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“American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” episode 9 recap: Hernandez goes to court
Tennessee

“American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” episode 9 recap: Hernandez goes to court

Anyone who has followed the Aaron Hernandez saga in real time knows that the moments before he was taken in handcuffs from his North Attleborough home on June 26, 2013 were the last time he would be free.

So when Episode 9 of “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” begins with the Patriots tight end, played by actor Josh Rivera, being led out of the home he shared with his fiancée Shayanna Jenkins, viewers know the ending – the lives of both Hernandez and the FX series – is close.

The penultimate part of the show, based on the Boston Globe’s Spotlight series and companion podcast, quickly pivots from that scene to Gillette Stadium, where Patriots owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick become more concerned with Hernandez’s optics seem arrest than with the fact that one of their players is accused of murdering someone.

“I feel betrayed, absolutely betrayed,” Kraft, played by actor Jerry Levine, says to Belichick, played by Norbert Leo Butz. “Do you know what this looks like for us? I knew it was a mistake to draft him. He fell victim to us for a reason.”

Immediately, the Patriots, who overlooked much troubling behavior before and after acquiring Hernandez with the 113th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, begin removing any sign of Hernandez from the stadium and allowing their fans to exchange their Hernandez jerseys for free make possible. Kraft tells Belichick to address the media the next day.

“And none of the usual (expletive), Bill,” Kraft says. “Put on a clean shirt and don’t mumble. This is important.”

In “American Sports Story,” time is compressed. In the series, Hernandez’s murder trial begins shortly after he was charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd. In reality, the trial only began on January 9, 2015 – 18 months after his arrest. Jenkins, played by actress Jaylen Barron, is forced to testify by the prosecution, but when asked what she thinks was in the box Hernandez was supposed to throw away after Lloyd’s body was discovered, she pauses says: marijuana, not a weapon.

Afterwards, in the courthouse bathroom, Jenkins tells her mother that she can’t betray Hernandez.

“I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave him. Everyone leaves him. They use him and throw him away – his mother, his family and the team,” she says. “His body was broken and he couldn’t think straight and they still told him to go out and play. It didn’t matter if he got in trouble because he was good and made money. I go and there’s nothing.”


Mark Shanahan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @MarkAShanahan.

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