Before ‘American Sports Story,’ Watch Netflix’s Aaron Hernandez Docuseries

The first season of the upcoming Ryan Murphy-produced series FX American Sports Story dramatizes the rise and fall of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez, who was convicted of first-degree murder and suspected of a separate double homicide before taking his own life in prison in 2017. The series, which premieres on September 17, captures one of the most shocking stories in the sports world of the century, and over a decade since the murder of Odin Lloyd, more details surrounding Hernandez’s life have unfolded. Before American Sports Story, the former NFL star’s downfall was examined in the 2020 Netflix docuseries Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. With rich True-Crime stories like these, which touch upon an abusive childhood, repressed sexuality, and the unhealthy pressure of professional football, narrative dramatization pales in comparison to documentaries.

What Happened to Aaron Hernandez?

Netflix’s streaming library features many true crime documentary movies and shows. The genre, which has seen a popularity boom in the last decade across all media, has become one of the streamer’s cornerstones. With Killer Inside, directed by Geno McDermott, the gruesome and unsettling backdrop of true crime is combined with sports, a field Netflix has increasingly added to its portfolio in recent years. Aaron Hernandez, a tight end for the New England Patriots, the most accomplished NFL team of the 21st century, seemingly had everything one could ask for in life. Drafted in the fourth round out of the University of Florida, the 20-year-old Hernandez quickly proved himself as one of the best at his position. He played alongside Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, two of the best players to walk the gridiron. In 2012, after playing in the Super Bowl (where he scored a touchdown), he earned a lucrative $39 million contract extension, including a $12.5 million signing bonus — the largest ever received by an NFL tight end.

Suddenly, this idyllic life crumbled. In June 2013, Hernandez was arrested for the murder of his friend, Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player dating Hernandez’s fiancé’s sister. While the former Florida Gator had a history of off-the-field behavioral issues, no one could have predicted this. Following his arrest for the Lloyd murder, the police discovered a silver SUV linking Hernandez to an unsolved 2012 double homicide in Boston outside a nightclub, meaning that he played an entire NFL season after allegedly killing two people. He was eventually acquitted of the double murder, but only a few days later, Hernandez, serving his sentence for the Lloyd murder, was found dead in his cell. Killer Inside is less interested in examining the murder case and subsequent trial and more fixated on deconstructing Hernandez’s life and what caused him to commit such heinous crimes.

‘Killer Inside’ Examines the Troubled Background of Aaron Hernandez

The Netflix docuseries uncovers various elements in Hernandez’s life that slipped past the Patriots’ scouts and front office during their vetting process of his character and criminal record. Raised in Bristol, Connecticut, Hernandez was a star high school athlete raised in a sports-centric family led by his father and former football star, Dennis, who had hostile and abusive tendencies. At a young age, Hernandez was exposed to constant fighting between his parents, which often led to domestic violence. Beneath his appearance as an affable, fun-loving, and decent young man was someone with deep psychological wounds with paranoid behavior. He resorted to violence if he thought he was being antagonized or in peril. Throughout his promising football career, he carried the burden of a double life, someone who was unable to express any vulnerability due to the uncompromising demands of his sport. The documentary, told in a nonlinear structure, is intercut with phone recordings between the incarcerated Hernandez and his fiancé, Shayanna Jenkins, which underline his deep-seated insecurity.

The Hernandez case is worthy of a gripping documentary because there was so much mystery surrounding his background that led to a drastic downfall to his reputation. When he was arrested in 2013, the Patriots treated him as persona non grata, with the notoriously taciturn head coach Bill Belichick ordering his players not to discuss their former teammate and the organization refunding fans who purchased Hernandez jerseys. From the get-go, it seemed as if it was forbidden to have a frank discussion about how and why Hernandez went down this path. The documentary, while over-analytical in spurts, shines a light on buried factors in the NFL star’s life that culminated in his tragic downfall.

As a child in an environment demanding athletic exceptionalism, Hernandez faced constant pressure, exacerbated by his father’s drunken outbursts. From his college selection days, Hernandez’s decisions were detrimental to his well-being. Rather than following the expected course and attending the University of Connecticut, he opted to graduate high school a semester early to play for Florida, a prestigious championship-winning football school under head coach Urban Meyer. Along with lacking the maturity to handle the college lifestyle, Hernandez got mixed up with the wrong crowd. While in Florida, he was charged with felony battery for a bar fight and was a suspect in a separate shooting, both in Gainesville. These incidents, along with his history of failed drug tests, caused Hernandez, a first or second-round-worthy talent, to drop to the fourth round in the NFL Draft. At long last, perhaps the New England Patriots, the gold standard of professional excellence in sports, could turn his personal life around.

There Are Complicated Issues Surrounding the Crimes Detailed in ‘Killer Inside’

Two overlooked aspects of Hernandez’s life, his possible sexual repression and brain damage, are confronted in Killer Inside. One talking head, Dennis Sansoucie, Hernandez’s high school quarterback, claimed that he engaged in a sexual relationship with him starting in seventh grade and through their junior year of high school. Following his trial and sentencing, rumors circulated surrounding Hernandez’s sexual orientation in the press, with many speculating that he ended up taking his own life after being outed on a Boston radio show. The docuseries refrains from callous discussions surrounding Hernandez’s alleged homosexuality while being cognizant of its impact on his psyche. Not to mention, repressed feelings of homosexuality are often linked to the hypermasculine urges of football and its surrounding culture.

The NFL has experienced its fair share of controversy, but no issue has been as much of a PR headache as player safety and concussions. For some viewers, the documentary highlighting Hernandez’s autopsy, which showed severe CTE damage to his brain, is a grave disservice, as it implies that anyone who suffers head trauma will undergo a killing spree. Killer Inside has moments of sensationalism, as it too heavily blames the NFL’s safety protocol for Hernandez’s actions, but the series expects the audience to consider all these external factors without excusing his crimes. The NFL tries its best to sweep the long-term effects of head injuries under the rug. As a result, Killer Inside hopes to find accountability for Hernandez’s sociopathic life. One doesn’t devolve into a murderer incidentally, and the docuseries tries to emphasize this point by taking a sobering look at Hernandez’s internal duality.

Killer Inside, the story of Aaron Hernandez’s suppressed dark side from his youth to his death in prison, channels from the acclaimed 2016 documentary, O.J.: Made in America. While Hernandez did not have a fraction of O.J. Simpson‘s fame and recognition, their stories are similar, beyond just their football background. Killer Inside is an all-encompassing portrait of Hernandez, who was an inscrutable figure from a certain distance. When unpacked, Hernandez’s life was a cataclysmic fall from grace. Upon receiving his contract extension in 2012, the tight end donated $50,000 to a charity in the name of Patriots owner Robert Kraft‘s late wife, Myra. Kraft and the Patriots viewed Hernandez as family. Less than three years later, Kraft gave incriminating testimony at Hernandez’s trial. The Netflix series, an essential viewing before the dramatized American Sports Story airs, comprehends the magnitude of this shocking story without ever finding a proper answer behind Hernandez’s murderous ways, but the bleakest human stories rarely contain easy answers.

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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