Aaron Hernandez doc on Netflix
 

Just came out the other day, but I had nothing to watch last night so I watched it.

I recommend it. It's quite a messed up story that's very fascinating.

Yeah, watched it. Jeez, why not just commit a double murder against a couple of guys who spilled part of a drink on you in a bar and then go play a full NFL season and then sign a huge contract extension? And then take out a good friend because he found out something you didn’t want found out. Simply amazing. I wasn’t aware of most of it - I knew he was convicted of murder and offed himself in jail - that barely scratched the surface...

-Ray

Honestly though... the double murder might not have been him. The other dude he was with, and shot later, was far from a saint.

I watched it 2 nights ago. Very interesting.

We'll never know. But it SOUNDED like the other guy was trying to calm him down. He wasn't convicted on those charges that really wasn't gonna have any bearing on the rest of his life, had he decided to continue living it out.

Have yet to watch it. I remember how shocked I was when it happened.

That's what that guy said at trial after he'd been supposedly shot by him, but he didn't even know who shot him. Some of the witnesses at the club said Hernandez didn't seem that upset. There's no hard evidence either way to make a definitive statement.

Which I guess is why the jury didn't convict on those charges.

Another thing that I had no idea about - this was probably all much more front-page news in the Boston area - was the whole gay thing. Seemed pretty clear when he was a kid, but only insinuations in the movie about when he was an adult. I can only imagine what being in the closet would do to a guy like that, let alone in a macho environment like the NFL...

Especially being raised by a pretty domineering father who seemed to cast a long shadow in Hernandez's life, even after the father's death. Although mentioned and dismissed as a motive regarding the Odin Lloyd murder, I think sexual identity may have played a greater part. I thought that the CTE was kind of an addendum in the series, and it didn't do a great job connecting the dots.

It was said that his brain showed the greatest degree of damage on the internal aspects, but I wondered why the exterior of his brain didn't show damage if this was a contrecoup type injury. I also wondered if his brain and ability to reason was so compromised, how was he able to function so well on the field let alone accomplish the daily life functions. I would have thought that his coordination would have been compromised to say the least. I also wonder about the affects of drug use if he rented an apartment just so he had a place to go and chain smoke pot. I read that he had a genetic marker that would have increased his brain disease deterioration. I read that it typically takes 8-10 years for symptoms of CTE to show up so that would have gone back to severe brain injury in adolescence. Dr. McKee was amazed that Hernandez had such extensive brain abnormality for a person of his young age which also makes me wonder if football may have contributed but not really been the cause. For me the series left more questions unanswered than solved.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think one can gloss over the physical affects of long term head injury; I just think he had other issues and possible causes for his behavior. His story reminded me of that of Mike Tyson. A "kid" who becomes rich and famous at a very young age without a stable influence to guide him through the shark-infested waters of young adulthood before even a non-damaged brain is fully formed. Add to that a possibly closeted male trying to be successful in a very macho world, and you've got a potential time bomb as he tried to wrapped himself in a thug personna...

I am a sport psychologist so followed this story very closely when it was happening in real time. I knew most of the facts going into it, but this documentary told the story in such a fascinating way. Most impressive was the manner in which the events were told not chronologically, but back and forth in time in a way that was easily followed. I highly recommend watching this if you haven't already.

CTE is a functional injury, not a structural one. In other words, there is almost no visual damage to the skull as a result of a concussion. Yet the brain can be damaged immensely. The portion of the brain that is damaged would dictate what cognitive deficiencies a player may experience (i.e., motor skill function vs. reasoning and decision-making).

Currently, there is more that specialists don't know about CTE than what they do know. Hopefully that changes over time, and soon.

I could be wrong, but I believe he meant the exterior of the brain, not the skull.

What a sad story that was and I'm sure the documentary is fascinating. I'd like to see it. Very interesting thread... thanks, robj.

My apologies. Although there still isn't visible damage as a result of the impact itself.

Thanks, that is what I meant. I read that Hernandez's brain looked normal from the outside. It just seems that if it's banging back and forth inside the skull that much, there should be some damage to the outside of the brain as well as the inside...