A former Jets player said players used to taunt Aaron Hernandez with jokes about finding dead bodies and his alleged links to organized crime.
Former Jets linebacker Bart Scott said Friday on ‘The Afternoon Drive with Carlin, Bart and Maggie,’ that players would try to get Hernandez off his game with taunts that turned out to haven edge of truth.
‘We always used to mess with Hernandez when we were on the field, and say “Hey man, I heard they found the body,'” Scott explained.
‘And we thought it was a joke because we knew something happened in Florida.’
By that, Scott is referring to when police questioned Hernandez about his alleged role in a double homicide while he was playing at the University of Florida.
Former Jets linebacker Bart Scott (right in 2012) said players used to taunt Aaron Hernandez (left in 2012) with jokes about finding dead bodies and his alleged links to organized crime, saying ‘Hey man, I heard they found the body’
Scott said Friday on ‘The Afternoon Drive with Carlin, Bart and Maggie,’ that players would try to get Hernandez off his game with taunts that turned out to haven edge of truth
Scott referred it to it as a ‘running joke,’ and said ‘we all knew he was a bad guy.’
Scott also said he thinks part of Hernandez’s eventual downfall had to do with being drafted by the Patriots.
Hernandez is from Connecticut, and Scott said he thinks moving back to New England made him more likely to become involved in gang activity he was subjected to when he was younger.
He explained that it made it harder for Hernandez to have a fresh start in the NFL.
‘Worst thing to ever happen to Hernandez was the fact that he got picked by a team where he was from,’ Scott explained on the talk show.
‘Because the hardest thing to do when you’re an athlete is to separate from where you came from.
‘We knew that he was in a gang, which a lot of players are in gangs, and a lot of us grow up in gangs and what happens is it’s hard to remove yourself from them, but we’re removed by distance.’
Maggie Gray also added that Hernandez tried to distance himself multiple times, asking on numerous occasions to be traded to another team.
‘He went to Indianapolis to the combine and asked Bill Belichick to trade him, and Belicheck wouldn’t trade him,’ Gray said.
Scott referred it to it as a ‘running joke,’ and said ‘we all knew he was a bad guy.’ Hernandez is pictured in 2012
In 2015 Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Odin Lloyd and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is pictured in 2013 in court
Scott referred to that as a ‘cry for help.’
He said when they were making the jokes in college they didn’t realize how serious their ‘running joke was,’ saying ‘we just thought it was funny.’
‘He was a funny guy. He used to always say “Tell Rex to come get me,” we used to always have fun with him,’ Scott explained.
In 2015 Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Odin Lloyd and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He killed himself two years later by hanging himself in his prison cell.
In 2017 it was revealed that he had the worst case of CTE doctors had ever seen. CTE – or Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy – is a brain disease linked to concussions, which are prevalent for NFL players.