A SEMI-PRO football player whose death is at the center of a new television show had a now-tragic final conversation with his mother, she revealed in a tearful interview.
Odin Lloyd died in 2013, and his murder gripped the nation after NFL star Aaron Hernandez was accused of being the killer.
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Hernandez’s story made nationwide news as football fans wondered how a pro player who seemingly had it all could be driven to murder.
The star, whose story is dramatized in the Netflix series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, was born and raised in a turbulent low-income household in Connecticut.
However, he managed to beat the odds and scored a spot alongside celebrity quarterback Tim Tebow playing for the University of Florida.
After college, Hernandez signed an enviable contract with the New England Patriots and moved to Boston, Massachusetts.
He went on to play in the Super Bowl with the stacked team.
On June 16, 2013, Hernandez and a few of his friends met Lloyd at a sports bar, and the crew ended up hanging out.
Lloyd bragged about the night to his sister, snapping a photo of the player and excitedly texting her about it.
But two days later, Lloyd’s corpse was found in an industrial park just a mile from Hernandez’s home.
It’s still a mystery why Lloyd was killed.
In a tearful interview 10 years after his death, Lloyd’s mother revealed what her son told her earlier that day as he left to go to the bar.
The rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez
Aaron Hernandez defied the odds by scoring a successful football career, but he lost it all to a life of crime
- In 2007, Hernandez started playing college football at the University of Florida with Tim Tebow
- He played until 2009, when he decided to pursue a career with the NFL
- He was selected by the New England Patriots for the 2010 NFL draft
- By 2012, he was starting for the team in the Super Bowl
- That same year, he signed a $40 million contract extension with the team
- In July 2012, Hernandez first got in legal hot water after he and his friend were accused of a double homicide
- Hernandez was later acquitted over those charges, despite his friend turning against him in court
- On June 18, 2023, Odin Lloyd’s body was found just a mile away from Hernandez’s home
- Hernandez was quickly ousted from the Patriots and was soon facing charges
- On April 15, 2015, he was found guilty of murder
- On April 19, 2017, while serving a life sentence, Hernandez died by suicide
“He said, ‘Ma you look so beautiful. I love those colors on you,'” she told NBC affiliate WBTS last year.
“The hardest thing for me is that’s the last thing I was going to hear from my baby.
“I say to anyone that comes around me all the time – always make sure you tell your kids how much you love them before they leave the house.
“Look at them from the head to the toes, because you never know if that’s the last time you will see them.”
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FOOTBALL STAR’S FATE
Though Hernandez accomplished career highs with the Patriots, he lost it all to a life of crime.
At one point, he was also accused of murdering two men after a night out with a friend went south.
Though Hernandez dodged those charges, he was found guilty of killing Lloyd as he couldn’t give a convincing alibi or motive to the jury.
Further investigations into the football player’s life suggest that Hernandez struggled with drug addiction and was reeling from a childhood filled with abuse.
Though they never got answers, his family believes they might have found an answer after the disgraced football player had a fateful conversation with his mother in 2017.
One day when the player was visited by his mom in prison, he told her that he was gay, Hernandez’s brother DJ revealed in an interview with Dr. Oz.
Hernandez’s brother DJ remembered seeing the pair burst into tears as he finally revealed who he was in the conversation behind prison glass.
DJ will never truly know what happened to Lloyd, but he wonders whether friends found out about Hernandez’s sexuality and if his brother killed him to keep it a secret.
Hernandez died by suicide in his jail cell on April 19, 2017, at just 27.
An examination of the player’s brain after his death found that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which can cause behavioral problems.
However, it’s unclear if this affected his tragic and short life.
The first two episodes of American Sports Story premieres on Tuesday and can be streamed on Hulu.
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