Jail phone call reveals Aaron Hernandez’s anger at Belichick
Late New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez — who was convicted of murder before the verdict was tossed by a judge after Hernandez’s suicide — expressed disgust with coach Bill Belichick in a phone call with a former teammate while he was in jail.
Hernandez’s talk with former Patriots teammate Brandon Spikes was one of about 900 phone conversations released by the Bristol County sheriff this week, the Boston Globe reported Friday. Hernandez didn’t appear happy Belichick didn’t support him — the team released him — after he was arrested and accused of murder.
“Bill Belichick is the number one person who teaches his team, don’t listen to the media because most of the time they make up stories and they’re rarely true,” he told Spikes. “I wish he practiced what he preached, especially coming to me, throwing me in the dust with the wind.”
Hernandez committed suicide in April 2017 while serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Belichick was issued a subpoena to testify in Hernandez’s subsequent double-murder trial, but never showed up in court, The Washington Post reported. The trial ended up moving on without him.
While Belichick issued a statement soon after Hernandez’s release from the team, another teammate told the Boston Globe he was there when the coach addressed the team separately.
“He is not part of this team,” Hernandez’s former teammate recalled Belichick saying at the time. “He will not be spoken about in this locker room.”
Even after his arrest on the murder charge, though, Hernandez was telling teammates he planned on playing in the league again.
“I’m still going to be young when I get out of jail, so you know I’m going to try to play ball again,” he told his former college teammate, and Los Angeles Chargers center, Mike Pouncey.
In the calls, he angrily responds to rumors of being gay and denied using angel dust. Terri Hernandez, Aaron’s mother, also told the Boston Globe her son directed a lot of his anger toward her.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
