Why American Sports Story Showed Aaron Hernandez Committed Double Murders

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 a life sentence, the sixth episode makes a lengthy claim about what really happened in one night happened will be published in 2012.

In the episode, Hernandez (played by Josh Rivera) and Alexander “Sherrod” Bradley (Roland Buck III) are shown leaving a nightclub in Miami; Hernandez is extremely angry at two men who laughed at him in a club after accidentally spilling a drink on him. At a traffic light, he pulls out a gun and shoots both men before running away. 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, after the American Sports Story team's research, including reporting by the Boston Globe, producers felt it was OK to show him committing the crimes.

“He committed these murders,” says Brad Simpson diversity. “What is interesting to us is the manner in which he was found not guilty of these murders. It's pretty clear that Aaron shot Sherrod in the face. There are so many testimonies linking Aaron to the scene of these murders. All the evidence led to this. I think the show is interested in showing how he got off and pointing out that there is even a possibility that the first conviction could be overturned.”

He continues: “But it seemed pretty clear to us and to the Boston Globe reporters that Aaron committed these murders if the court didn't find them guilty.”

In dramatizing the show, Simpson says, there were “a lot of things that we were emotionally grappling with” – but this wasn't one of them. “We haven't really looked at letting her commit these murders on ethical grounds because we're pretty convinced that he committed them.”

The writers “discussed all of these things,” adds showrunner and executive producer Stuart Zicherman. “You end up making decisions based on what you think happened.”

Zicherman adds that the show analyzes the many layers of Hernandez and his crimes did also commit. “We took a hard line as if he was a murderer. He killed people and ended their 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 interests me about the story is all the institutions and people that, you might say, failed him or that could have made a difference along the way… that he might not end up being a murderer.”

New episodes of “American Sports Story” air Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX.