OT: Aaron Hernandez

[mhlarch]

With my time off between Christmas and New Years I've been binge watching a bunch of programs on the Investigative Discovery Channel (ID) which features true crime documentaries - I guess it's my guilty pleasure, but the various episodes are pretty interesting and well produced (Homicide Hunter w/Lt Joe Kenda, Cabin in the Woods, Fear Thy Neighbor, The Real Murders on Elm Street, How (Not) to Get Rid of a Body, etc.). They do an excellent job of showing images of the communities where these crimes occurred and the actual crime scenes to provide context. The one huge downside is so many commercials, with many promoting their own shows. They have really been pushing an upcoming special about Aaron Hernandez, "Aaron Hernandez and the Untold Murders of Bristol". Kind of piqued my interest and I'll probably watch it, or at least record it.

Watching the trailers on TV made me realize that although I was aware of the horrific crimes he committed and that he was a bad guy, I didn't know many details about his background and crimes.....and more importantly when they started. Being the lazy researcher I am, I checked out Wikipedia, and the link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hernandez

Wow! While Hernandez is fully responsible for his actions and ultimate demise (even sadly considering his horrific upbringing and mental health issues). And while we hear about the credible rumors about the rot of SEC football and Urban Meyer, I was still shocked with what I read. His questionable recruiting, the hanger-ons from his hometown, all the coverups at Florida, and being drafted so young and to New England which was so close to all of those bad influences.

With this guy's violent history and behavior, he should have never been enabled to the level he was. And while the article points out many people tried to help him, there are many with blood on their hands for pushing this guy forward when they should have cut him off. Urban Meyer is one of those people. Money and success on the football field trumped making the right decision and not enabling this guy.

 

[Kasparaitis]

With my time off between Christmas and New Years I've been binge watching a bunch of programs on the Investigative Discovery Channel (ID) which features true crime documentaries - I guess it's my guilty pleasure, but the various episodes are pretty interesting and well produced (Homicide Hunter w/Lt Joe Kenda, Cabin in the Woods, Fear Thy Neighbor, The Real Murders on Elm Street, How (Not) to Get Rid of a Body, etc.). They do an excellent job of showing images of the communities where these crimes occurred and the actual crime scenes to provide context. The one huge downside is so many commercials, with many promoting their own shows. They have really been pushing an upcoming special about Aaron Hernandez, "Aaron Hernandez and the Untold Murders of Bristol". Kind of piqued my interest and I'll probably watch it, or at least record it.

Watching the trailers on TV made me realize that although I was aware of the horrific crimes he committed and that he was a bad guy, I didn't know many details about his background and crimes.....and more importantly when they started. Being the lazy researcher I am, I checked out Wikipedia, and the link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Hernandez

Wow! While Hernandez is fully responsible for his actions and ultimate demise (even sadly considering his horrific upbringing and mental health issues). And while we hear about the credible rumors about the rot of SEC football and Urban Meyer, I was still shocked with what I read. His questionable recruiting, the hanger-ons from his hometown, all the coverups at Florida, and being drafted so young and to New England which was so close to all of those bad influences.

With this guy's violent history and behavior, he should have never been enabled to the level he was. And while the article points out many people tried to help him, there are many with blood on their hands for pushing this guy forward when they should have cut him off. Urban Meyer is one of those people. Money and success on the football field trumped making the right decision and not enabling this guy.

Half of what you read in Wikipedia may be true but is slanted toward a particular point of view. It’s a free country. I don’t see how giving a drug abusing gang banger opportunity to attend college and get paid handsomely as a professional athlete can be considered enabling him. In fact, I believe he was a roommate of Tim Tebow who turned out OK. We all have free will. God will have to sort this one out.

 

[mhlarch]

Half of what you read in Wikipedia may be true but is slanted toward a particular point of view. It’s a free country. I don’t see how giving a drug abusing gang banger opportunity to attend college and get paid handsomely as a professional athlete can be considered enabling him. In fact, I believe he was a roommate of Tim Tebow who turned out OK. We all have free will. God will have to sort this one out.

I agree with that to some degree........but did you read how many times he ran into trouble in College and they covered it up? That is enabling.

 

[LandoComando]

I agree with that to some degree........but did you read how many times he ran into trouble in College and they covered it up? That is enabling.

They enabled him even if they thought they were helping him. It's a fine line and ultimately on Aaron.

Still wonder how much the Pouncey brothers were involved with most of his crimes.

 

[Lion84]

Urban was always a scum bag - Saban I think at least tried to run a decent program.

 

[Dixi]

What is clear to me is that Aaron Hernandez had severe neurodegenerative disease complicated by childhood behavior abuse. Bad guy for sure, but he was a product of his environment. Urban I'm sure wanted to help the kid.

 

[Lion84]

What is clear to me is that Aaron Hernandez had severe neurodegenerative disease complicated by childhood behavior abuse. Bad guy for sure, but he was a product of his environment. Urban I'm sure wanted to help the kid.

By all accounts Urban did nothing and in fact covered for him and swept stuff under the rug so yeah he wanted to help but only Urban..

 

[jjw165]

He had stage 3 CTE at age 27 when he died. The worst advancement of CTE for a person that young according to the doctor who diagnosed it.

Aaron Hernandez’s CTE Worst Seen in a Young Person

Aaron Hernandez had most extreme CTE ever seen in a young person. Brain invaluable to Boston University CTE research.

www.bu.edu

 

[Dixi]

By all accounts Urban did nothing and in fact covered for him and swept stuff under the rug so yeah he wanted to help but only Urban..

Maybe so. But every top D1 coach will reach for a kid with his potential especially when building a program. We had a similar kid in the PSU wrestling program early on that also went sideways but not to this extreme.

 

[PurposePitch]

Half of what you read in Wikipedia may be true but is slanted toward a particular point of view. It’s a free country. I don’t see how giving a drug abusing gang banger opportunity to attend college and get paid handsomely as a professional athlete can be considered enabling him. In fact, I believe he was a roommate of Tim Tebow who turned out OK. We all have free will. God will have to sort this one out.

"It's a free country" is one of the stupidest things a person can say. And it's usually stated by someone trying to justify awful behavior.

First, it's not really a free country ... we have plenty of prohibited activities. You aren't free to do whatever you want. Sure, in some ways, the country is "free" or "more free" than others, but those ways have no meaning when someone is trying to utilize the childish "it's a free country" comment.

Second, folks typically use it when responding to someone suggesting that something SHOULDN'T happen, not whether something CAN happen. Sure, you CAN, as an adult, walk up to a 6-year-old kid you don't know and say "you're fat" ... but the issue is, SHOULD you. A douche would respond "but it's a free country!"

Third, it's weird that you want to stand in judgment of someone who you thought wasn't huggy enough to the opposing coach after a loss, but you want to not judge those who might have had a chance to head off a killer, and didn't. That's a weird value system, no doubt.

If someone is given opportunity (education, money, etc.), it can help, but it can also hurt, especially if it's derived from physically violent stardom ... it depends how that person responds and how it's channeled. The issue here, with Hernandez, is that folks saw he was still "off" and suspected him of being off the reservation, but not much was done to steer him away from that ... and the fame and success only served to exacerbate the issues he was having ... and folks were profiting off that, so they just wanted to ride the money train, so to speak .. at least, that's an argument.