American Sports Story Premiere Recap: A Football Dream Turns Into a Nightmare (Grade It!)
Aaron Hernandez had the talent to be a Hall of Fame football player — but as we learn in American Sports Story’s premiere, he also lived a violent double life that derailed his promising career.
Tuesday’s premiere begins at a real low point for Aaron (played by Josh Rivera), with him and a friend at a Florida strip club in 2013. Aaron thinks they’re being followed by undercover cops, but his friend thinks he’s just being paranoid. “I know all your secrets,” the friend reminds him, and he’s never said a word. On the drive home, the friend falls asleep — and Aaron shoots him in cold blood, leaving his body on the side of the road. But at a swanky charity fundraiser the next day, with Aaron fresh off signing a new $40 million NFL contract, he gets a surprise call from the friend he shot: “You should’ve made sure I was dead!… I’m alive, and I’m coming for your ass.”
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We then flash back to 2001, with a young Aaron training with his brother by running up hills — and being admonished by his bully of a father, “Don’t stand like a f—-t.” Aaron is being recruited by the top college football teams in the country, but his dad puts his foot down: “He’s gonna go where his brother played. Where I played.” That’s the University of Connecticut, where Aaron’s brother DJ is the quarterback. Aaron’s mom wants him to give Notre Dame a chance, but when his dad throws a dish at her head, Aaron quickly agrees he’s going to UConn. Oh, and Aaron is a big star in his high school football games along with his quarterback teammate… and the two of them have a illicit romance going on, too, with Aaron’s teammate manually pleasuring him in a parked truck.
When Aaron gets home, his dad is furious: “They saw you.” Aaron’s face turns white… but his dad is referring to him and his friends dancing on a parked car. His dad threatens to knock Aaron’s teeth out, reminding him of his own tough Puerto Rican upbringing: “We gotta be twice as good to get half as much.” Dad’s suffering through some ailments, too, but tells Aaron not to worry. And then one day at school, Aaron gets the news: His dad died in hernia surgery. Aaron is devastated, and when his teammate tries to fool around with him again, Aaron stops him cold: “Everybody’s watching me!… Can’t be no f—-t.” His home life is a mess, too: His mom is sleeping with his cousin’s husband, which comes to light when the cousin attacks his mom in the stands at a basketball game.
Aaron has already committed to UConn, but he’s still pursued by a recruiter from the University of Florida, who promises him a fast track to the NFL. So Aaron visits the Florida campus, and his eyes light up when he sees their state-of-the-art facilities and the jersey and locker they made up for him. The coach Urban Meyer convinces Aaron he can make him a star, so Aaron switches from UConn to Florida. That’s a punch in the gut to his brother DJ, who tells him his own spot on the UConn team is in jeopardy if Aaron doesn’t go there. Aaron shoves him away, though, and he starts to get mixed up with the local criminal element, too. Some guys recognize him as the local football star and joke that he’s soft — but Aaron points a gun in the guy’s face and asks him: “Do I still look soft to you?”
During a football game, Aaron takes a hard hit and suffers a concussion, with a doctor warning him that he could suffer “permanent effects” if he doesn’t rest. But he doesn’t want to look weak, so he refuses to sit out a game. At the hospital, he gets into a fight with his mom about her messy affair and screams at her, with her comparing him to his late father: “You are his son.” The Florida coach wants Aaron to leave high school early to get a start on his college football career, even though he’s only 17, and he promises his mother he’ll turn Aaron from a boy into a man. Before leaving for Florida, Aaron pays a last visit to his teammate, who’s shaved his head and enlisted in the Marines. The friend agrees they can’t keep doing “that stuff” together, and when Aaron hugs him goodbye, he’s quick to pull away. A distraught Aaron gets into a cab and heads to the airport — and into his new life.
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