Is there a type of rage that destroys your ability to think through the consequences of your actions?
Aaron Hernandez was arrested at his house in North Attleboro, MA, and less than two hours later, was released from the New England Patriots. He is being held without bail and has been charged with the first-degree murder of 27-year old Odin Lloyd, a semipro football player. Lloyd had been found, shot execution style, in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez’s home. Hernandez was engaged to be married and has an 8-month-old baby.
Hernandez was a player with a troubled past who reportedly had been trying to change his ways after becoming a father, according to ESPN: “Now, another one is looking up to me. I can’t just be young and reckless Aaron no more. I’m going to try to do the right things.”
Details of the investigating are ongoing, and can be found across mainstream media including The New York Times, USA Today, and ABCNews. Philly.com even mentioned how #Hernandicizing, i.e. wearing your shirt with your arms inside, is now a “thing”. But more interesting to us than the answers being brought to light are the questions that arise. If Hernandez is guilty, did he really believe he would not be caught? Did he believe that being a pro football player brought him some extra protection, as some people believe happened at Penn State or Stuebenville? How to else to explain a murder with multiple trace points– guns, surveillance cameras, shots that were heard, a text that was sent by the victim?
The question is not so much, “what happened?” Regardless of whether Hernandez was a murderer or accessory to a murderer, the fact is that Odin Lloyd was shot at point blank range and his body dumped in an industrial park. Someone wanted him dead.
So our question is this—is there a type of rage that destroys your ability to think through the consequences of your actions?
If Hernandez did, in fact, kill Lloyd, he just gave away a career that most people only dream of, along with a house, a fiancee, and a baby. How do you go from whatever injustice you perceived had happened between you and a friend to grabbing a gun, asking two other people to join you, and having that person shot close range? Is there not one moment when you say to yourself, “I may be giving up everything I’ve worked for with this one action?” Do you not care? Or do you truly believe you won’t get caught?
ESPN also notes that “Hernandez is one of 28 NFL players arrested since this year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 3, according to a database kept by U-T San Diego.” That’s approximately one player arrested for every two teams — in just over 4 months.
The other side of this is that we are asking these men to go out there, gladiator-like, and risk destructive injuries like concussions, in return for stardom and money. You are asking these men to “do battle” and fight for victory.
What do you think is the bigger story here? Or is this just an isolated incident, a case of one individual making some really bad choices?
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I don’t know what the comparative stats are for homicide among football players and the rest of society but it feels like a stretch to make the assertion that being a football player predisposes one to being violent.
“So our question is this—is there a type of rage that destroys your ability to think through the consequences of your actions?” When I was juicing, there would be times when I was just angry. Nothing made me angry. I was just pissed off and looking for a fight. People refer to that as roid rage and I don’t think it’s just limited to steroids. Guys have told me they’ve felt the same thing just by taking “dietary supplements”. I’ve also been in situations where I could easily have been in Hernandez’s position. A friend had gotten into an altercation… Read more »
To refute the idea that NFL players are all seething with rage, I would point out the hundreds of man-hours put into charity work this off-season. In the last decade, as many NFL players have been arrested for murder as have built children’s hospitals.
And one player for every two teams is approximately 1%.
If this young man committed this horrendous and brutal crime, then he’s one “bold, arrogant, and stupid s.o.b.” The way he has been prancing around and behaving during the past few days, makes me believe that he sees himself as being invincible. He’s acting as if he’s some kind of a god or godlike creature who can’t be touched. Many athletes and celebrities like him believe that they can get away with almost anything, and in the end, they discover that they are their own “worst enemies”. (Can anyone say O.J. Simpson?) In my opinion, Aaron Hernandez became intoxicated with… Read more »
Yes, there is rage that is uncontrollable by many (not all) of these guys. We, as in our popular culture, create these “gladiators” and they DO act as if there are no consequences. And for much of their lives these guys will get away with a LOT before they’re stopped. I was married to a former NFL player with significant brain trauma. His rage and accompanying actions destroyed my life and my family. I wear the scars all over my body. He is a product of the over-glorified church of football. It’s heartbreaking because the more I talk to other… Read more »