Just My Thoughts: Completely Astounded Once Again
By JON COOK
Error, group does not exist! Check your syntax! (ID: 15)Sometime in 1994, not long after the now infamous yet historic slow speed chase of the white Ford Bronco had ended, I was 22 years old and almost completely convinced that nothing would ever again astound me. If OJ Simpson could have a personal life so unimaginably different from his professional/public persona, then it didn’t seem to be possible that any other professional athlete or celebrity would ever again be capable of leaving me so truly and thoroughly puzzled.
That was until I woke up on Wednesday morning last week. I got in a quick workout and returned home. After an even quicker shower my somewhat typical morning routine was interrupted when I heard the announcement that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez had been found just a few hours earlier in his prison cell, the victim of an apparent suicide. It says something that until April 14, when Hernandez was acquitted of double murder from the 2012 killing of two men in the Boston area, I had nearly forgotten about him altogether.
Hernandez was the ultra athletic tight end who had played his college football for current Ohio St. coach Urban Meyer at the University of Florida. He was a 1st team All American in 2009 and was drafted in the middle of the 4th round by the New England Patriots. Most will remember that Hernandez slid to his relatively late draft position because of repeated off the field issues while playing for the Gators.
Hernandez hailed from Connecticut and had what was by all accounts a difficult upbringing. Most assumed that his opportunity and success at Florida was the beginning of a storybook transformation. After 2 terrific years in Foxboro, and apparently no off field concerns, Hernandez signed a $40 million contract extension in 2012.
Less than a year later he was indicted on the Odin Lloyd murder and released by the Patriots. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The whole scenario was just completely mind boggling.
The details surrounding his suicide last week have only made the entirety of Hernandez’s ascent and ultimate demise immeasurably more bizarre. There are seemingly countless questions of “How?” or “Why?” that no level of psychological or sociological evaluation may ever be able to answer
A high school football career that set national records and earned a scholarship to the premier program in America at the time.
A college career that included SEC and National Championships.
An NFL career that began in the strongest, most stable franchise in the entire league playing for the preeminent coach in professional sport.
A contract extension that could create generational wealth and change the lives of Hernandez and nearly every other person of importance to him.
An inability to break away from or leave behind the destructive relationships, behavior patterns, or lifestyle that were the only thing that could turn this Cinderella story into an absolute tragedy.
It took a little more than two decades from the 1994 slow speed Bronco chase in Los Angeles to the news of the Aaron Hernandez suicide, but I have undoubtedly rediscovered my ability to be completely and utterly astounded by something that should’ve been so good becoming something so completely terrible. I hope and pray I never have to be reminded of what’s possible in this way again. But these are… Just My Thoughts.
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