Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez / Netflix Documentary - Short Take

[NorthStar]

27 years old when he took his own life. He had the whole world...money, fame, athletism, wife, baby girl, ...

Football in America is the national sport. Everyone play football, even I during my college years and for four years with four championat wins. We were simply the best team.

After watching this doc, which most North American sports fans, are more or less familiar with some of the story when it was all over national news across the continent, I felt parts missing.
Originally it was roughly 90 minutes long, now it is over 3 hours long, but still too short.
Why? Because it's more complex than it already is, and to say that is saying a lot.

It's a good doc, it draws in your attention. It brings the world of sports into a deeper perspective; if you're young and excell @ football there's a mountain of cash waiting for you. Some kids had better life than others before getting to the top. And some @ the top can fall deeper than the very bottom. There are other stories of players with tragic ends, Aaron Hernandez is one of them.

We see the real people in the court during his process, along with some of their stories, witnesses in the case of his friend's death, who was 27 @ the time. He was shot few times.
But there are other cases too we are shown, with real video footage. We enter slightly the world of Aaron, and it's not a black and white world, it's a multicolored world of complex upbringing and growing up with all type of friends.
Ultimately Aaron wasn't coached properly in the social aspect of his life. He wasn't hanging with all the right people.

If you are a football's fan and like to see what one of the best players reaching the top and bottom, it's right in your alley. It's a deep psychological case of recent events.
He was just a kid, rarely showing emotions, keeping underground.
The doc goes underground to show the other sides.

More articles are surfacing now, because of this Netflix documentary...more discoveries that make me realize that 3 hours were simply not enough.

* I'll link only a short article that just came up, there are many more and reviews of this documentary, I just don't have the time now, only this one ...
? https://petapixel.com/2020/01/17/photographing-aaron-hernandez-on-the-same-day-he-shot-someone/

A rating score: 8 out of 10.

 

[Steve Williams]

Good find Bob

That’s one I will watch for sure

 

[cjfrbw]

I haven't seen the show, but I don't really know if you can draw any philosophical conclusions from someone who had such severe brain damage (found after his death). His behavior could have been anywhere.

I remember when I did neurosurgery rotation in my residency. I attended brain conference every week. They had a couple of brains on the breadboard from young football athletes who had died in auto accidents, and they were already showing the brown, hazy surface casts from previous contra coup injuries. Contact sports cause brain injuries starting at pretty early ages. I suppose that's the only conclusion..

 

[NorthStar]

I haven't seen the show, but I don't really know if you can draw any philosophical conclusions from someone who had such severe brain damage (found after his death). His behavior could have been anywhere.

I remember when I did neurosurgery rotation in my residency. I attended brain conference every week. They had a couple of brains on the breadboard from young football athletes who had died in auto accidents, and they were already showing the brown, hazy surface casts from previous contra coup injuries. Contact sports cause brain injuries starting at pretty early ages. I suppose that's the only conclusion..

It is a part of that documentary @ some point; brain concussions.
And there is more than that (I don't want to spoil).

 

[Steve Williams]

we binge watched this 3 part documentary of Aaron Hernandez and IMO not only is it bone chilling with twists right to the end it is a must watch

Frankly I only saw Aaron Hernandez as a payer on the field for the Patriots and never once so much as heard him speak. When finally I did hear him speak my first reaction was "something's missing with this kid" or he sounds like a "young kid" . He just seemed to have an IQ that was borderline at best.

It shows his early years growing up under his father's strict rule. He had a brother and sister but it was his closeness to his father who seemed to dictate his life.

There is so much to the story that I didn't know, the biggest of which was that he was a gay (bisexual) man in a gladiator contact sport. He had an explosive temper which proved to be his achilles tendon as he was tried for the murders of 3 men. What I knew was that he was convicted of the first and sentenced to life without parole with that trial on appeal when he was tried for the 2nd and 3rd murders with the famous lawyer Jose Baez. The evidence was absolutely overwhelming (albeit circumstantial) of his guilt yet Baez got him acquitted of both charges. He returns to prison now with the anticipation that he would win his appeal and ultimately be released from prison. Shortly after he committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell

AS a result, based on an archaic Massachusetts law which states that a convict is incarcerated pending appeal and dies in prison, he would therefore be unable to participate in his own appeal. Hence the original conviction would be vacated as if it never occurred. This would have freed up monies owed too im by the Patriots

Of note after his death his brain was autopsied and was found to have a most severe form of brain degeneration called CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) which could have attributed to his behavior. This compounded by his being a gay man in a ferocious sport also changed him psychologically and the icing on the cake was the domineering father he had who probably would have thrown him out of the house if he knew his son was gay.

This was truly worth watching. Highly recommended

 

[NorthStar]

Indeed Steve, powerful documentary into the inner darkness of a famous football player.
It's psychologically educative on all fronts and we learn much more than we bargain for.

And the only way to know this is to watch it.
No one can understand without watching it.