Aaron Hernandez was reportedly hopeful that he would be released from prison in just a few years and resume his career as a football player after being arrested on murder charges.
The Bristol County sheriff’s office recently released more than 900 phone calls that Hernandez made from prison, including conversations he had with his mother, his fiancee, his former teammates and longtime friend, Ryan McDonnell.
(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
According to The Boston Globe, Hernandez had told former University of Florida teammate Mike Pouncey, “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 had also told Brandon Spikes in August 2013, “Check this out: I get to pick what team I want to be on once I get out.’’
The Globe reports that Hernandez had planned to set aside money for both his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, and McDonnell. "The calls show that Hernandez financially supported a number of people close to him. In some conversations, he talked about setting aside $500,000 for Jenkins and their child, and $120,000 for McDonnell."
(Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
Once the calls were leaked, Hernandez' mother, Terri Hernandez, told The Globe the following:
“He changed drastically from the son I once knew. I couldn’t grasp or make sense of what was going on in his life and the anger he held and most of the time it was towards me,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I believe he had to blame someone for all his problems and it was me. I never knew about the abuse molestation and him being gay before he told me in January 2017. If he had told me earlier in life I could have helped him. As far as the CTE no one would have been aware of the damage to his brain until his death. I will never fully understand what happened.”