Sumith Prasad
FX’s crime drama series ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’ opens a window into the relationship between Aaron Hernandez and his father, Dennis Hernandez. The teenage football sensation grows under the guidance of his “old man,” who wants to see his son rise to unimaginable heights, especially since he couldn’t succeed as a footballer despite playing the sport for the University of Connecticut. Aaron faces his father’s death when he attends the high school. He fails to make sense of his old man’s death since the latter hasn’t displayed any life-threatening symptoms. In reality, Dennis’ demise was a turning point in the late footballer’s life.
Dennis Hernandez Was Heavily Involved in Aaron and DJ’s Lives
Dennis Hernandez was the guiding light of Aaron Hernandez and his brother, DJ Hernandez, as far as football was concerned. The father used his experience of playing for the University of Connecticut to teach his two sons the basics of the sport and the importance of discipline. He built a gym in their house’s basement and prepared a half-court in the backyard for the two boys to become impressive footballers. “He was the perfect dad: He went to every scrimmage and got ’em up at dawn to work out,” Brandon Beam, who once played against Aaron, told Rolling Stone.
The community surrounding the Hernandez family in Bristol, Connecticut, believed that Dennis was a great dad. However, misery reigned in the same household, within the walls. According to DJ, the two brothers immensely feared their father’s “severe” and “routine” beatings. “Our father [Dennis] would hit us [DJ and Aaron] for anything from a bad grade to disrespectful behavior to sheer clumsiness,” he wrote in his memoir, ‘The Truth about Aaron.’ After a point, he found his father’s actions intolerable. The older brother tried to call the authorities, but it didn’t scare Dennis, who warned his son what would happen if his child did it.
“He [Dennis] handed me the phone before saying, ‘Call them. As soon as you hang up the phone, I will beat you boys harder than you’ve ever been [beaten] before. They will have to pull me off of you after they break down the door,’” DJ added. Jeff Morgan, one of Aaron’s high school coaches, saw him once with a black eye and thought that it was the result of Dennis disciplining his younger son. Tim SanSoucie, another coach, was reported to be attacked by the father after a heated exchange resulting from the latter’s dissatisfaction with the former’s coaching decisions.
The Mysterious Robbery Allegedly Transpired After Dennis’ 1977 Football Season
In ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez,’ there are several references to Dennis Hernandez’s alleged involvement in a robbery. Even though he denies the allegation in the first episode, the people around him believe that he is responsible for a police officer’s death associated with the same crime. However, the crime drama series does not delve deep into this mysterious robbery. The particular incident happened after the 1977 football season ended. The crime was committed by his teammate and best friend, Rocco Testa, who reportedly joined his uncle to do burglaries in Bristol. According to a Rolling Stone feature, Dennis and his brother were even caught for assault and petty larceny around the same time.
After the 1977 season, Testa’s uncle shot and murdered a police officer from Plainville, Connecticut, while they were trying to escape after robbing a house. The detectives who investigated the case questioned Dennis, but he was not charged. According to a police affidavit, he was not involved in the murder, but he tried to help Testa and his uncle flee from the police. This explanation didn’t convince everyone who was in the force. “The rumor on the street was Dennis and [his brother] David were there too, but we couldn’t make the case,” Detective Sergeant John Sassu of the Bristol Police Department told Rolling Stone.
Dennis Hernandez Passed Away Due to Medical Complications in 2006
Dennis Hernandez passed away on January 6, 2006, at the age of 49. He died due to a bacterial infection he sustained during or after a routine hernia surgery performed in Bristol Hospital. The death was a shock to his family. After the surgery, he appeared well and even played checkers with DJ Hernandez in the hospital room. The next day, the infection worsened his condition, and he was rushed to the ICU. His funeral was held at the Church of St. Matthew in Bristol. In front of around 1,500 mourners, DJ cried his heart out while Aaron Hernandez sat beside him, shocked and without tears.
“It was more like a shock. Everyone was close to my father, but I was the closest. I was with him more than my friends. When that happened, who do I talk to, who do I hang with? It was tough,” Aaron told USA Today in 2009 about Dennis’ death. The impact of the demise was evident in the footballer’s actions, according to his mother, Terri Hernandez. “It was a rough process, and I didn’t know what to do for him. He would rebel. It was very, very hard, and he was very, very angry. He wasn’t the same kid, the way he spoke to me. The shock of losing his dad, there was so much anger,” she said in the same USA Today interview.
Aaron’s friends tried to console him, but he chose to shut himself down from the world instead. “He’d open up the tiniest bit, then say nothing for weeks, like it was a sign of weakness to be sad. His brother was at college, and the only other person he would really talk to was the one who was taken away,” added Brandon Beam in the Rolling Stone interview. When Aaron was charged with and subsequently found guilty of the murder of Odin Lloyd, many believed that the crime wouldn’t have happened if Dennis had been around to guide his younger son. Unfortunately, we can never know how the footballer’s life would have changed if that was the case.
Read More: Dennis SanSoucie: Where is Aaron Hernandez’s Ex-Teammate Now?
