95:18]
“You stole my trust and tore my ego.”
— Marcus as Bradley, [98:05]

• Their relationship is depicted as spiraling, wounded, and at turns absurd and poignant.

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• On NFL denial:
  “They had to fight good research with bad research.”
  — Marcus, [16:59]
• On football’s dangers:
  “An NFL hit has been equated to getting into a 20 to 30 mile an hour car crash. This is something that may happen 60 times in a game for some players…”
  — Marcus, [37:13]
• On denial and masculinity:
  “No, that’s not what men do. That’s not what a manly institution does. It just chest up, head down, fucking rolling right through that fucking shit.”
  — Henry, [40:43]
• On youth and tragedy:
  “Wyatt Bronwell, an 18 year old high school football player, committed suicide… two years later, McKee confirmed it. CTE in an 18 year old, an advanced stage two case…”
  — Marcus, [44:34]
• On Hernandez’s mental spiral:
  “He’s not doing well mentally… he’s got a bunch of Incubus tattoos on him, some gun tattoos…he’s murdered two people and has attempted to murder his best friend because he’s mad about him leaving his phone behind.”
  — Marcus, [92:40]
• On the NFL's reckoning:
  “The only punishment that fits the crime would be to live inside one of the heads of their CTE riddle players.”
  — Marcus, [50:35]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 04:33 | NFL’s disposable players, CTE context starts | | 08:09 | Mike Webster’s tragic story | | 11:02 | Dr. Bennett Omalu’s discovery | | 16:11 | NFL forms denial committees, attacks Omalu | | 22:51 | Dr. Ann McKee and Chris Nowinski’s research | | 27:03 | 92% of examined NFL players had CTE | | 32:59 | NFL’s lawsuit settlement | | 37:13 | Science on the violence of football | | 41:30 | NFL’s terror: “If 10% of moms say no, the game is dead” | | 48:49 | Suicides and CTE among youth athletes | | 54:48 | Beginning the Aaron Hernandez crime timeline | | 62:32 | Hernandez’s paranoia and partying | | 68:06 | The Boston double murder | | 80:03 | Miami: Hernandez shoots Bradley | | 85:30 | Text message dramatic reading | | 98:35 | Cliffhanger: Hernandez’s story to continue next week |

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Tone, Style & Final Notes

The episode is classic Last Podcast On The Left: dark, irreverent, and deeply researched, blending gallows humor with genuine empathy for victims of NFL neglect. While the subject matter is grim—covering murder, brain injuries, and institutional corruption—the hosts use absurd character bits and dramatic readings (notably, the messages between Hernandez and Bradley) to illuminate the extreme psychological territory occupied by fame, masculinity, violence, and American spectacle.

The episode concludes with a segment of affectionate mocking and anticipation for the finale of the Hernandez saga, as well as a plug for future podcast episodes.

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Conclusion

This installment offers a comprehensive account of how the NFL’s culture of denial enabled not just widespread suffering but, in Aaron Hernandez’s case, violent criminality. It’s a stark, occasionally hilarious, but always compassionate exploration of America’s most violent game and one of its most tragic players.

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For those seeking a thorough, darkly comic, and disturbingly human look at the NFL’s hidden horrors and Aaron Hernandez’s unraveling, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Whoa. When did I get here?

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I swear it was just moments ago that I accepted a great offer from Carvana online.

[C]

I must have time traveled to the future.

[A]

It was just moments ago. We do same day pickup. Here's your check for that great offer.

[B]

It is the future.

[C]

It's.

[A]

It's the present. And just the convenience of Carvana. Sorry to blow your mind.

[B]

It's all good. Happens all the time.

[A]

Sell your car the convenient way to Carvana. Pick up. Times may vary and fees may apply.

[D]

There's no place to escape to.

[C]

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

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Oh, man.

[B]

All right.

[C]

Wow. Eddie's in charge.

[B]

Big Ed is in charge.

[C]

That's right, you fucker. Shut up, ass nugget.

[B]

Yeah, I have to listen.

[D]

For those of you who don't know, Henry is wearing a hat that says Ass Nugget.

[B]

Thank you, Met Syndicate. I'm sorry that the NFL and NBA has destroyed your entire company because you made this hat. But it's really, really fun.

[D]

It says Ass Nuggets instead of Denver Nuggets. Welcome to last podcast. On the left, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Marcus Barks. I'm here with the Making an effort. Henry Zabowski.

[B]

I'm edgelord. Yeah, man, I'm into sports.

[D]

Yeah, you're wearing your Dennis Rodman T shirt.

[C]

Oh, look at that.

[B]

I'm sports. Yeah, that's me. Let's play some round ball.

[C]

Sports.

[B]

Football.

[C]

Well, that's fine. You know you're wearing a basketball man's Jer jersey.

[B]

This is sports.

[C]

Do you remember. Do you know his nickname?

[B]

The Worm. Yeah, you got it. You know what you're doing?

[C]

Do you remember what pop singer he banged?

[B]

I knew that he. I remember when he had sex with what's her name? Carmen Electra. And then also was Carmen Electra Madonna. There we go.

[C]

Henry knows sports.

[B]

I know tits. Tits in sports.

[D]

And the man who knows where every penis in professional sports goes to. Ed Larson.

[C]

That's right in the middle. It's usually right in the middle.

[B]

Yeah, usually. Normally, depending on Whether or not you're getting them in the foot hole because you got an amputation fetish. Long story.

[C]

Long story. We covered it on side stories. Last week.

[D]

I heard Troy Aikman's penis was in the small of his back.

[B]

Touch my tail.

[C]

Please touch my tail.

[B]

Hey, look, it's Wagon. He must like. You.

[D]

Hear about that urban legend? I don't know why that was such a big urban le legend when I was in high school. No. That there was this weird urban legend going around in the 90s which was really big in Texas for. Which was strange considering how big the Cowboys were then. Troy Amman was the quarterback for the Cowboys. There was this urban legend that like. Yeah. Did you know that they pumped a gallon of semen out of Troy Amman's stomach?

[C]

Yeah, I heard that. Actually.

[B]

I did, too. Yeah. How did.

[C]

That was just a rumor that people made because. I don't know. Because people hated the Cowboys.

[D]

I suppose so.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Probably more about hatred for the Cowboys.

[B]

I don't know if you remember later on the. The. The next quarterback of the Cowboys was Tony Romo.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

And they had a fun nickname for him.

[D]

Yes, I remember that one.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Dude, he's a fucking lunatic. Yeah, he's a crazy asshole. He's, like, driving drunk through the middle of the streets, according to sources. Yeah, I have.

[D]

And is it because of a certain head injury at Larson's?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I don't think he played enough to get one. We'll see what happens here when we talk about things that are going on. But before we dive back into Aaron's story, we're gonna start this episode with Marcus Parks's favorite thing in the world. Context.

[D]

Context.

[B]

Context. Context. We escape. No, never.

[D]

There is no escape from context. For context is all, my friend. You're correct.

[C]

Next year, Marcus is throwing his own festival Context. In the desert.

[B]

He's in charge.

[C]

Well, the reason all this pertains to stories, because Aaron Hernandez was diagnosed with CTE after his death, and it's thought that the CTE that riddled his brain heavily contributed to his violent behavior.

[B]

You think that's what they'll find for me, a call to entertainment?

[C]

Somehow you'll have C. C.T.E. in your ass, you ass nugget.

[B]

It's ass nuggets. It's like it's a basketball team.

[C]

All right, let's pull back the curtain on the game that shaped his. Broke his brain in the league that has done everything in its power to make sure that this side of the story is never told more. NBA.

[B]

NBA.

[C]

It's More NBA.

[D]

It's more NBA.

[B]

That's.

[D]

That's the NBA theme. NBC, NBA.

[C]

Maybe one day we'll cover the NBA player who shot his limo driver in the chest.

[B]

I love that guy. Should have seen him at the three point line.

[D]

From downtown. He's on fire.

[B]

You get it?

[C]

Yeah. He was killed downtown. The NFL, the National Football League, if you need me to say it, is more nation than league. They have a GDP of $18 billion a year, twice that of Belize.

[B]

You Belize?

[C]

That's a full stack of media propaganda, a sophisticated legal apparatus, deep political ties, and above all, they got an army. An army of the most gifted athletes to walk the earth. Wow. The cream of the genetic crop.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Each one of these dudes are a legend wherever they come from. Be it a bustling city or a one Bronco town. And the NFL treats these soldiers like most nations do. Completely disposable.

[B]

Yeah. Killing for profit. That's what we're doing in the meat grinder. Let's go. That's how I like my sausage. I like it to have pre damaged.

[C]

So let's get acronym crazy today and talk about the NFL and CTE sports.

[D]

And the thing is, it's been like this forever. Like, I had my. I told my cousin about this series, he's a big football guy, and he sent me a link to a book that I wasn't able to read in time. But it was, I think, called like the Meat Grinder. And it was written in the 70s.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

By an NFL player. So it's not like this is like a new thing where the NFL has been treating these guys like they're just talking, you know, whatever.

[C]

It's so crazy because we've known since, I don't know, Roman times that head injuries exist and they change you, but they just like decided that it doesn't happen in football for some fucking reason.

[B]

Eddie, you said several words that. That say that. And that's because you said the words $18 billion.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

And you said you didn't say the word. How much fun it is to watch.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's good for.

[B]

You know what?

[C]

As I get older, the old.

[B]

I'm being straight today.

[C]

That's right. It's good nap. You know, stuff, you know, you put a football game on, take a nap. It's actually a great thing to have on nap. That in a western. I love for a nap.

[B]

Don't tell me. Oh, nothing better than having a fucking three beers in the morning, watching a western.

[D]

I've. I've never Made it to the end of Stagecoach. Why would you like. It's just nap fuel, isn't it?

[C]

Four hours.

[D]

It's very long. Yeah, but yeah, it's just. Well, westerns is just like guys riding horses to places and having conversations in between.

[B]

No, it's existential problems.

[C]

Well, in the late 90s, Mike Webster, he's a. He was a Hall of Fame center and a Pittsburgh Steeler legend. He was spiraling. All right, I was a center. And everyone will give you an excuse why their position's the most dangerous, you know, but the center is the one lineman who routinely gets targeted on blitzes and usually is responsible for blocking the middle linebacker, arguably the hardest hitting man on the field.

[B]

So the guy, that guy's got to be big.

[C]

Yeah, he's got to be big. He's got to be fearless. He's got to be strong. Is. He centers the. Him and the quarterback are the only players that touch the ball every play.

[D]

Yeah. And the center is usually the. Usually the biggest guy on the team.

[C]

Yeah. Always know the tackles are usually the biggest guys. The center's got like a good, like, center of gravity. He has to be. It's the only lineman that has like real talent because you have to hike and like all that shit.

[D]

I take that back. Not biggest. Fattest.

[B]

That's what I meant to say because it's the idea too. Because you get low.

[C]

Yeah. Well, the left tackle is usually the most important because it protects the quarterback. Quarterback's backside.

[B]

Sure. If he's a right hander.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

Yeah. But I do remember. Yeah. Growing up and playing football, center was always the fattest guy on the team.

[B]

Always.

[C]

I was big, but I wasn't the fattest. Terry Donaldson, you were the fattest. And despite a storybook career, Webster, he was depressed, erratic, and he became unrecognizable to his wife. He couldn't keep his thoughts straight. His teeth were falling out so much that he super glued them back in his head. His back pain was so bad that he couldn't sleep without tasing himself unconscious, which I didn't know would work.

[B]

Nice long day of being confused. Time to go to sleep. That's amazing.

[C]

Like if you ever saw the movie Concussion, he's the guy in the beginning of the movie.

[D]

Gotcha.

[C]

All right, so he was homeless, he was broken, and eventually started begging the NFL to help. After a long legal crusade, which became the only focal point for his blurring ignition, he finally received a minimum disability payment from the league. 2,000 bucks a month. Barely enough for a new Taser.

[B]

How's he gonna go to sleep? How's he gonna relax?

[C]

Well, he then died of a heart attack in 2002. He was 50 years old at the time.

[D]

Yeah, I mean everyone talks about how young wrestlers die.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

But NFL players do not last much longer.

[B]

Isn't the average career of an NFL player four years?

[C]

Something like that? Yeah, like three to four years average. You know, like some guys play for 13, you know, some place played for a couple, you know, you never. Depends on how good you are.

[D]

Yeah. And the Steelers and like I think particularly the team that this guy was on, like just so many of those got like Steelers in particular.

[C]

Iron Curtain, they were known, they're known for their smash mouth football. They're known for kicking the shit out of people.

[B]

Yes. Delores know how to take a Dante.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So Will Smith, or better known as Dr. Bennett Omalu.

[B]

And I prefer him as Will Smith.

[C]

He's a Nigerian born forensic pathologist in Pittsburgh. He autopsied Webster's body. He had no idea who Webster was. Zomalu. He's a big character in this NFL CTE saga. And despite many conflicting accounts of him, one thing that remains constant, the man didn't give a single about football. All he cared about was brains. When he saw Webster's, he's like, yeah, I can't wait.

[B]

He tastes himself to sleep. Delicious.

[C]

When he saw Webster, he expected shrinkage damage, telltale signs of Alzheimer's and dementia. Instead, it looked healthy. A little too healthy. So he dug a little deeper. He put it under a microscope. He saw it. Tau protein. Tons of it. When tau protein is marbled through the brain like a 5 wagyu, it's a smoking gun of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Ironically, Webster's brain became the defining brain to explain CTE.

[B]

What's also really nice about that is that you can get a good Maillard reaction on a really hot crock pot. Like a really nice, like really hot, searing hot pan. The brain is riddled with that tow protein. Yeah. The crust you can get when you sear it is just so good. It activates the natural sugars in the tow protein.

[C]

Everyone always says, eat the ass, eat.

[B]

The thighs, eat the CTE riddle br.

[C]

So we won't go too far into the medical weeds here. Mostly because I'm not a doctor and have trouble pronouncing medical terms. Yeah, but basically when the brain is subjected to consistent impact, it panics. It isn't designed for this. It's. It's only has One fail safe. That's tau protein, which in a healthy brain is like a lubricant designed to smooth over all these brain tears. But when subjected to the constant barrage that is any given Sunday, the brain goes nuclear, pressing the big red button and letting tau protein run wild. Eventually, this tau protein goes rogue and becomes a pervasive sludge that gets caught into the nooks and crannies that control emotion, cognition, and general humanness.

[B]

I had no idea that that's what this was.

[C]

Yeah, well, unfortunately, I had to tell you. It's interesting. This causes a range of symptoms such as memory loss, depression, impulse control problems, hyper aggressiveness, and often leads to depression, suicide, and sometimes murder.

[D]

What's incredible about this is that, I mean, the human brain, like head injuries, really do have so much bearing on our behavior. Because one of the things that we've noticed over the years, you know, a study in serial killers, like, so many of them have these specific injuries to the frontal lobe.

[C]

Like who?

[D]

Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Ramirez. That's just off the top of my head.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, but, you know, and off theirs, too.

[B]

But it's.

[D]

Yeah, it is. You know, you. When you say, like, general humanness, like when that frontal lobe gets damaged, it does take away a lot of the things that do make you. That keep you in society and keep you from doing things that make you unacceptable society, such as serial killing. But what this shows is that there are many different ways to get. There are many different paths to get to the point where your brain just stops functioning as a social object.

[B]

Joseph Campbell actually put it in a really interesting way in a little talk I was listening to recently where he talked about the idea all of history starts with biology, so every single thing begins with our brains. So it's just kind of amazing what happens to you when you destroy your brain. Because actually, we're just brains walking around.

[D]

Yeah, we really are.

[C]

Campbell, he had soup for brains.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

But speaking of gamble, like, I do have a. Like a kind of a pet theory that is not backed by science in any way whatsoever.

[B]

Good.

[D]

That, you know, the brain, you know, maybe the frontal lobe or may like that. Like, it's what kind of connects us to the collective unconsciousness.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

We're getting all over. Yeah. And then once you're not connected to that anymore, once you're not connected to the rest of humanity, that's. You lose your empathy, you lose your, you know, ability to say, like, no, this is wrong. I shouldn't do this. This might hurt somebody. And then once you get disconnected from that, you are.

[C]

So at the time, CTE was pretty much exclusively known as a boxing thing. You know, on the street, they called it being punch drunk.

[B]

Paul was. He was cute. Yeah.

[C]

Paul Thomas Anderson made a documentary about it, I think. I never saw it, so.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

It was about boxing and little tr.

[B]

Pianos and pudding. Yeah.

[C]

Nonetheless, CTE has never been associated with football until now. Omalu published his findings in the journal Neurosurgery in 2005.

[B]

Oh, I had that issue. That's the one that had the Dr. Ruth centerfold.

[C]

My subscription ran out in 04, so I missed this one. But they said then he sent his findings to the NFL. He was assuming, like, you know, they'd want to know. You know, in fact, he expected a little bit of gratitude. You know, like, heads up, got this neurodegenerative disease lurking. Your most valuable asset, your players. So you can do something about that. You're welcome.

[B]

You know, I think that that's not what they were looking for, though, Eddie.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, they did something, all right. And it did not involve a fruit basket.

[B]

The only fruit basket they had to deal with was that one guy's brain.

[C]

No Edible Arrangement for Omalu. Just edible DERA Arrangement. Come on.

[B]

Yeah, come on. All right.

[C]

Instead, he got hit with the full blitz. A billion dollar propaganda machine. Wow.

[D]

Yeah, he's.

[C]

Yeah. The first thing, the NFL did their own research. That's right. They had to fight good research with bad research. So they assembled a committee, and to run it, they needed someone incompetent.

[B]

No, they were running an alt run, dude. That's all it was. It was an audible.

[C]

But they needed someone not just in competition, but confidently incompetent. And if you're looking for incompetence in the NFL, please look no further than the New York Jets.

[B]

Oh, this is a personal beef, though. This is where we're really gonna see a lot of eds. His own bias here.

[C]

Yeah. I'll be side note, as a. As a lifelong Dolphins fan, there's no team I hate more than the Jets. You know, I'd rather root for Russia during the Olympics, you know, but no matter how much I hate the jets, no one hates the jets more than jets fans.

[B]

Yeah, they do hate themselves. And the jets as well.

[C]

Dude, I'd go to the Dolphins game every year. I was in nyc, and it was crazy to watch. I remember once, me and my buddy Kep, I went to the game and the Dolphins took the lead in the Fourth. And we were obnoxious and singing the Dolphins fight song. And I as right as I was like, look, you know, I'm like looking for a fight, you know, cuz you're around.

[D]

You're in New Jersey.

[C]

Exactly. You know, it's what you do there.

[B]

It's the past, it's the tone.

[C]

But a different thing happened to me. It was crazy. The jets fans started telling us, sing you louder.

[B]

Sing it so our team can hear it.

[C]

They deserve it.

[B]

Right?

[C]

I never had my playful aggression turned on me that way before.

[B]

It's amazing.

[D]

It's the jets for you, man.

[C]

That's.

[D]

It's New Jersey. It's New York.

[B]

Them.

[D]

Yeah, you touch.

[B]

Sing it loud. Have to sing it loudest. They can hear it. Oh, yeah. You suck.

[C]

So they tapped Dr. Elliot Pelman, the Jets team doctor, who's a rheumatologist, not a neurologist. And being from the Jets, Pelman's main credentials seem to be loyalty and the ability to squit and say such lies as, yeah, I don't see a problem. And this could be our year.

[B]

This is it. This could be our year. Yeah.

[D]

I think that was the tattoo that that coat that jets coats got right next to the quarterback, who his wife right next to her name was. This could be our year.

[C]

Oh, yeah, the foot lover.

[D]

Yeah, the foot lover.

[C]

Ryan Whatever his name was. All right, so he gets back to work assembling a crack team of fellow elite humans from the Giants and the Steelers. Remember the Steelers, Historically the most concussed team of all time. And together they formed the Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Not to be confused with the Spicy Traumatic Brain Injury Committee or the barbecue or the Teriyaki.

[D]

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. What committee you think came up with the committee's name? To make it as like. To make it sound as innocent as like, mild traumatic brain.

[C]

We're the Traumatic Brain Injury Committee. Why don't you go ahead and toss mild at the front of that so we don't have to worry about nothing.

[B]

We just want to make sure we're.

[C]

Covering the mild ones so the serious ones can go unlooked at. This committee, well, they love two things. Eating wings and denying cte. Two things that are very necessary for football's popularity. So here you have it. These princes of New York, New Jersey and Pittsburgh coming together to do one thing thing. Discredited Nigerian doctor named Bennett Omalu. Turns out they had a knack for it.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

And for whatever reason, they seem to have a real problem with the science there's There was just something funky about it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Something they couldn't put their finger on. It was dark somehow. They called his science flawed junk. And even this is a fact. They called it voodoo science.

[B]

That's got attention.

[D]

My ears are hurting from all these dog whistles.

[C]

So despite this totally reasonable and not at all racist backlash, Omalu was a scientist who made a breakthrough. So he continued pursuing the brains of deceased NFL players, even though, again, he knew who none of these people were. He continued to find evidence of CTE and prominent players who had even more prominent deaths. One was Terry Long, another former Steelers lineman who was suffering from severe depression and cognitive decline. He died of suicide in 2005 by drinking antifreeze.

[B]

Hey, it's just good to know that there's no ice in my belly.

[D]

The is it with these Steelers. One guy's using tasers to fall asleep, the other guy is drinking antifreeze to commit suicide. Jesus Christ.

[B]

It's not thinking super clear.

[C]

Pittsburgh Steelers. The Raiders get all the credit for having the craziest fans. The Steelers have the craziest fans. We had to kick them out of our BW3s in Tallahassee. They were like, they would bring in like thousands of dollars a week and we had to stop them from coming because they were just like. One of them started fir and a. A gun off in the parking lot when they won. His name was Big Black.

[D]

Love that band, though.

[C]

So Omalu later confirmed the presence of CTE in Long's brain, making him the second former NFL player diagnosed after Mike Webster. Another prominent case was Justin Stresliak, who suffered from erratic behavior and increasing paranoia. Offered a gas station attendant $3,000, told him, the evil ones are coming and head for the hills.

[B]

Thank you so much, Mr. See.

[C]

Well, shortly thereafter, he led police on a 40 mile high speed chase before crashing into a tanker truck and a fiery explosion.

[B]

I don't know who that guy was, but I loved him.

[C]

On the news.

[B]

That's the guy that made me a 3,000 there, honey. That's the guy that started it all.

[C]

Well, Omalu got his hands on his brain. Yeah. CTE again, of course.

[B]

Give me some of them brains.

[C]

Yeah. But now the NFL has gotten there and they've removed Omalu. They've. They've discredited him enough. And the work has been passed on to Dr. Ann McKee, a neuropathologist from Boston University. We briefly mentioned her last episode. McKee at the time, was the foremost expert in Alzheimer's detection and Brains. She had looked at thousands, thousands of brains in her career. Her entire life was brain. Put it this way, the only people who made more on brain damage was Pink Floyd.

[B]

Hey, Green Day.

[C]

Oh, well, that was brain stew.

[D]

He's right.

[C]

Also, I will say, Aaron Hernandez might have been the lunatic on the grass. Anyway, good. One day she gets a call from a guy named Chris Nowinski. You probably know him, Henry. He's Polish. Former.

[D]

Oh, you guys know. You know each other, right?

[B]

That's racist.

[C]

A former Harvard football player and WWE wrestler known as Chris Harvard. Chris believed that he has CTE and being smart, he stopped doing the things that could make it worse years ago. And since, he's made it his life's mission to gather more research on it. Cool, dude. So he became the brain repo man. If a football player died under suspicious neurological circumstances, Nowinsky was there with a cooler.

[B]

Yeah, dump it in.

[C]

Yeah. Get this guy a YETI sponsorship deal. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

[B]

Brought him my rolling cooler. It's great. I drove it here.

[D]

Hi, my name is Chris Nisky. You might know me more as Chris Harvard. But now, these days, I'm known as the brain man here. And I'm here to bring the brains to the scientists so they can look.

[B]

At the brains till they turn out.

[D]

If the brains is okay.

[B]

My job is to research brains and me look for brains everywhere brains go. That's why I have this bucket of super sloppy, ultra messed up brains. Because these are the brains. Brains that need the most help.

[D]

So buy the brain bucket from yeti.

[B]

Keep brains cold, over hot. If you're coming from a fiery, fiery car crash, you might want to keep them brains liquid.

[D]

I'm sorry, Chris. You sound like a very nice man. Sounds like a very. He sounds like a man who's devoted his life to a very good cause.

[B]

But he's a brain man. Fire. Fire.

[C]

So McKee and Nowitzki have become the dynamic duo. The foremost team studying the NFL CTE link outside of the NFL's own FACTA command committee in 2012. Now, all right, we're moving forward. Junior SEO. We all know him. You've heard of this guy, right? His brain landed on their table. Junior was everything the NFL wanted to hold up as a hero. A 12 time Pro Bowler hall of Famer, unstoppable middle linebacker with movie star charisma. He was beautiful.

[D]

Best hair in the entire NFL.

[C]

Oh, my God. Yeah. Off the field, he was sunshine incarnate. The guy was a true legend and even a legendary hang by all accounts by the age of 43, just two years after retiring. That's a long ass career as a middle linebacker. Retiring at 41.

[D]

He was there for like Junior say I was like one of those guys that was just always in the NFL.

[C]

Yeah, this is Junior. Se shoe print man. But se unfortunately ended up shooting himself in the chest with a shotgun. It wasn't a cry for help. It was a message. The man who had it all had been quietly losing his grip for years. He had mood swings, domestic violence, drugs, gambling. Why did his personality change so drastically? He wanted his brain studied. And when they did, the result was chilling. Advanced CTE.

[B]

From here, this is CTE with a master's degree.

[C]

So from here, with McKee holding a scalpel and Nowinsky holding the coolers, the CTE body count kept piling up big time. As a fan, it was devastating for McKee personally. But as a scientist, the numbers couldn't lie.

[B]

Oh, I thought she said she was going to be. She was ecstatic.

[C]

A brief fast forward here. I mentioned this in the last episode, but I want to bring it up again. As of 2023, McKee had studied 376 former NFL player Brains. 345 had CTE. That's 91.7% the same likelihood of getting diarrhe. Eating diarrhea. Not a fluke.

[B]

It's a crisis because an 8.3% of the times eating that diarrhea sets you right.

[C]

Yeah, it's kind of fine. You got to do it. It's like a greasy meal after drinking.

[B]

I'm just putting it back in. Yeah, I didn't lose anything.

[C]

You shake it up, it becomes solid.

[B]

Who knew?

[C]

Swallow some corn starch.

[B]

Only 8.3% of the time.

[C]

Flies from your grave.

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[B]

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[D]

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[C]

All right, so back to 2007. Now the NFL decides to start to think about attempting to begin to have a conversation about doing something about this. Maybe. So they have their first official concussion summit.

[B]

I say, all right, everybody. Everybody dizzy?

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Everybody dizzy?

[D]

Did everybody on their way. And did you see the Hammerman? Because there is a hammer man. Before you get. And you must be hit in the head with the hammer before coming into this room.

[B]

Make sure before you take your seat that you get a bunk from me.

[C]

Before you give your speech. You got to put your head on a baseball bat and spin in a circle. So McKe was invited to speak. Omalu was not, which was a big burn at the time. He was still the the preeminent published researcher on the subject back then. So McKe, who, mind you, is a huge football fan, she grew up in a football family. She presented her research. It was rich, rigorous, terrifying, undeniable.

[B]

I think it's better to hear it from a fan, actually.

[C]

Yeah, of course. The room was full of NFL reps. And they all rolled their eyes, they groaned yet again. There was just something about her science, something they couldn't put their finger on. It was like emotional somehow. Like a real nagging type of science.

[B]

You know science. It gets irritable.

[D]

Yeah, there's some about it. I like to call it yak, yak, yak science.

[C]

So despite the scoff fest, the NFL must have sense menstrual blood in the waters. So they outed Pelman, the Jets finest, and found an actual neurologist to replace him. Dr. Ira Casson. Don't worry though. He was handpicked for being a stooge. In fact, he earned the nickname Dr. No for constantly denying the connection between football and brain trauma and attempting to Kill James Bond.

[B]

Yes, I want you to die so you can't read the plays anymore.

[C]

So at this point, Paul Tagliabu, the commissioner of the NFL retires and Roger Goodell steps up for the job. Goodell is the son of a politician and a master of vague statements who has been prepping for this gig his entire life. He immediately develops a CTE playbook and.

[B]

So difficult for those guys to read.

[C]

And as if he also worked for. For the Jets. It only had one play in it. Hire scientists who never come up with any answers and say, you can't do anything until you get some answers because you're not a scientist.

[D]

It's a good plan.

[B]

It is.

[C]

Yeah. And it worked, man. Goodell would get questioned before Congress and on the news. He would go over and over the same thing.

[B]

I am not a scientist. I don't know. What does Roger Goodell sound like?

[C]

You can make him Kennedy.

[B]

Oh, I am the water scientist. And we can't do anything to. We get some science.

[C]

Some good clean science, not colored or tainted with feelings. Some supreme milky white lab coat science.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

This goes beyond. We've investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong. It was more like the investigation into ourselves is still pending and we couldn't possibly do anything until we get results. Which seemed to be taking forever in a worked. Eventually it was the families of the players who had enough. They sued, forming a massive class action lawsuit. And in 2016, 2016, mind you, this crisis had been bubbling since the mid-90s. Marcus says the 70s. The NFL paid 765 million in class action settlement. Case closed. Not bad, right? Well, I mean, that's like $38,000 a player.

[B]

It's not enough. It's exactly the a.m. to somebody whose brains are so scrambled they don't know it's not.

[C]

And also it's a huge number because it's a lot of people. So it sounds like a fucking shit ton of money. And it is a lot of money.

[B]

Until you break it down.

[C]

Yes. All right. And they, they can't live the rest of their brain damaged lives off of $38,000 now.

[D]

And you also got to remember a lot of these guys, like some, you know, the average Kurt's four years, right?

[C]

Maybe.

[D]

Yeah, maybe four years. These are guys who go from being big shit in high school. They don't pay any attention. Many of them don't pay any attention to education. Yeah, they get to college again, the same thing. They might not even graduate college before going to the NFL. They spend three, four years in the NFL. And then they're done. What the are they going to do after that? They don't know how to do anything else.

[B]

They just started having like financial education and stuff like that for these guys. You know, they started doing that, but you know, obviously not enough.

[C]

Yeah, it doesn't matter. They're all come from low income families. You know, they, they got, you know, everyone in their family's hitting them up for money. Everyone think a millionaire. I get it. But you know, like, once you start making more money, you got more taxes, you got more, you got to pay all these other people, you got to pay lawyers, you got to pay your agents. The money goes away faster than you think.

[D]

Yeah, it goes away very fast. Yeah, I mean, a lot of these guys end up becoming car salesmen.

[C]

Oh, yeah. So the NFL worked out a deal where they would have to admit no wrongdoing, nothing, zero on paper. They were just feeling generous. I guess they wanted to give up almost a billion dollars in the spirit of charity. All this begs to the question, why did the NFL choose these dark tactics? Or a better question, why did they exclusively choose them? Listen, I get it was a real threat to the company. Turns out that the thing that is fundamental to the game, hitting each other is deadly.

[B]

Whoops. On what level you do, you do choose this violence to yourself, you choose to play football. But it's more just denying the fact that like, I think most people would be able to kind of understand that football is dangerous to the player.

[C]

Everybody knows it is, everybody knows that.

[B]

It is, but it's more of the. They're not doing anything to mitigate it.

[D]

But I mean, I'll say this, you know, coming from a football family, you know, and, and coming from a, you know, like, you know, my uncle played for Texas Tech, you know, he was an offensive lineman. You know, my brothers were both really big football player, all that shit. You know what people worry about when they talk about being football players, players, they'd say like, oh, your knees are going to be bad knees. You're back, you're going to deal with back problems when you're older. You know, they. Nobody, nobody talks about your brain ever. No, it is, it's taboo.

[C]

Also, the knee and back thing, ain't nothing to scoff at either.

[D]

It's not.

[C]

These dudes end up with pill addictions.

[B]

Oh, I get it.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And they're just shooting them up with cortisone and putting them right on the field again. Yeah, they're making them strong.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[D]

And they got to deal with that. Back for the rest of the their lives.

[C]

Yeah. So the more science that comes out, the more it shows that it's not the big concussions that cause cte, it's the smaller sub concussions, the all in a day's work, nine to five head slams that do the real damage.

[B]

Yeah. That's what we're talking about. Bobsled brain that they're dealing with in the Olympics.

[C]

Really?

[B]

Yeah. They're having a real hard time because no one wants to talk about. There's a gigantic CTE conversation inside of the world of bobsledding that they're not ready to talk about as well. Because it's inherent nature of the sport. Yeah.

[D]

You can't change it.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You would just have to stop doing it.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah. Which ain't going to happen.

[B]

No.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

Cuz you know how lucrative bobsledding is. You know that gravy train those guys are on.

[C]

The only time bobsledding made money was when they made a movie about the worst bobsledding.

[B]

John Candy was the one who sold that movie and he was a cheater.

[C]

So each hit in football is different than the next. Right. But an NFL hit has been equated to getting into a 20 to 30 mile an hour car crash. This is something that may happen 60 times in a game for some players, sometimes multiple times in one play.

[D]

And you know who was amazing at getting hit multiple times in one play and not going down? Aaron Hernandez.

[C]

Yeah, man, he was big as.

[D]

And you especially when you.

[B]

That was his thing.

[D]

When you watch like that. That's when I truly understand, understood how Aaron Hernandez got to where he got at such a young age is when I saw the footage of him playing high school ball.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

You know, cuz he's a big guy and he would hit three, four dudes with his head.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Every play on the way, on the way to the end zone, like every just. And starting at like 15, 16.

[C]

You ever see O.J. play?

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

He would hit the hole head up, like check chest up and just run through people using his head as a battering ram. You wonder what happened there.

[B]

You know what did happen to oj?

[C]

You know who else was a running back in college? Bill Cosby.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

Interesting.

[B]

But I mean it sounds like he was real clear headed about what he was doing.

[C]

All right. So in fact, as far as sub concussions go, the helmet is the problem. All right. The head smashes up against it and all the neurons and ganglia, the wiring that attached to the brain get. They gets torn apart. You know. So it's clear why this is a big problem for the NFL. But what's insane and unforgivable is their decision to just go full denial with no off ramp. Like, we get it. You want to keep the money train going. Okay, fine. Kick the can down the road until you figure out a solution. But figure out a fucking solution. They didn't put any money into that. 800 million in the payouts. God knows how much in the hokum science. But why not also put it in the research? If there is an actual solution, wouldn't that be cool?

[B]

Because there is no. There is no solution. The solution is to end the sport.

[C]

Yeah. No. Maybe the NFL brass is so cynical that they never even considered that this might be preventable. That the tech would have been so mind blowing, pun intended. Or maybe that they just don't care. But left to its own devices, the market is figuring out. Figuring it out. A company called Reason. Oh, that's nice. Reason. A company called Reason just released a headband that stops 61 of sub concussive impact. It's a headband. It's not very space age.

[B]

Sounds kind of gay though.

[C]

It doesn't have Bluetooth or anything like that.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

It's just a cushiony headband.

[B]

Yeah, Eddie, I'm just getting a lot of red flags on this whole thing.

[C]

Might be preventable by a headband.

[B]

Yeah, I'm pretty against that as a watcher, as a consumer.

[C]

Yeah. You know, rugby don't use a helmet. And yes, rugby players have been diagnosed with cte, but at a much lower rate than American football style players. Of the rugby players brains analyze. 68% of the brains have it as opposed to football's 92. Still not great, but a ton better.

[D]

Oh, only 68%.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

That's mostly them punching each other's in the heads after the game. Like that's like one of those. Those things where it's like good. I feel like with rugby players most of their life is getting concussed. Yeah.

[C]

I mean, sure, there's a parallel universe where the NFL reacted by denying buying itself more time, but also invested in research and development eventually comes out and says, yes, CTE is a real problem and we found a real solution. Then maybe we could forgive the denial and the game would move on safe and sound.

[B]

No, that's not what men do.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

That's not what a manly institution does. It just chest up, head down, fucking rolling right through that fucking shit. Yeah.

[C]

And that's why we're in this Fucked up universe.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Where the NFL fosters a completely inhuman borderline disdain for its own players.

[B]

Dudes being fucking dude.

[C]

These are the people who make them billions of dollars. Dollars. Where their knee jerk reaction is to deny, deflect and litigate and do the wrong thing every single time. And the reason you're gonna love this, the reason the NFL is so dead set on choosing the path of denial, the chewy center of this conspiracy is women. Moms. In a bunch of interviews with the NFL Illuminati, they said it outright. If 10% of moms in this country decide football is too dangerous for their kids to play, the game is dead. Yeah, not that much. Nope. There's a video of Robert Kraft, Hernandez's owner, eyes moist, looking into the camera.

[B]

Saying, I can tell any mother out there, it's safe.

[C]

It's chilling.

[B]

It's safe to play the game. It's safe to be American.

[D]

And this is a man who testified during Aaron Hernandez's murder trial, correct?

[B]

Yeah, it's been like he's fine.

[C]

Yeah. He also went to prison for getting a handy.

[B]

Oh, yeah. His biggest crime.

[D]

And also, remember Vladimir Putin? I don't know if you know this.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Stole his super bowl ring.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And he just dealt with it, of course.

[C]

What are you gonna do? Yeah, obviously. Honestly, you meet Vladimir Putin, you take something of yours, you just leave. Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I'm not with a guy down the street, much less Vladimir Putin.

[B]

I think I could get him.

[C]

I mean, you're not a child. He can't Jiu Jitsu slam you.

[B]

Nah.

[C]

So this whole thing, this pile of bodies and billion dollar conspiracy amounts to a bunch of rich man children afraid mom was going to find out and make everyone come inside.

[B]

It's the only time they ever acknowledge a woman as any sort of power though, so in a way that's kind of, you know, a breath of fresh air.

[C]

Not bad. Let's give them some credit.

[D]

Yeah, let's give them some credit for painting old women as domestic baby makers. That's really the only they have in the home is when it comes to, you know, dudes being.

[B]

Dud. That's what this shit's about. Dudes get chest there be confused. I'm a confused dude.

[C]

I mean, you know, we all know it hasn't stopped the NFL combine keeps turning these young boys brains in the mush. And McKinnon has proven in her well qualified research that it's not years of football that can do this. It could be days. And it's more likely to happen to young, developing brains, not less.

[B]

Can't they just play later?

[C]

What do you mean?

[B]

What if we made it to the kids played football later than earlier.

[D]

They would have to start playing at 25.

[B]

That's fun. That's fun. That'll open it up to everybody.

[D]

It really would.

[B]

Anybody can play football. You don't have to be in some like. Think about that. Open calls every year. No scouts. Yeah, open calls.

[C]

I mean, it would make it more fun.

[B]

Would that be a blast?

[D]

It would be. No, it would be incredible. But that's not going to happen. They're not. Because by the time you're 25, half of these guys are already out of the NFL.

[B]

Of course. You know what?

[C]

We'll just use incarcerated people.

[B]

Oh, my God. That's not a bad idea.

[D]

Now we're back to the Angola prison rodeo.

[B]

We're just having fun with it. American concept.

[C]

Well, CTE isn't a veteran's injury. It's not wear and tear. You risk it the moment you strap on that helmet. Wyatt bronwell, an 18 year old high school football player, committed suicide in July of 2019. In the minutes before he died, he recorded a video asking that his brain be donated to science because he believed he was suffering from cte. Telling his family that the voices and demons inside his head had taken over. Over. And he'd hope they would understand his decision to end the pain. Two years later, McKe confirmed it. CTE and an 18 year old, an advanced stage two case that had clearly been developing for years. This is the youngest person had ever been sampled in. And it was proof. This disease doesn't start when you get a Super bowl ring. It starts when you get a Snickers bar after you spent all day sweating into a garbage bag and taking laxatives just to make weight for a peewee football ball game.

[D]

Personal experience out of medicine.

[C]

I added my little thing in there.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Is there a little part of me that's jealous of all the attention you got from your father?

[C]

I'm the only child.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You should have been stronger.

[B]

I should have been. If my father cared more, I would have been a walking jabber. An idiot, just like some of these guys. No.

[D]

I'm sorry, Henry. You just. You're too small. Because that's the thing is that me and. Me and Eddie were big enough where, you know, like, if you actually look at the. The Instagram page, the last podcast Instagram page, we actually posted some pictures of me in high school, like playing football. I was a lot bigger than I am.

[C]

Now it's crazy. You look bigger.

[D]

What's up?

[C]

Why? How were you bigger? I think I might have been too. To be. I feel like my 18 year old body could beat me up now.

[D]

Oh, God. Yeah. No, when I was in high school, I was. I had about 20 to 30 pounds more muscle on me than I have right now because I have that thing where I can build up muscle. Really? Like the Genet thing where it's called like the Olympian gene, where I can build up muscle very, very quickly but also lose it just as quickly. So yeah, when I was in high school, lifted weights, you know, doing all that, like, yeah, I was a lot bigger than I am now.

[B]

See, I was just spending time learning how to do cuddlinga so good they'd have to put me in a woman's prison.

[C]

But you were practicing on cheeseburgers.

[B]

I destroyed another one.

[D]

But even in my short time playing football, like I came away with permanent injuries. My right leg is. Is shorter than my left leg.

[C]

D. Dude, my hip is up, my shoulder's up.

[D]

Yeah, like, yeah, broke my right leg and yeah, it's shorter. Causes back problems. Causes all kinds of.

[B]

Yeah, my lips got so narrow. Crazy narrow lips. Trying to get out of the way of my slicing tongue. Well, slicy slice, little duck like tongue.

[C]

Oh, it's so funny because you say like that and I just have to come back in with something utterly depressing.

[D]

Maybe, you know, maybe I could be a bit of a segue here. But you know what? But I will say to Henry's point, that when I was in high school, I got way more dates from theater than I ever did from football.

[B]

Way more from theater around Chick. I was the only straight man around.

[C]

The only ladies in football are cheerleaders. And they are unattainable.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

All right, well, the fact that. The fact is these CTE adult players who demand research as their last wish are martyrs. They're laying down their lives with the hope of making it better for the next guy. But with the NFL's continued denial, others are starting to seek revenge. In July 2025, a 27 year old named Shane Tamura entered a New York high rise and killed four people and himself. The investigation revealed it was his intention to reach the NFL headquarters housed in that he went to the wrong floor. And in his pocket was a note saying he believed that he had CTE and wanted his brain studied. Tamura wasn't in the NFL, but he was a running back until halfway through high school. It doesn't matter what level you play the game, you're still gambling with your brain.

[D]

That's true.

[C]

Yeah. George Carlin, he had a famous bit about it, baseball versus football.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Where he talks about how baseball is pastoral and how it's America's pastime. And football, you run.

[B]

You run home. You. You run home.

[C]

One of my favorite bits and football is war. Strategic tactical maneuvers executed on a gridiron. The blitz. Listen to the bit. It's actually great.

[B]

It is a great bit.

[C]

If we extend the metaphor, we see how accurate it really is. It is a war, and its generals smoke stogies in the owner's box while the soldiers bleed on the field. And like too many war stories, the real atrocities are atoned for when it's too little too late.

[B]

If Pete sells, but who's buying?

[C]

Think the Agent Orange cover up the Iraq burn pits. Tobacco companies telling us that smoking doesn't kill. The NFL is aping from the same playbook as many oppressive governments who have become so obsessed with their own self interest that they betrayed the very people who actually fight their battles. The NFL brass are no less war criminals. And no amount of money or jail time could make amends.

[B]

What if they all got them all together and they had him play football against one NFL team? I feel like that's a good way to do it. Get all their suits together, suit them all up, to be like, all right, we're going to test and see how good all this stuff goes. And then you bring in the offensive line from the Detroit Lions.

[C]

You know what I say, I'll do you one better. Even take retired players who are the same age as the. As the owners even do that.

[B]

Run them, like, run them, man. Flat. Yeah.

[D]

I don't care how old Shannon Sharp is. I wouldn't want to take a hit from him today at his age.

[C]

Oh, he's terrified.

[D]

Yeah, he's in his 50s.

[B]

But no.

[C]

Yeah, man. The only punishment that fits the crime would be live inside of one of the heads of their CTE Riddle players. To go from being a titan of life, the guy who scores the winning touchdown, who gets the girl in the million dollar check, to a broken down shell of a man who can't remember who he is, was, or why he even wanted to be alive. I just thought that happens to all men. Or maybe they could at least spend a night in Aaron Hernandez's isolated prison cell that he brutally ended. Ended his life in. That would be a fitting punishment. But nobody would wish that on anybody.

[B]

I would look out of it just to look at That.

[C]

I don't know, maybe the NFL could just listen to their new slogan for 2025 and say, inspire change and do something about this.

[B]

Did they legitimately. Is their tagline Inspire change?

[C]

That's the new one last year. End racism.

[B]

Yo. Did it work?

[C]

No. Because I remember when I went to the Bengals game, it was like they had the. In the end zone, they had all these things that said end rac and racism. It was like a big part of the game. But then they made everyone wear white.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like. And now here comes Chief Big Bottom ready to do his hot dog rain dance. That's my favorite chat.

[D]

I mean, really, when you look at.

[C]

Football, like, it could inspire change.

[B]

Throw a couple of dimes at a little girl.

[D]

When you look at this, it reminds me of, you know, the. The lead hypothesis. The lead gasoline hypothesis.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, because, you know, football is such a massive part of American culture. And as we know, American culture is very violent. And that's not to say that, you know, football is the reason why American culture is violent. America has always been a very violent nation.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But I would also put the. You know, this. Probably get me a little. People maybe angry about this, but the maleness of it.

[C]

Oh, yes.

[B]

Well, like, there was a deep connection to them. The using our natural impulses as things that kill things, as primates and turning in against ourselves.

[D]

Yeah, but it's. But the other part of that is that it's also a very good release for that instinct for a lot of.

[B]

People that you talk about. The war proxy. The war proxy is for real.

[D]

Very real.

[B]

And the war proxy is also really important for the audience as well. Like, this is. That's why it's ancient. Watching men kill each other is an ancient process because it's for people that don't get to go kill people, and then they're not allowed by the government to go kill people, so they get to go watch it, in a way.

[C]

Scratches that same itch I got when I watch Faces of Death as a kid.

[B]

Yes. And I also think that there's something about it. It's outside of you. I started understanding the liminal mental space of sports, going through our fucking horseshit, starting to discover, like, how nice it was was to just blank out for three and a half hours and stare at little men running back and forth on a field. I understood it for a moment.

[C]

Three and a half hours. Tried 12 on a Sunday.

[B]

Oh, it's the best.

[C]

And another three on Monday and then Thursday as well.

[B]

Nothing but Dissociation.

[C]

Yeah, man, it's amazing. And the. The. The macho part of it, it even affects me as, like, a fan now because, like, last year, I, like, didn't watch any football, and I took from, like, my friends back home, our friends that we've used to watch football with, because I'm like, I don't want to go watch the games, and I would, like, take for it. And it's just like, no, I want to go to the farmer's market and hang out my wife.

[D]

And that's just for not watching.

[B]

The greatest thing of all, wanting to hang out with your wife on a Sunday. Unbelievable.

[D]

God. And that's the thing is that, like, that's just NFL. Like, you could also spend probably 15 hours watching college football on Saturday, you know, and. And probably another day of the week, and you can go to high school football games on Friday.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Why can't we just watch play plays about sports? Play the play.

[C]

Well, there was the Vince Lombardi musical that did really well. That was. You're right. It was an opera. All right, well, enough of the sad horseshit. Let's get back to the last podcast of it all.

[B]

Yay.

[C]

All right. Last week, we talked about Aaron Hernandez growing up in an abusive machismo environment, dealing with the untimely death of his father, hanging out with gangs in his hometown, popping off in Gainesville, and headed back to his home to become a millionaire and a patriot.

[B]

Wow. What a great life. Yeah.

[D]

Nothing can go wrong from here.

[C]

Yeah. Well, now it's early 2012. Aaron had just scored a touchdown in the super bowl after suffering a concussion in the AFC championship game, all while being one of the league's Youngest players at 22 years old.

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[C]

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[C]

But now it's time we met one of the most important players in Aaron Hernandez's story. And by player, I mean character, not football player.

[B]

That's. Yeah. Yeah. That's a stage again. We're back to play.

[C]

Yes. Yes. He's a drug dealer. He named Alex Alexander Bradley. Alexander Bradley was, for all intents and purposes, can be considered Aaron Hernandez's best friend.

[B]

He's my buddy. He's my friend.

[C]

Yeah. His confidant. And not just that. Aaron hired him as his assistant. Remember, we talked about this a little bit, but I didn't name him. In the last episode, Hernandez met Bradley at his cousin Tanya's house. And he helped Aaron with everything he. From grocery shopping to getting weed and other drugs to getting guns.

[D]

What, you hire an assistant?

[B]

Yeah. I remember when I first talked with Kelly, I said, and when you could go, honestly, first of all, here's $20,000. You're going to get the cocaine from the man, Right? Like the man is going to come out, check the box, make sure it's cocaine. And if not, here's a gun. What you're going to do is shoot him in the head if this isn't packed. Right? Right. Here's the scale.

[C]

Yeah. And then she has to go make the lines on the back of the toilet upstairs to test it out for me.

[B]

Yeah. So I could go in there to make sure it doesn't kill her. Oh, no, if she doesn't kill her, then I can take it.

[D]

No, I mean, you got to actually doing too much work. The thing is, you got to have the assistant get the gun first. Make sure. Here's a guy check to make sure the serial numbers have been filed off.

[B]

That's a really good Note. Kelly, I need you to anticipate.

[C]

Needs you see, Bradley, he met Hernandez before he was even famous. And the two, they were fast friends. Bradley, even though he was involved with a lot of illegal activities, was a smart dude. You kind of have to be to survive in his business for as long as he did.

[B]

You have to know social cues, lines to live in this world functionally. You kind of have to figure out a way to do it sustainably. Yeah.

[C]

Especially if you're going to do it for a long time.

[B]

Yes. Yeah.

[D]

And he's also, in the years since, he's been very smart with playing his part as a talking head and Aaron Hernandez story. And he's very, he, he knows how to tell the story. He knows how to be on tv. He's parlayed this into a whole new career.

[C]

I mean, who knows what happened. He's definitely like made a, a, a career out of doing illegal things, but I believe him. Yeah. So, like, if you got to be friends with like a gangster type dude, Alexander Bradley is the type of gangster ass dude you want to be friends with. All right? He had connects to all the clubs, he was generous with his weed and his time. And most importantly, he was a good companion to get stoned and play Madden with. If anything, Hernandez was a bad influence on Bradley. Even Bradley's girlfriend at the time was like, if you want to hang out with your boy, then you hang out with your boy. But going to work out with us, Jesus. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, and that's a lot. That also kind of winks towards the other side of it is like, who chooses the, the dude, your bro over your lady?

[C]

In a way, I guess as someone who used to deal weed, celebrity customers meant you more desirable than normal folks. And in turn you get clout. And clout equals more business. For me, it was peong. For Alexander Bradley, it was Aaron Hernandez. According to Bradley, he was selling slgiving Aaron her Hernandez, about 4 ounces a week.

[B]

That ain't gonna help the tau proteins get any clearer. Yeah. Like, seriously, you would put this here? Yeah.

[C]

Full, full disclosure for reference to non weed smokers. I smoke about a quarter ounce a week. And that's considered a lot.

[B]

Yeah, I do. And that's on a really intense smoking week. That's when if I don't have any work, I'm about the same. Right. Like that's.

[C]

If I don't have any work, it's a half ounce.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I, I don't even know how someone would find the actual time to smoke that much weed.

[D]

You know how I bet it was?

[B]

Blunts.

[D]

Blunts. Yeah, exactly.

[C]

He probably threw out half of it. Exactly like that.

[D]

And also, you know, he's sm. Anyone who's hanging around is also going to be smoking a lot of weed. But yeah, he's, he's wasting so much weed on blunts, I guarantee.

[C]

God, I bet his ass you can get so high off his ashtray.

[B]

Oh yeah, dude, he's just got so much stuff. Yeah. Like this is like. That's also. You remember too. Do you remember just seeing the weed sit there? Yeah.

[C]

Oh, it flipped me out.

[B]

Yeah, it's great.

[C]

Yeah. Well, not just helping Hernandez with his day to day weed and gun habit. Bradley's real.

[B]

That was just the comment on the guns. Yeah, guns. But the problem is sometimes guns get paranoid.

[C]

Bradley's real full time job was keeping Aaron Hernandez's paranoia in hostility in check.

[B]

This might have something to do with the four ounces of weed. That's a lot of weed.

[C]

You know how hard it is for me and Henry to speak ill on weed.

[B]

That's all. Also like, I get tired when I'm smoking like that. I get tired. I can't imagine smoking that much weed.

[C]

And committing murder, doing stuff and playing football.

[D]

What is smoking 4 ounces of weed a week doing to his lungs? And he's still like.

[B]

Well, he's 22. 22.

[D]

So it's like the, he has one of the like running. He has one of the most running heavy positions on the field.

[B]

He's, he's at that age where you could do anything.

[C]

Yeah, man. So they always love going around and hitting the clubs in Boston. And Hernandez having just caught a touchdown in the super bowl, he was newly world famous. Everywhere he went, people knew who he was. Sure he was famous before, but everyone knew what he looked like now. And as we remember from the last episode, his social skills were getting worse by the minute. And while smoking 4 ounces of butt a week, his paranoia was at an all time high. One of Aaron's pet peeves was people looking at him.

[B]

And that's like, look at me. Well, you know those guys that are there. I know what this is called because it's not looking at you, it's mugging. It's eyeballing me. Yeah, the guy's eyeballing me. This guy's looking for a fight, you know, oh, this guy's staring at me. And it's like, you're a New England Patriot. That was just on a Super Bowl.

[C]

You're in Boston.

[B]

Yeah, like you're literally the most famous person here.

[D]

You're also a gigantic man.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Like your eye get, like, that's. Your eye just gets caught by huge.

[C]

People and super, super hot.

[D]

Yeah, he is.

[C]

You know, Bradley would explain to him, you're famous, man. And he would ask, how come they're not looking at you? It's because I'm not you. He would say he thought that everyone who was looking at him was just trying them. I mean, it really is a stoner's nightmare. You think everyone is staring at you and they are. And you're too high to remember because it's because you're famous.

[B]

Well, you also have cte, so. You have cte. Yeah. You don't. You're. You're immediately clouded too.

[C]

No social skills.

[B]

You're just constantly forgetting that you're famous. That's a lot, you know, like, because it true. I remember I have a OCD when we. This. I'll bring this up again. But going through our. All of our drama and shit, you do start to. In my head, stuff like that was getting real. Like, they're. Who are they staring at me for? And they're like, oh, you're weird looking. Or like, oh, they might like you from the show.

[C]

Yeah. You have a pentagram on your shirt.

[D]

Just a pentagram. It's like, oh, you're wearing a T shirt that has a Mickey Mouse sucking his own dick. Yeah. RoboCop's gigantic.

[B]

I saved that for the grocery store and work.

[C]

All right. Sunday, July 15, 2012 Hernandez went to Bradley's place to pregame to go out for a night of clubbing. Sunday was his favorite night to go out, mostly because during the season it was after games, and during the summer it's usually not that busy. I remember, as I mentioned earlier, he loved going out and getting up, but didn't like it when there's a bunch of people around. So Sundays was his day day. Bradley and I say Tuesday is the day. Well, you got to go to work on Wednesday.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

It's. Your football is 60 to 80 hours a week.

[B]

Oh, no. I know. Oh, yeah.

[C]

Even in the off season because you're.

[B]

Also watching tape, you're working out, you're doing lots of stuff.

[C]

Yeah. It's very, very demanding.

[B]

And it's intellectual work.

[C]

It is. It's hard. I mean, God, I think I said this. Like, I hate when people say that they're just playing a game and they don't deserve the money they're getting.

[B]

No. It's an extremely complicated thing and they have an 18 billion dollar industry on their backs.

[C]

Yeah. So Bradley and Hernandez, to have some fun. They smoked a couple blunts, had a couple drinks, and decided on Cure nightclub for their hang that night. Hernandez was also excited to get over there because Bradley had a new gun for his collection.

[B]

Yay.

[D]

Bang bang.

[B]

Yay. He's got new family.

[C]

A.350 silver.357 Magnum with a brown handle. The gun even came loaded. How convenient.

[B]

Oh, nice gun. Now I don't got to do two stops.

[C]

So the.

[B]

Oh no, this gun's out. All out of bullets.

[D]

Guess I gotta go buy a new gun.

[B]

Throws the gun outside.

[C]

So the duo hopped an Aaron Silver Toyota 4Runner, which was an endorsement car lent to him by the Jack Fox Toyota dealership in Providence.

[B]

Good. Good plug.

[C]

Yeah. Call it a perk for scoring a Super bowl touchdown. Aaron was dressed like that night, so he was lent some clothes for the club and a ball cap. Bradley, they stashed the gun in the engine block and headed out for the night. What a weird place to put the gun. Under the spare tire. You put it under the despair tire.

[B]

The one on the cuz. I feel like it's one of those, you know, when you want to hide something from yourself in order to make sure it's super special and you can never find it again. Where you're like, I'm going to put this here and that's how I know we'll find it. But then you never find it again. It sounds like that.

[D]

Yeah. But also, why are they taking a gun? Like you don't need to. It tells you like, it tells you not just the paranoia, but it also tells you, like who Aaron Hernandez. Think how he thinks of himself, that he's going to need to go out and take a gun. He doesn't need a gun.

[C]

I know.

[B]

It is for those men that honestly, I wish it could be applied more. Is drama queen like literally looking for a fight, looking for it all to come out, like for him to be tried?

[D]

No, you're right. That is absolutely a drama queen thing.

[C]

Lots of football players carry guns. And one of the main reasons they do carry guns, jewelry, cash. They become targets when they're out because they like to going to these dangerous ass places. And so people do.

[D]

But he's not going to a dangerous place.

[C]

He's going to a nightclub.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

In Boston. It's a major city. You never know what's gonna. I'm not, you know, I'm just saying it's not on, it's not weird.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, remember When Plexco Burris had one in the sweatpants.

[D]

No, I remember.

[C]

So they get to Cure, and they park around the corner in a garage.

[D]

Cure's the nightclub.

[C]

Cure's the nightclub where. Where they were out that night. Night. And when they got there, a group of dudes from the lovely Dorchester neighborhood of Dorchester, they were also in line, having a good time and getting ready to get down.

[B]

Aaron and Alex. What a bad part of the world to be in. If you don't like guys eyeballing you, it's like their sport. It's like what they do most in Boston.

[C]

By the way, this is the club directly next door to the Wilbur.

[D]

Oh, shit.

[B]

Oh, wow. I know exactly where that is.

[D]

Wonderful venue.

[C]

Yeah. So Aaron and Alexander, they ended up skipping the line and the $20 cover, but he still got in an argument with the bouncer because the bouncer made Aaron Hernandez take his hat off.

[B]

My hat's my thing. That's my thing. I don't. People know it's me.

[C]

Daniel Day Abreu and Safiro Furtado, African immigrants who just got off work at their janitor job, were talked into going out that night by friends. They reluctantly agreed. Everyone was on the dance floor having a good time. They got their drinks in their hands, and Abreu bumps hips Hernandez and spilled his drink all over his borrowed shirt. Whether the bump was intentional or not, it is up for debate. Abreu, not knowing who Hernandez was, just kind of smiled at him as a form of saying, my bad, dude. But either way, Hernandez loses his goes crazy.

[B]

These guys that get off on this thing, they like when you step on their shoes, like, it's just. It really does feel like, just kiss me.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Also, just. Don't you want to just. You just seem to want to kiss me.

[C]

It seems weird to go out with your boy and start dancing.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. Just you and your. You and. You know, Eddie and I, we were talking last night about. Hey, Mar. Natalie and I were watching something. I forgot what it was. And it was just like, two people see was like two guys holding hands together. I forget what it was. And I was like, that's how Ed and I said, that's what we do.

[D]

Fingers interlocked.

[B]

Oh, yes. Yeah.

[C]

Bradley saw the writing on the wall, and he just grabbed Hernando, and he was like, let's bounce. This place sucks. You know? He knew something was about to pop off because almost every time he hung out with Hernandez, he flipped out on somebody. They were supposedly only in the club for 10 minutes on their way out of the club, another patron recognized Hernandez and stopped him for a quick selfie. When they were back in the street, Hernandez just started to vent to Bradley.

[B]

I hate it when people try me. Try to play me.

[C]

Bradley reminded him to stay cool.

[B]

I'm cool.

[C]

And that they both had too much to lose to get in a brawl at a club. He was right.

[B]

Yeah, it's stupid.

[C]

It really is stupid to get in a fight in public while in the street, a bouncer from another club, Caprice, spotted Hernandez and invited him in and gave them a nice table. After they were there for a couple minutes, Hernandez noticed Abreu and Furtado. These are following us, Hernandez told Bradley, but it actually wasn't them. Hernandez's paranoia was just amazing. Ramped up to a thousand, and then they ended up leaving that club as well. And then decided, maybe it's time to go home. While retrieving their car.

[B]

I guess we could go watch Netflix. Imagine him doing something like that. Be like, yeah, let's go. I got old Muppet tapes. So.

[C]

So they retrieved their car from the lot. And this time, Hernandez actually did spot the other crew getting into their car as well. And he told Bradley, roll on up on them.

[B]

I'm want to scare them.

[C]

The pair pulled up next to the BMW Abreu had borrowed from his sister, and Hernandez, in the passenger seat, leaned over Bradley, hung out the window, and.

[B]

Said, what's up now, fellas?

[C]

Except he didn't say, fellas and fire.

[B]

What do you say?

[C]

And he fired five shots into the car, killing Abreu and Frittado. There were three men in the back seat, but it all happened so fast, they didn't get a good look at Hernandez or Bradley. Furtado was shot in the head and died immediately, But Abreu, who was shot in the chest, took a minute or two before he passed away. The men in the back seat flagged down a car. A couple of ladies were in, scared the out of them, but they still called 911 for the distressed victims.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

So Aaron Hernandez, at this point, just based off a guy bumping into him at a club, just committed a double murder?

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because these are. He's a child.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

On the inside. And his brain's filled with. With mush.

[C]

And he's not thinking even a little bit?

[D]

Oh, no, no, not about anything. Because he's never faced consequences for anything in his entire life. I mean, at this point, he's already, what, busted one guy's eard drum? You know, he's Gotten into countless fights.

[C]

He might have shot up another car.

[B]

Who he was passed endlessly.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

It was late and the streets were empty. Bradley sped away and drove to his baby mama's apartment, where they laid low for a while. Bradley told his girl that Aaron had just done some stupid. And by the time she got up for work the next morning, Cousin Tanya was in her kitchen whispering to Aaron about something. By the time she got home from work, Aaron and Tanya were gone. And so was the Forerunner. Aaron hid the Forerunner at Cousin Tanya's house, where the car would stay in her garage to hopefully never be seen again. Poor Jack Fox Toyota.

[B]

Yeah. That's the only.

[C]

The unspoken victim.

[B]

That car. Go. Oh, no. Oh.

[C]

So the detectives, they're looking at the security footage from the club. One of them notices, Holy. That's Aaron Hernandez. But he never even considered him a suspect because.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[C]

Cops just think it's like a crazy coincidence, you know, he's only in the club for 10 minutes. And why would a superstar athlete murder a janitor?

[B]

Yeah, that's the dumbest thing. All the. So stupid.

[C]

Yeah. And so the murder had been so random and so pointless that the case quickly went cold for the police.

[B]

And that's a good tip for those trying to murder out there. Make it super, super out of pocket. That's how you make sure nobody knows it's. You choose somebody completely. Like, you're just not supposed to be there. People can be like, ah, you never do that.

[D]

Yeah, it. This is almost, I mean, a harder case to solve than a serial killing. At least with, like, serial killing, look, you might even be able to trace some sort of motive. But this is like, so stupid. You would never think, like, oh, one of the biggest athletes in the world. One of the biggest young athletes in the world.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Oh, yeah. He may have killed this guy for bumping into him.

[C]

I'm sure they felt bad for him for even being around it.

[B]

It's so hard to leave. Come at a drive by. That's one of the hardest parts.

[D]

That is true.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I once asked a Boston cop what he would do if he saw Tom Brady kicking a puppy down the street. And he said he'd arrest the puppy for hurting Tom's foot.

[B]

Cops are fun.

[C]

So two weeks later, Aaron Hernandez would sign the then largest contract for a title tight end ever. 40 million over five years, with a $12.5 million signing bonus at 22. Yes. Aaron Hernandez then gets engaged to the pregnant Shayana Jenkins and buys a beautiful home in North Adel, Massachusetts. Things are looking Great. During this time, he's spending a lot of time with Shana Jenkins, Shayana sister and her newborn boyfriend, Odin Lloyd. Lloyd worked as a landscaper by day and semi pro football player by night. And he and Aaron became buddies quick because they both love Madden and weed.

[D]

And that's the thing. It's so hard to find another man who loves Madden and weed.

[B]

It's almost unheard of. So rare.

[C]

Like, I can't believe you're into this. You're the maddening weed.

[B]

I'm into maddening weed.

[D]

Let's be best friends.

[C]

Well, he must have.

[B]

Now we're best friends. Run. Let's go.

[C]

Well, he must have beat Aaron a lot because he would soon be murdered by him for no reason. You got make sure you got to give these guys some games.

[B]

I don't want to get too good there.

[C]

Well, the 2012 season wasn't that good for Aaron stat wise. And he failed to live up to his massive contract. He missed six games with an ankle injury and then messed up his shoulder after getting rocked by Dolphins linebacker Carlos Dansby just weeks after his daughter was born.

[B]

Got him. Yeah, yeah.

[D]

So it's not just the ct, cte, multiple other injuries.

[B]

There's a lot of stuff going on.

[C]

He'S riddled with man.

[D]

And it's also probably why that might be why he's smoking so much weed as well. To help with the pain.

[B]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[C]

And I. And like the painkillers work but the weed is way better. It doesn't with your brain as much and like, you know, they should just let, let these players smoke weed. It's ridiculous.

[B]

I don't know why they can't smoke. Smoke weed is the dumbest. Smoking weed seems like the dumb, dumbest thing to stop for the, for the football players. Anything to calm them down.

[C]

It does not make you a better football player.

[B]

Please calm them down.

[C]

So he played hurt with a torn muscle in his shoulder for the rest of the season, which would be cut short by a loss in the playoffs of the Baltimore Ravens. Anything less than a Super bowl win was a disappointment for the Patriots. Nowadays, they're less athletic than the Patriots that stormed the capital.

[B]

Got him.

[C]

So after the loss to the Ravens and not making the super bowl, the boys needed to blow off some steam. But for some reason, Hernandez and Bradley went back to Club Cure in Boston like they hadn't just killed two people outside of there six months earlier.

[B]

I kind of think he thought that if I just kept sort of acting like it didn't happen, nothing's going to catch up to me.

[C]

Yeah, but it didn't.

[D]

If not for like other. That came later. Ease to that. Like he was totally right to do this and nothing happened because he went back.

[C]

I mean, truthfully, there was. He never got any repercussions for that incident.

[D]

No.

[C]

This night, Bradley gets a DUI with Hernandez in the car. And then Hernandez tries to get him out of it by telling the cop, it's cool.

[B]

I'm Ann Hernandez.

[C]

It did not work. I guess you got to win the super bowl for that kind of call.

[B]

Yeah. Next time, catch the last pass. Yeah, you can see that from a boss. Be like, oh yeah.

[C]

So these bro dogs, they needed to get out of town for a while. You know, Boston ain't where it's at right now. And so Deontay Thompson, he was a Baltimore Raven, he was throwing this big ass super bowl party in Miami. Deontay, he was Aaron's teammate from back at uf, so.

[D]

University of Florida.

[C]

Yeah, University of Florida. So he told him to come down and party, blow off some steam, man.

[B]

And that's what he needs, man. He's so. He's such a work guy.

[C]

I'm sure everyone would tell him to blow off steam and he just blew off way too much.

[B]

I don't think it was steam.

[D]

That's the other thing about. It was when the. In the documentaries that I watch, like everyone talks about how nobody partied harder than Aaron Hernandez, that it was insane how hard this guy would party all that. Like, I mean, just doing all night long and then just going to practice and then just going or going to a game like and go and playing and not know, like it's insane how hard this guy partied.

[C]

It's like he was trying to dull evil thoughts in his head or something.

[D]

Quite possibly.

[B]

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

[C]

So the boys landed in West Palm beach and they weren't greeted by Deontay, but they were greeted by five dudes that they didn't know. Two of these guys were some up looking dudes that went by Papu and Soldier.

[B]

Yeah, Papu and Soldier. They normally answered the door. Papu, he'll take your jacket.

[C]

Papu sounds like an incontinent grandfather, not a gangster.

[B]

That's who we got. Grandpa shits his pants.

[C]

These guys were Deontay's friends from Bell Glade. Bel Glade is half an hour west of West Palm. Side note, I personally remember Belglade being a very intense place. And when we played their team in high school, I could have sworn I was playing against 30 year old men.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

They were gigantic. They were terrifying. They had a lot of NFL players came from the Belglade Poke and Glade Central. There's a little pocket in West West Palm. And they would all like so many great players. Fred Taylor came out of there. Vince Wilford.

[B]

So you're up against a bunch of future NFL players. Yes.

[C]

And also. All right, just to make them a little scarier, other than them just physically kicking our ass all the time, we were scared to play against them because their high school supposedly had one of the highest high school AIDS rates in the country.

[D]

One of.

[B]

The.

[C]

So for two days straight, they're hanging out with this crew at a strip club in Miami appropriately called Tootsies.

[B]

Oh, cute.

[C]

Isn't that nice? I've never been. I've never been. But in a couple years my dog Tootsie will be old enough to get in.

[B]

Yeah, that'll be cute. We'll buy her a beer.

[C]

Offset just had a album release party there.

[B]

Oh, congrats.

[C]

And Wednesdays the strippers do karaoke, which honestly sounds delightful.

[B]

I'd go there.

[D]

It does sound great.

[C]

Yeah. While there, Hernandez's paranoia was amping up from a th000 to a million.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Anytime Bradley pulled out his phone, Hernandez.

[B]

Would tell him, hey, put that down, it's bug.

[C]

Bradley's phone was becoming the point of contention between the two. When Bradley asked the server for a charger, he flipped out again.

[B]

Were you mad? You bring up electricity to the bug, you got to stop. You got to make it. You got to make it hungry.

[C]

Then the bill came and Papu and Soldier conveniently went missing. They run up a $10,000 bill at Tootsies. I'm sure it was a lovely time. Oh, definitely, yes. Hernandez told Bradley, yo, you're splitting this with me. Bradley said, I don't know these. I ain't giving you five grand. And Hernandez got pissy and paid the bill. And Bradley walked off angry, but he forgot his phone on the charger in the process.

[B]

Your phone, man. The idea that they would just bug your phone so easily is very again, a very dumb, paranoid idea.

[C]

Yeah, know. And Bradley obviously knew cuz he's probably someone who knew how to search for bugs. So now.

[D]

But also who's bugging his?

[B]

Who's bugging his father? He's hyper paranoid. But the fact that he's probably going to one. He's killed two people, dude.

[C]

They're at Tootsies and Hernandez is like, yo, those two guys over there, those are FBI Agents. And then Bradley's like, no, they're not. And he's like, yeah they are, dog. And then Bradley's like, well if they are, it's cuz that dumb shit you did in Boston.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You did it. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

And so now they're driving drunk as back to West Palm from Miami. That's like a two hour drive. All right. Bradley realizes he forgot his phone and he's a little outside of town. And Hernandez refuses to go back. Papu and Soldier, they agree, and they're like, your phone.

[B]

That's right, your goddamn phone.

[C]

Hernandez even offers to buy him a new one, which is an insane offer. And Bradley proclaimed that there's pictures of my kids in there. And before the cloud.

[B]

Oh yeah, before cloud.

[C]

So Bradley must have realized this was a losing battle. And in his upness, he passed out in the car. The SUV had come to a stop at this point, and when Bradley woke up, Hernandez had a gun in his face. Bradley threw up his hand to protect himself, but Hernandez found fired anyway. The bullet tore through his hand, blowing off part of his finger, then passing through the bridge of his nose and lodged into his eye socket. Soldier casually leaned over and opened Bradley's door to try to push him out of the vehicle, but he couldn't. Aaron then got out of the car, walked over to Bradley, tossed him on the ground and left him for dead. And he didn't even go back for the phone.

[B]

Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

[C]

This all happened at 6:30 in the morning. The sun's coming up, and the lot they'd pulled into was actually a John Deere landscaping lot. And the two guys who were working there found Bradley. They saw what at first looked like a dead body, but then realized Bradley was still alive. Bradley told them, call 911, tell them to hurry before I bleed out. 911 then asked what his name was and if he knew who shot them and why. He responded, alex Bradley. No. And I'm done talking. It hurts too much when the cops.

[B]

That's a good friend. Good friend.

[C]

When the cops got there, they had similar questions, but Bradley wasn't going to tell them. The cops kept prying and he simply said, with all due respect, sir, I have no more information for you. And unfortunately, the security cameras were not on that night, so there was nothing they had on anybody.

[B]

Get out of luck.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And it's not as much of a good friend. It's more like Bradley wanted to take care of it himself.

[B]

Oh sure. And they were cut off. They're all caught up together. Other Anyway, you know, probably does not.

[C]

Need a investigation into his life. No, that's the last thing he needs. Hernandez, he was positive that he had just killed Bradley. And then he's at the airport in West Palm in the morning, and he called Bradley's baby mama and asked if she had heard from him because he hadn't seen him. And he was supposed to meet him at the airport, and he's worried about him. They got separated the night before.

[B]

I've never. You've never called me. You're like, what is this?

[C]

Did you kill him? She's starts to freak out. She started calling all the hospitals in Miami, trying to find them. She called the cops in Miami. They're like, we don't know what you're talking about. They told her to fill out a missing persons report at her local precinct in Hartford, Connecticut. But the thing was, Bradley wasn't in Miami. He was two counties away in West Palm Beach.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

So it wasn't connected.

[B]

He.

[C]

She was looking for him in the wrong city. Bradley was continually uncooperative with the cops. The cops kept asking him who shot him. And he said, he's a. Whoever did. Did this to me. Direct quote.

[B]

Yeah, he's a Whoever it was that did this to me. Whoever did this to me. Yeah.

[C]

The cop said if he didn't make a report, then he would have no victim, and if there was no victim, there was no crime. And then Bradley said, I ain't telling on nobody. And then the cop left.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Bradley then picked up his phone and called Hernandez. Hernandez probably mortified when he saw who was calling him.

[B]

Oh, man. It's his angel calling me.

[C]

He picked up anyway. Now, Marcus, I'm going to need your help here. You're going to. You're going to be Bradley. And then, Henry, you'll continue to be Hernandez. I. I want to watch this play. I got it. All right. So. Yeah, this is for you. All right.

[D]

Ring, ring.

[B]

Hello? Hello?

[C]

Ahoy.

[B]

Ahoy. Ahoy.

[D]

What's up?

[B]

Who this?

[C]

You.

[D]

You know who this is. It's your boy.

[C]

Oh, Aaron hung up out of fear.

[B]

No, no, no. Like that.

[C]

Bradley starts blowing up his phone, and Hernandez picks up again.

[D]

I don't know why you keep hanging up. I didn't tell the police on you. You know what time it is when I get back?

[C]

Hernandez hung up.

[B]

Oh, I don't like that. Oh, I don't know. What do I do about that?

[C]

And then Bradley texted him.

[D]

I really do love you, my boy, but you won't get away with that.

[B]

Oh, man, do you really love me?

[C]

Isn't that crazy? He's like, still like, I love you.

[D]

Yeah, I love you.

[B]

Cool. Cool. You're a cool guy and you're good, dude. This is the last time you shoot me, man.

[D]

Unfortunately, I am going to have to kill you now.

[B]

This is going to be like a red line that I cannot cross, brother. But I. I love you and I. And I'm. I'm going to miss you.

[C]

Soon after this, Hernandez goes to see Bill Belichick at that year's NFL combine. It's in Indianapolis. He tells him that he's in trouble with some bad dudes back home and he needs to get traded.

[B]

Bel. Imagine saying that to Bill Belichick out of everybody and him just being like, I'll kill you myself, you know?

[C]

Never one to give a about anything but winning, Belichick basically telled him to go screw.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

It's like you just signed the largest deal for a tight end ever. You're not going anywhere, dude. And then instead, he just suggests you go out to LA for the rest of the offseason. You bring. Bring your family, you get soldier surgery.

[B]

Cuz there's never been any gang violence in Los Angeles. I think that that's like a great place to stay clean.

[D]

I don't think anyone really gets in trouble out here, not once.

[C]

Well, Brady's out here, cuz he's like, you know, hanging with Giselle at the time, you know, and so he's like, go hang with Brady. You guys can, like, go over the playbook and get ready for next season, and you're just going to sit and.

[B]

Drink bone broth with Tom Brady and you're just going to watch him stare and just go like, pretend to throw a ball every day.

[C]

And you know, like, bell check called Brady. And he's like, all right, Hernandez is coming out. You got to take care of him. He's like, oh, my God, I'm not.

[D]

Going to have any time to kiss my son now.

[B]

I need to. I guess I'll have to get it in now. Oh, my little boy. My little son.

[C]

So he's out there, he wants him to get shoulder surgery, hang out, out with Brady, and they just get ready for next season, you know?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So Hernandez and Shayana, they rent a spot in Hermosa, right on the beach, and they settle in to chill out and recoup. And that was the plan anyway. Even DJ came out to hang out with them to kind of get him ready for next year, you know, it's like let's chill. Let's regroup. But he don't really spend too much time with Brady, and he just gets hammered on the regular. He's flying out Bo Wallace all the time. But him and Shane sh. Shayana. All right. They did get matching Incubus tattoos during this time.

[D]

Incubus, the band.

[C]

Incubus the band. Finally a smart decision.

[B]

I've actually heard that. That is that results. It's like a 95% divorce rate if you get matching Incubus tattoos. The worst band, you know, what is it? The worst band of all time? No.

[D]

Incubus.

[B]

No, he's not a worst fan, But.

[D]

Ken, far worse bands than Incubus, but.

[B]

One of the worst bands to get a tattoo of, you know, like how who could love Incubus so much?

[C]

I was obsessed with them for a little while in high school.

[B]

My high school girlfriend was too.

[C]

The chicks loved it.

[D]

You know, it's funny is Incubus has, like, the highest divorce rate. You know what actually has the highest, like, stay together rate?

[C]

What?

[D]

Hubastang.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[D]

If you both get matching hubastank tattoos.

[C]

Yeah. A couple is having a great time.

[D]

Well, that's the whole thing.

[B]

Unfortunately.

[D]

Unfortunately, it is a skewed sample study because it is just one couple and they have not divorced yet.

[B]

So it is 100% my wife. I went out for my birthday. We got. We got stanked. We got stanked.

[C]

But Aaron's tattoo said, remind me that we'll always have each other. And Shayana's finished the line when everything else is gone.

[B]

That is so bad.

[C]

Yeah. It's from the song Dig off of the Light Grenades album. If you get a chance to listen, don't.

[D]

Wow.

[B]

One of the late period Incubus. Later. Not even drops of. No. This train. What was the other one?

[C]

The.

[D]

The first Incubus album? Drive.

[C]

Drive was the song Pardon me. Stellar. You know those.

[B]

Those are good songs.

[C]

Yeah, several times. So they're out there.

[D]

And apparently the lead singer has a great sense of humor.

[C]

He has to be. Although I will say the science album isn't horrible. All right, all right. Several times the cops get called out to his house. All right, the first time, he had punched through a window in his home. And a couple other times, neighbors called when they heard fighting and what sound like furniture flying around the house. Shayana always declined to file reports. He also had an incident at a bar while up on Long Island. Iced teas in Long Beach. A Long beach iced tea is a Long island iced tea with cocaine.

[B]

I Believe I do. Yeah. And you also, you can't be vaccinated.

[C]

A couple days later, he does some light banking, deposited a couple of checks from the Patriots and Puma totaling close to $2 million. Christ.

[B]

He's going in there with those checks.

[C]

Walking into a boa. And why are they. He's have a business manager. No one's doing this for him, so. But then when he does this, he wires $15,000 to the parents of one Oscar Papu Hernandez. That money was given to Bo Wallace, who bought an AR15, an AK47, and a used Toyota Camry to carry the weapons back up north. Aaron, you really dug that incubus tattoo, by the way. He. So he took a drive back there and said that instead to the artist. Pardon me, Are you in? I need a new tattoo. The last one was stellar.

[B]

And he said, get out of my tattoo shop. I had to hold back. My father already tattooing you.

[C]

He got a new tattoo of a smoking handgun with one spent shell underneath it. It is thought that that represents the gun that he used to shoot Alexander Bradley.

[B]

He's so cool.

[C]

Yeah. He then looked at an available spot on his wrist and regretted where he got the first tattoo and muttered. Muttered to the tattoo. Wish you were here. Okay, I'll stop with the incubus puns. But so he gets the other tattoo of revolver with five bullets in the chamber. This is thought to represent the Boston shooting.

[B]

Oh, good for him. That's nice.

[C]

It's good to put the evidence right on your body.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. Confessions.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So, I mean, I guess a lot.

[D]

Of tattoos are confessions. Like.

[B]

Oh, very much.

[D]

One of my tattoos. A confession of how much Castlevania I played.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, that's very true. Yeah.

[C]

You know, he's not doing well mentally this time. You know, he's got a bunch of incubus tattoos on him, some gun tattoos.

[D]

You know, he's murdered two people and has attempted to murder his best friend because he's mad about him leaving his phone behind.

[B]

Marcus, he might have adhd.

[C]

Well, probably something messing with his emotional well being is that he's constantly texting with Alexander Bradley. Bradley had now decided his best course of action was to not kill her. Now Mendez, but to get a bunch of money off him.

[B]

Not a bad idea.

[C]

He's actually smart.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Not a bad idea.

[D]

Yeah. Once you calm down from that first day and you realize what the real torts of action is.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I mean, he knows how to get money.

[C]

Yeah. So I wanted to hear some samples of their text messages and And I hope you boys will reenact it for us. Sure. And out of common sense, all n words have been switched to fellas.

[D]

Yes. Thank you. You did that. Yet for no reason. And me being the real friend I was to you. I didn't try to ruin you. Even after you tried to kill me.

[B]

Think about how real that is. The tears that should be in my eyes after the way you betrayed me. I never crossed you in no way. I lose you. And you are not gonna frame me for some bread.

[D]

I would never try to frame you. You left me with one eye and a lot of head trauma you owe for what you did. And it's too bad you don't know me enough to know that this convo is private between us. This ain't for no lawyer or cop to see. We both know what happened. The truth is the tr. God damn it. There's no punctuation.

[C]

It's really hard.

[B]

This is for.

[D]

Yeah, there's no punctuation.

[C]

A bunch of these words or letters.

[D]

All right, so. Yes, okay. So let me just take a deep breath. We both know what happened. The truth is the truth. If I dealt with police, my boy, this would have been over and done with. That's what's crazy crazy about this situation. We know each other so well. You know I ain't no on, you know bs. You too paranoid. That's what made you do this. You did in last but not least. I always wanted the best for you. Remember that. You obviously didn't feel the same.

[B]

I will always be for there for you to the day you die. But not in the state of mind you are in. And be in the be in. And I don't know what gotten into you out there after all the years that we were inseparable. But everything inside aside, you're always on my mind. And I love you and always will. No homo.

[D]

What's crazy is I believe that part is true. You probably do think about how real of a fella I am and how you even flipped on me. But what sickens me is the fact that you are denying this shit like it's for the lawyer or cops. You must not really know me. But I guess I didn't know you either. Cuz I would have never thought you'd try to end me. Do you have trustworthy fellas like me around? Doubt it, dog. Sick, strong with a lot of weaponry. So hey, you turned this convo into this.

[B]

If you ever got me into trouble to or ruin my life or something I didn't do. I don't even want to get back at you. But you will pay. I'll be back around the way in a couple months too. And I can't wait to see you. Cause I will still be at your baby mother's crib. A bunch of love uncause can't stop love of somebody that was the only person I fuck with. I was like a brother to me. But damn, you were trying to sue me for something I didn't do and don't even know about. If you could win, then that. That. Then God is on your side. But I doubt something can be proved that isn't true.

[D]

Here you go threaten again. You know that don't scare me though. If you knew how G'd up I am, you wouldn't even say that. I'm gee'd up with AK47s, MAC11s, MAC90s at the ready, four bulletproof vests, and oh, almost forgot the D. Right, fellas. To use the weaponry.

[B]

Weapon tree.

[D]

Weapon tree. Yes, actually. Yes, it is. Weapon tree. If you think them wolves ain't on deck, then try what you got to try. What makes you think I want to kill you? The one who tried to kill me. Oh, I promise you'll pay for that. In. You are so boxed. And you'll be number one suspect.

[B]

I swear to God. Either you know you're trying to ruin my life and kill me when all I did was be there for you. I still love you. No homo. And I will always love you.

[D]

He always has to hit those. No homo. Every time now. It ain't gonna be this way. Say fuck it. You ain't getting shit from me. I file civil suit, you lose it all in me. Hold court in the street. You think I'm scared to die?

[B]

I miss you and love you and still watch videos of us having fun every single day. And don't believe this. And we'll keep saying I can't believe all of this. Coast guys. I truly can't believe all this shit is going on. If I would really try and kill you, and we were that close, I wouldn't. I never would want to hurt you. You know that. I love you. Good night.

[D]

Not to bother you, but feel me on this. When you did that, it's like you coming home to your crib and catching your brother Fraud in bed with another. You stole my trust and tore my ego.

[C]

Beautiful.

[D]

You stole my trust and tore my ego.

[B]

I love you. Good night. I love you.

[C]

Good night. And it's with this wonderful piece of theater that we're gonna Leave you until next week. Why does he say that?

[B]

Why does he say love you. Good night. And there is a Dutton. You better be careful, fool. 5. Pull up. Up on your ass. All right. Night, night. Sweet dreams. Sweet dreams. Love your friend. Oh, man.

[C]

Well, this was wonderful. Thank you, fellas. That was a beautiful piece of theater. And we're gonna leave you until next week when we conclude the gridiron Greek tragedy of Aaron Hernandez.

[B]

Yes. And then we will be headed into one of the deepest waters you can possibly imagine. Very long series after this. Yes, you're all going to enjoy very much.

[C]

Long dawn long series.

[D]

We've been working. We have been working on this series literally for months, almost a year, and we're very, very happy that we're about to finally premiere it.

[C]

No, you've been talking about this for a long time and they're gonna love it.

[D]

I've been preparing for this for a very long time.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Which is good.

[B]

1945, to watch us do all the wonderful things that we do. Also, you can see us live on Tuesday, 6pm PST for last. Last stream on the left, live on patreon goes to YouTube afterwards where we cut all the copyright material we like to show because we can't show it on YouTube so you need to subscribe it to see it all. And then you go to all the social shits at LP on the left.

[D]

That's right. And don't forget to come out and see us on tour. We're hitting all kinds of cities this year. We are taking care of the situation in Cleveland.

[B]

Taking care of this situation.

[D]

Yeah, the. The show is not canceled, but it will be moved. So make sure that you keep an eye out or keep an ear out. Take a look at your emails to see where that show is going to be moved to. But yeah, we're getting the Cleveland situation figured out.

[C]

And then October, we're going to be in Milwaukee at the Pabstater and then Oakland at the Fox Theater. We're going to figure out this Cleveland thing and then in December, you can catch us in Portland on December 12th and 13th at Revolution hall and come see us.

[B]

Like, one of my favorite shows of this year is going to be Last podcast and left.com. go buy tickets for a side stories at Humboldt. Yes, with Billy Wayne Davis is going to be a lot of fun.

[C]

That's going to be the day before the Oakland show on October 24th in Redway, California. It's in the middle of nowhere, but people come out for it. Man, it's a blast it's so much fun. You guys are going to love it. You should come if you want. Actually, I might. Yeah. Oh, I want to say something. Shout out to Grant Gordon. He took the lead on the CTE section of the script. You did a great job, buddy. I love, love you. You're hilarious. And much better writer than I am. So thank you so much for coming in and helping me out, man. It's such a hard job you have every week, Marcus. I don't know how your brain works like that.

[D]

I've been doing it for 15 years.

[B]

Yeah, he's built a callus. Well, hail Satan, everyone. Oh, and hell geen hey.

[C]

And hail Dr. Anne McKee. Watch your head.

[D]

Yeah. And your balls, please.

[B]

That's what I'm doing right now.

[D]

I'm going to watch my left nipple.

[C]

That's sucking on the left.

[B]

Thank you.

[E]

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[C]

I need a coffee.

[E]

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[B]

Ah, DSW Earth, place of the humble. Brag here. The shoes are so good, no one would ever know how little you paid if you didn't go telling everyone, that is.

[A]

And with never ending options for every.

[B]

Style, mood and occasion, all at really.

[C]

Great prices, they'll definitely give you something to brag about.

[A]

So go ahead, stock up on fresh sneakers from your favorite brands.

[B]

Or try those boots you always secretly knew you could pull off.

[C]

Find the shoes that get you at.

[B]

Prices that get your budget at DSW.

[A]

Stores [e-mail] Let us surprise you.