Former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez still remains as a popular topic of discussion more than seven years after he died by suicide in prison.
Hernandez, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015, is now the subject Ryan Murphy’s new American Sports Story franchise on FX.
The 10-episode series, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, stars Josh Andrés Rivera playing as the former tight end.
The real-life story that American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez is based on
Hernandez was convicted of murder after police found the body of semi professional football player Odin Lloyd in June 2013. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée before he was murdered.
Hernandez was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in May 2014. The counts included two charges related the murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, who were shot in their car while waiting at a red light in a Boston neighborhood. According to the Associated Press, prosecutors said Hernandez was angry because de Abreu accidentally bumped into him while dancing at a club. In 2017, the former Patriots star was acquitted of murder in the killings of de Abreu and Furtado.
How did Aaron Hernandez die?
On April 19, 2017, three days after he was acquitted, Hernandez took his own life at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Leominster, Mass. Officials said Hernandez hung himself by a bed sheet in his cell and he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The former University of Florida student-athlete was smoking a drug known as K2 in his cell with another inmate, The Boston Globe reported. The drug, according to The Globe, is similar to marijuana, but more toxic.
The Gladiator podcast, which inspired FX’s Aaron Hernandez series, reveals more graphic details on his story. The podcast explores the abuse Hernandez faced as a child along with his brother, his issues with sexuality and the CTE symptoms he showed.
While Rivera plays as Hernandez in the FX installment, Jaylen Barron takes the role of his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, as Blavity’s Shadow and Act previously reported. The show, written by Stu Zicherman, also includes Catfish Jean, Tony Yazbeck, Lindsay Mendez and Patrick Schwarzenegger. American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez will premieres on FX on Tuesday and it will stream on Hulu the next day.
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