Aaron Hernandez Opinion Article

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Mia Hayden

Aaron Hernandez, NFL football star, boyfriend, father— and convicted killer. Years after his crimes, and three short years after his suicide, it’s odd to watch him in interviews and games while knowing what he has done. If one watches closely, they can see his demons reveal themselves through his facial expressions, body language, and words.

The crime and/or crimes Aaron Hernandez committed weren’t simply theft, drugs, or anything that could be redeemable in the slightest: it was cold-blooded murder. He was believed to have killed at least three people, making him fit the criteria to be a serial killer, but he was only convicted of one killing according to CNN. The murder that Aaron was arrested, tried, and convicted for was that of Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old man, who was killed June 17, 2013. Hernandez was arrested shortly after Odin’s body was discovered, and so were two other men that were accessories to the crime.

Aaron remained in jail from 2013 to April 2017, when he killed himself. Aaron’s family sent his brain to Boston University to be studied for a brain disorder, CTE, and it was found he did suffer from the condition. According to Google, CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is caused by repeated head traumas, which could be from Hernandez’s abusive childhood or his football career, or both. In video interviews, Aaron slurs words often which can be a sign of having head trauma. CTE also can cause impulse control issues, aggression, and impaired judgement, which, placed with childhood trauma and a skewed sense of self, could be the perfect potion for a murderer.

In many interviews available on YouTube, Hernandez seems standoffish, uncomfortable, and many of his smiles are fake. You can tell this because he’s smiling like he smiles in pictures, and when you smile in pictures, you’re usually not genuinely happy. In certain interviews, certain questions can cause Aaron’s fake smile to falter. If an interviewer used the phrase “are you guilty” as a figure of speech, Aaron hesitated to answer, because he knew what he had done.

Hernandez is dead now, and he was acquitted of a double murder he was suspected of committing. The public will forever be in shock of the day Aaron was led out of his house in cuffs, of the day where it was revealed his girlfriend possibly hid a murder weapon, of the day he was convicted, and of the day he killed himself in prison. Nobody will ever know what truly went through Hernandez’s head on the days he committed his crimes, and I’m not sure any of the public wants to know.