Multiple teammates of former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez told The Boston Globe that he displayed erratic behavior during his time with the team.
In the third installment of a six-part series on Hernandez that published Monday night, the newspaper's Spotlight division detailed instances in which the late tight end would swing from happy-go-lucky to what former Patriots wide receiver Brandon Lloyd described as "a fit of rage" following one exchange with quarterback Tom Brady.
Hernandez died in jail in 2017 while serving a life sentence without parole for the 2013 killing of his friend Odin Lloyd.
Included in The Boston Globe's report:
► Lloyd recalled a time when Hernandez, who was sitting out practice due to an injury, arrived to a team walkthrough in sandals and was laughing and making noise.
"Tom (Brady) says, 'Shut the (expletive) up. Get the (expletive) out of here,'" Lloyd told the newspaper. "It was like (Hernandez) went from this child-like, laughing, disruptive behavior … and he storms off in a fit of rage."
► The Globe reported that Hernandez threatened to "(expletive) up" wide receiver Wes Welker after Welker teased him about perceived struggles breaking down film.
► New England teammates told the newspaper that Hernandez was an attention-seeker who often seemed unhinged and was unpredictable.
► Lloyd told the newspaper that Hernandez would swing from "hyper-masculine" to sensitive, from talking about fighting people to talking about "cuddling with his mother." There were times Hernandez would ask Lloyd, "Do you think I’m good enough to play?"
► Brady, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Brady's personal trainer, Alex Guerrero, were among those who tried to encourage Hernandez via text messages or otherwise look after him, according to the report.
► Hernandez supposedly approached coach Bill Belichick in a "state of deepening paranoia" in 2013 but "his coach saw little reason to get more than minimally involved," according to the report.
► According to the report, linebacker Dane Fletcher saw flashes of his street life, seeing him out with ex-convicts, being questioned by detectives outside a Boston bar and dropping him off at what Hernandez called his "side place," where he kept drugs and ammunition.
► The Globealso reported that Belichick later told the State Police that he believed he saw Hernandez with an ex-convict from Bristol named Ernest “Bo’’ Wallace.
► Fletcher, according to The Globe, hoped the birth of Hernandez’s daughter, Avielle — on Nov. 6, 2012, Hernandez’s 23rd birthday — would change him. “Now he’s actually working for something and playing for something, not just himself, because I knew he was selfish,’’ Fletcher said.
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