The tragic fall of Aaron Hernandez

voxxiBy Tony Castro, Voxxi

Aaron Hernandez was charged with the first-degree murder of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semipro football player whose body was found in an industrial park about a mile from the former Patriots tight end’s home.

Late last August, the New England Patriots signed Aaron Hernandez to a five-year extension running through 2018 that included a $12.5 million bonus, the biggest signing bonus ever given to a tight end.

Playing with three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady, it meant that Hernandez was primed to become a superstar household name far beyond New England.

Young, handsome and soon to be a rich all-NFL player, Hernandez also appeared ready to succeed the disappointing Mark Sanchez as America’s Latino cover boy.

Aaron Hernandez’s arrest was a shock

That’s what makes Hernandez’s arrest for first degree murder Wednesday so shocking. It was not just the fall from grace of another professional athlete. It was the tragic demise of a Latino sports hero in a sport with so few Hispanic professional players as it is.

“Say it ain’t so, Aaron,” moaned an editorial in the Hartford Courant, of the favorite son of nearby Bristol, Hernandez’s hometown.

“A lot of people know him here, a lot of my clients know him — they’re in shock,” George Torres, a barber at Boss House Cutz & Styles in Bristol, told the Courant. “Not too many Puerto Ricans make it to the NFL, he’s one of the few. As a Puerto Rican, I’m disappointed.

“He had a chance to do more positive things and he just blew an opportunity. If you make it out of here, you need to do things different, change your life.”

Those statements are likely being echoed all over America, especially among sports fans but in particular among Hispanics.

Already the criminal investigation has cost Hernandez his endorsement contract with CytoSport, which makes Muscle Milk and other supplements for athletes. There’s no telling what other endorsement deals and the millions that had laid ahead.

Sadly, too, there is no telling how many young kids own replicas of the distinctive No. 81 New England Patriots jersey that Hernandez wore as a player.

A large number of those jerseys were already popping up for auction on eBay, as Aaron Hernandez quickly becomes a sad punch line

Hernandez released by the Pats

So utterly complete was Aaron Hernandez’s fall that the Patriots announced his release from the team within 90 minutes of his arrest, and the NFL quickly followed with a statement saying it would no longer sell his jersey.

The Patriots last week had asked Hernandez to stay away from Gillette Stadium, and the organization further distanced itself from him in a statement.

“A young man was murdered last week and we extend our sympathies to the family and friends who mourn his loss,” the Patriots said. “Words cannot express the disappointment we feel knowing that one of our players was arrested as a result of this investigation.

“We realize that law enforcement investigations into this matter are ongoing. We support their efforts and respect the process. At this time, we believe this transaction is simply the right thing to do.”

The Patriots drafted Hernandez out of the University of Florida in 2010.

Hernandez, 23, has pled not guilty, but is being held without bail.

Aaron Hernandez was also charged with five counts of firearms possession violations.

Prosecutors allege that Hernandez drove his friend to a remote spot in an industrial park in the dead of night — still fuming from a fight at a nightclub three nights earlier — and murdered the man there.

“He orchestrated the crime from the beginning and took steps to conceal and destroy evidence,” First Assistant District Attorney Bill McCauley told an Attleboro District Court.

In Bristol, George the barber was near tears lamenting the fall of a local hero.

“Why didn’t he go to the Boys and Girls Club and help the kids?” Torres said. “Just a person who made it from this type of environment, to be successful. … Get yourself involved in the community, do things positive, say, ‘I made it, you can make it too.’”

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Tony Castro is the author of the newly-released “The Prince of South Waco: American Dreams and Great Expectations,” as well as of the critically-acclaimed “Chicano Power: The Emergence of Mexican America” and the best-selling “Mickey Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son.”

[Photo by Aaron Frutman]

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