The folks at Rolling Stone have taken a close look at the life of former Patriot tight end Aaron Hernandez. The story has yet to be released, but Rolling Stone has offered up a six-pack of teases, via Deadspin.
The most significant unknown tidbit was that Hernandez already was on a short leash with coach Bill Belichick, to the point where Hernandez was “one misstep from being cut.” The item points to “missed practices and thug-life stunts.”
That contention partially contradicts a report from Ben Volin of the Boston Globe that the Patriots had no qualms about Hernandez as a player, and that the only concerns arose from his lingering friendship with friends from his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut. It also makes us wonder when the concerns arose, given that the Patriots gave Hernandez a $12.5 million signing bonus in August 2012.
Also, Rolling Stone reports that Hernandez was a “heavy user of angel dust” (which may or may not have been purchased from Louis Winthorpe III), that Hernandez’s paranoia prompted him to carry a gun “wherever he went,” that he “surrounded himself with a cohort of gangsters,” that his parents and “much of his extended family” had criminal records, and that his mother, Terri, cheated on Hernandez’s father before he died with a “violent drug dealer” whom she would later marry.
Finally, the report contends that former Florida coach Urban Meyer “may have helped cover up failed drug tests, along with two violent incidents — an assault and a drive-by shooting outside a local bar.”
That last part likely is a reference to an alleged assault occurring in May 2007 and the shooting from September 2007, both of which happened in Gainesville. While the report hedges with the use of “may have,” it’s the first time anyone has suggested that Meyer had an affirmative role in keeping Hernandez’s alleged misdeeds quiet.
We’ve got a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more on this one, from Foxboro to Columbus (where Meyer now works) to points in between and beyond.