Ready to be completely creeped out?
Recently, the Monday Morning Quarterback hosted a discussion with three reporters who covered Aaron Hernandez at various stages of his high school, college, and pro career. MMQ probed these journalists, who came closer to Hernandez than most, to detect any warning signs from the recently deceased tight end which might have revealed his true nature.
Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network and NFL.com answered with a story that, in hindsight, seems pretty major. Rapoport said:
KAHLER: Looking back on the Hernandez you knew, is there anything that now jumps out at you as a red flag?
RAPOPORT: Yeah, there is one that I think about a lot. I would end up hanging around by his locker a lot. He would do his interviews and we would chat. There weren’t a lot of guys that were just hanging out in the locker room, especially during those years, so we would hang out and we would talk. When we first exchanged numbers, he called me over and said, “Hey I just want you to know, you’re my guy. If you need anything let me know, I will help you out if I can. But I just want you to know, if you f— me over, I’ll kill you.” I sort of laughed a little bit, and I said, “Don’t worry, I got you, I’ll take care of you.” It was me and this other reporter from CBS Sports, WIlliam Bendetson, and he was standing there and had listened and we kind of turned to each other and both laughed. And then the first text I got after it became clear that Hernandez was the suspect in the murder investigation was from William Bendetson, who was like, Hey remember that day in the locker room?
Some description of Hernandez’s facial expression would have helped here. Was he smiling when he said this? Straight faced? Side eye? How exactly did this go down?
Still, a man who would become a convicted murderer and kill himself threatened to kill an NFL reporter. That’s about as real as it gets.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter: @themightygwinn