John Kraft reacts to Rolling Stone article on Hernandez

A couple days ago, the Rolling Stone released a featured article detailing former Patriots tightend Aaron Hernandez's murder accusation and background. The article released facts about Hernandez that came as a shock to many people, including repeated drug use and his mother's relationship with a drug dealer. With the release of the article came some criticism of the Patriots for not understanding the severity of Hernandez's gang ties.


According to the article, Hernandez flew to the NFL Combine this past February to tell head coach Bill Belichick that he was fearing for his life. Allegedly, Belichick told Aaron to rent a second apartment for safety. Team president John Kraft didn't take too kindly to the article making 'false' claims like this:

"Reading the article, there were two, three, four things in particular that I saw that are completely, factually inaccurate," Kraft said on WBZ-FM, via The Boston Globe. "I don't know the facts around the other pieces of the story, but it really makes me question it."

Kraft went on to defend the integrity of the team and his head coach:

"I saw Bill today and asked, 'Did Aaron ever tell you his life was in danger?' He's like, 'Absolutely not,' " Kraft said. "If a player had told Bill that his life was in danger, Bill would say, 'We're calling (security chief) Mark Briggs, we're calling the authorities.' His response wouldn't be, 'We're going to get a safe house and you're going to lie low.' I know Bill, that's not what he would say."

It's odd that the article would say Hernandez went to Belichick when he was scared for his life, yet then made the claim that Bill threatened to cut the tightend had he 'slipped up' one more time. Once again, Kraft dismissed this claim:

 "If we had known what people seem to think what we know about Aaron Hernandez, we would not have done that deal (the five-year, $40 million extension he signed last year), and Bill would never threaten a player with being cut 12 months down the road," Kraft said. "It makes no sense both in terms of how you're interacting with the player and in terms of the (salary) cap."

As more and more 'facts' begin to surface regarding Hernandez's past, gang affiliation, and relation with his team, there is an increasingly big grey-area of unknown. What should we believe? What shouldn't we believe? In this case, I'll take Kraft's word.

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18