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SPOILER ALERT: The following interview contains spoilers from “Herald Street,” the Oct. 15 episode of FX’s “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,” now streaming on Hulu.
Although “American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez” is a dramatization of the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez, who took his own life in 2017 while serving life in prison, the sixth episode makes a large allegation about what really happened during a night out in 2012.
In the episode, Hernandez (played by Josh Rivera) and Alexander “Sherrod” Bradley (Roland Buck III) are shown leaving a Miami nightclub; Hernandez is extremely angry at two men for laughing at him at a club after accidentally spilling a drink on him. While at a stoplight, he pulls out a gun and shoots both men before peeling off. Later in the series (as shown in the first episode), Hernandez shoots Bradley in the face.
In real life, Hernandez was acquitted of the 2012 double murder of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, as well as the shooting of Alexander Bradley. However, following the research the “American Sports Story” team did, including the reporting done by the Boston Globe, the producers felt it was ok to show him committing the crimes.
“He did do those murders,” Brad Simpson tells Variety. “What’s interesting to us is the ways that he was found not guilty of those murders. It’s pretty clear that Aaron shot Sherrod in the face. There’s so much witness testimony placing Aaron around the scene of those murders. All of the evidence led to that. I think the show is interested in showing how he got off and setting up that there was even a chance he might even have the first conviction overturned.”
He continues, “But it seemed pretty clear to us and the reporters at the Boston Globe, that Aaron was, if not guilty by the court of those murders, he did them.”
In dramatizing the show, Simpson says, there were “a lot of things we emotionally grappled with” — but this wasn’t one of those. “We didn’t really grapple, ethically, with having them commit those murders because we’re pretty convinced he did them.”
The writers were “debating all of these things,” showrunner and executive producer Stuart Zicherman adds. “You end up making decisions based on what you think happened.”
Zicherman adds that the show dissects the many layers of Hernandez and the crimes he did commit as well. “We took a hard line, like he is a killer. He did kill people and ended people’s lives. We, as a show, don’t want to forgive him for that. At the same time, he wasn’t born a murderer. And what’s interesting to me about the story is all the institutions and people that, you could say, failed him or could have made a difference along the way… that maybe he doesn’t end up becoming a murderer.”
New episodes of “American Sports Story” air on FX on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.