The sad, sordid soap opera that is Aaron Hernandez would not normally fall under the purview of CFT, but a confirmed development has prompted us to at least dip our toes into the evolving tragedy.
Following up on the speculation in the days since the now-former New England Patriots player was arrested on a first-degree murder charge -- and his potential role in a double homicide last year has seen the public light -- Gainesville police confirmed to the Gainesville Sun Saturday that Hernandez was “questioned very briefly” in regards to a shooting in late September of 2007 that injured two individuals. From the Sun:
Several members of the Gators at the time were interviewed by police in connection to the shootings, including Hernandez as well as, the paper reported, players such as Reggie Nelson and the Pouncey twins, Mike and Maurkice.
“Hernandez’s name came up once in the report and he was questioned very briefly,” Gainesville police officer Ben Tobias told the paper. “Anytime we have an incident like that, we investigate and follow any lead whatsoever. We got his name as being in the area of that club, so we questioned him.”
No arrests have been made and the case remains open.
Hernandez played for the Gators from 2007-10 and was a member of Urban Meyer‘s third UF recruiting class. Meyer, now the head coach at Ohio State, has come under scrutiny since his former player’s arrest, with the New York Times publishing an exposé in which the paper wrote that the coach said the talented but troubled player “had been rehabilitated with daily Bible study sessions that the coach conducted personally.”