Hernandez Conned Everyone, Not Just The Team

[PatsFans.com Article]

Hernandez Conned Everyone, Not Just The Team
By: Steve Balestrieri

And we bought it, every one of us. Because we wanted to believe in a good story...

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS STORY​

 

[DefenseRules]

He had me fooled that's for sure. I am still shocked by all of this.

 

[Jackson 2]

Hernandez Conned Everyone, Not Just The Team
By: Steve Balestrieri

And we bought it, every one of us. Because we wanted to believe in a good story...

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS STORY​

Sure. Greg Bedard, even while the investigation was going on and AH was in the middle of it, still said he thought AH was a good guy. A sociopath living a double life. What pisses me off more than anything is the other media people acting as if they knew all along about Hernandez. Sure, well why didn't they write about it or verbalize it? Sanctimonious phonies...and they wonder why people love it when bright guys like Popovich and Belichick basically say, "Screw off."

 

[Lifer]

Not me, i always knew he was a serial killer - Borges

 

[Raymond]

Not me, i always knew he was a serial killer - Borges

Now see Lifer....THAT was funny.

 

[RayClay]

Although I'm sure the Patriots will study and adjust their college evaluations, it seemed a great risk/reward pick.

If you eliminated every draftee who might have smoked pot or hung with a bad crowd at one time, you wouldn't be able to field 22 players.

 

[Betterthanmost]

All we heard was that he hung around bad guys. It could be the other way around.

 

[Claremonster]

When you roll the dice...sometimes you get snake eyes.

 

[Snake Eyes]

When you roll the dice...sometimes you get snake eyes.

Dude, that's all I get

 

[Ring 6]

Its ridiculous to think that anyone could have, should have or would have predicted this or been able to see it in his character.
It would be interesting to see how many players that were on the board when he was chosen will have better careers than what he put up in his 3.
Of course not having drafted him and taking a scrub who got cut as a rookie wold mean 10 mill less of dead money so its all relative.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Its ridiculous to think that anyone could have, should have or would have predicted this or been able to see it in his character.
It would be interesting to see how many players that were on the board when he was chosen will have better careers than what he put up in his 3.
Of course not having drafted him and taking a scrub who got cut as a rookie wold mean 10 mill less of dead money so its all relative.

If the Pats can claw back some of his signing bonus, that will reduce the dead money. But yeah, the dead money hit hurts.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Its ridiculous to think that anyone could have, should have or would have predicted this or been able to see it in his character.
It would be interesting to see how many players that were on the board when he was chosen will have better careers than what he put up in his 3.
Of course not having drafted him and taking a scrub who got cut as a rookie wold mean 10 mill less of dead money so its all relative.

Well said AJ regarding relativity. No one had yet made that point and it has merit.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

If the Pats can claw back some of his signing bonus, that will reduce the dead money. But yeah, the dead money hit hurts.

The contract and money thing is a real mess at this point. It's funny you mention "claw back" because it appears that is not only what the Patriots will do but also make AH do it too. The Patriots voided the entire AH contract. Unfortunately, if reports are correct, AH earns his signing bonus simply by signing on the dotted line. With part of that signing bonus deferred (I think 2.5 million), it very well could be the Patriots will eventually have to pay him that unless the CBA has language that voids signing bonus. Yet as mentioned, and rightly so, the Patriots are going to make him claw his way to that remaining signing bonus through legal means. Yet as brutally tough a pill as it will be to swallow this -- and it will be brutal -- I suspect the Patriots will lose that one in court. Let's hope it's a check that goes from the Patriot's pocket right into the Lloyd family pocket.

Of course this speaks to actual cash. I'm sure Kraft would like the cash back but we're speaking of regaining the cap space. Yet again another brutal pill to swallow, I have my doubts about getting back any cap space taken up by the signing bonus. I hope I am wrong. I hope there was an avenue included in the CBA to allow at least the most violent felonies to void singing bonuses, I just have my doubts. As for the guaranteed salary part, I assume that was an on the roster guarantee. If not I assume it still is not treated like a signing bonus and there are avenues to get that back/avoid paying it/not taking a cap hit.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Although I'm sure the Patriots will study and adjust their college evaluations, it seemed a great risk/reward pick.

If you eliminated every draftee who might have smoked pot or hung with a bad crowd at one time, you wouldn't be able to field 22 players.

Agreed!
Look, AH had some red flags, no doubt. Clearing away the thick fog of Monday Morning Quarterbacking and looking at what is left, there definitely appears to have been red flags the Patriots must have known about (at least some). Yet from all accounts, AH worked hard at the job of playing football. Setting aside the report about snapping at Welker or Matt Light's "I never stood for" comments, there are many reports to suggest he was never a locker room issue and never a bad guy in the locker room. I just saw a recent Reiss quote how he 'saw him in the locker room after many many many practices' and he was always 'a good guy to talk to' 'always a handshake and pleasant conversation'. (paraphrasing). Go back to UF, some suggested he was a 'tough guy persona' in the locker room yet never an issue at all surrounding football (again paraphrasing). Then when you look at AH's signing bonus comment about 'doing things right' and 'being here, being a Patriot, being the right kind of person' (paraphrasing) and you look at his 'I'm hispanic, not many Hispanics in the league, I want to be an example' (paraphrasing), there is so much to suggest that AH, despite his red flags, was a guy that wanted the right path and was headed that way.....especially if placed in the right environment. I would adamantly argue that the Patriots were about as good an environment, for someone like this, as the NFL offers.
This made the gamble on AH seem like a good one. I think almost everyone would agree that someone living his personal life the way he did would not be a hardworker on the practice field and in the game. And while the Patriots maybe should not have been too surprised if they got a call and that AH is in trouble (maybe he assaulted someone outside a club), to get a call that says AH murdered someone much less saying he is a gangland executioner? Obviously not in a million friggin years......

 

[Fencer]

It now seems to be being reported that Hernandez had two residences -- one where he was a family man, one where he was a pot-smoking party dude.

If that's accurate, the biggest investigatory failure may be right there. It's one thing to not know a guy committed the occasional murder, which the police also were unable to figure out. It's another to not know here he spends a lot of his evenings. :bricks:

 

[DarrylS]

As I was out and about yesterday, had the misfortune of listening to Mustard and Johnson, and a they entertained a caller that demanded that Kraft and Belichick come back from their vacations and address this matter via a press conference. Of course they followed along, and agreed, it was as though Kraft and BB were elected officials and we had a right to know what they knew.

Then they started to rant and rave about how if Seymour was on this team none of this would happen as he was part of the "Patriot Way", i.e. some type of enforcer. Then one of them lamented how the darkest day for the Patriots was the time that BB "benched" Seymour because he missed a friday practice after the death of his grandfather.

Of course the latter is pure hysteria and a lie, Seymour did miss the Friday practice after his grandfather's funeral, and did not start the game.. but came in on the third defensive series and was a huge force. At that time there was the mantra that no one player was bigger than the team, and this rule applied to everyone who missed a Friday practice..

So the mediots continue to lament the loss of the Patriot Way, their creation, and then criticize it because it was used effectively... this whole matter is getting dumbed down daily on the airwaves...

 

[DarrylS]

It now seems to be being reported that Hernandez had two residences -- one where he was a family man, one where he was a pot-smoking party dude.

If that's accurate, the biggest investigatory failure may be right there. It's one thing to not know a guy committed the occasional murder, which the police also were unable to figure out. It's another to not know here he spends a lot of his evenings.

Read that, is it a lifestyles of the rich and famous situation??.. or is this his hangout for his babes on the side.

Feel kind of bad for his long time girlfriend, and his daughter who will never get to know her father except behind some glass..

He had some very slick tendencies, read where the Attleboro home is owned by a LLC.. so may have done something similar with the condo. Not sure how deep the NFL and Patriots Security investigate, and that may change.

 

[Betterthanmost]

I think Graham was still on the board when we picked him up. I may be mistaken.
I am wrong, we rather picked Taylor price before Jimmy Graham.

 

[AzorianPats]

I think Graham was still on the board when we picked him up. I may be mistaken.
I am wrong, we rather picked Taylor price before Jimmy Graham.

I think Graham was a third round pick? But with that I think I can say, for someone that's been a fan of Hernandez since college, and from reading War Room by Michael Holly and from reading pieces here and there most noticeably from Greg Bedard, Belichick viewed Hernandez as the perfect player to play the F position. Belichick loved Hernandez the player, and obviously the Urban Meyer connection helped. Belichick had him in mind before the draft, and I don't think anything other then a team stepping in front and drafting him before the pats would stop that.

I could imagine there's probably no one that feels more dissapointed in this than BB. Obviously he'll never come out and say this, but makes you think if he'll ever take another call from Urban Meyer again.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I think Graham was a third round pick? But with that I think I can say, for someone that's been a fan of Hernandez since college, and from reading War Room by Michael Holly and from reading pieces here and there most noticeably from Greg Bedard, Belichick viewed Hernandez as the perfect player to play the F position. Belichick loved Hernandez the player, and obviously the Urban Meyer connection helped. Belichick had him in mind before the draft, and I don't think anything other then a team stepping in front and drafting him before the pats would stop that.

I could imagine there's probably no one that feels more dissapointed in this than BB. Obviously he'll never come out and say this, but makes you think if he'll ever take another call from Urban Meyer again.

Good points. BB is considered an automaton by many, and sometimes for good reason, but I also have my suspicion that he is bothered by this one, a lot.
However, I doubt Urban Meyer has dropped in BB's eyes. If he did, doesn't BB have to blame himself too? They both had AH for 3 years. And arguably BB and his far greater resources of the NE Patriots should have known more about AH -- if knowing was even possible within reason.
I know it is normal for people to think (not aimed at you) "how could (fill in the blank) not know something??". I just think this is one, largely, that is a HUGELY rare oddity. AH is given adulation by hundreds of thousands, his name is known in every corner of the country (at least in NFL circles), probably a season away from being wanted for a 'dancing with the stars' or some dopey TV thing like that, given many millions of $$$$ to live the dream opulent lifestyle, and he made a choice to live as a cold blooded, gangland like, executioner? Even after this many days, it still shocks me to the core that this happened, that AH actually chose this path willingly. It's just Unfrigginbelievable and something that just seems so implausible that blaming anyone for 'not knowing' is futile.