Aaron Hernandez charged with murder

[Vandal]

Former New England Patriots star tight end Aaron Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder (along with five other gun-related offenses) in connection with the death of Odin Lloyd, whose body was found about a mile from Hernandez' home last Monday

Patriots released him right after he was arrested. The local and national news services have been all over this for several days, many parked out in front of his house in nearby N. Attleboro, Mass.

Dude is in deep shit.

[BackInTex]

His defense team has hired O.J. Simpson as a consultant.

[silverscreenselect]

I hate to give those %*$#)#&)& 's credit for anything but after the Giants won the Super Bowl, they waived tight end Jake Ballard who tore an ACL in the game and wouldn't be ready for the 2012 season. New England picked him up, which everyone thought was silly (since he'd be on IR in 2012) and just an attempt by Belichik to get back at Tom Coughlin.

Now Hernandez is gone and Gronkowski is highly questionable due to his injuries and taking Ballard looks a whole lot better.

And getting rid of him was the right thing to do, even though they're apparently on the hook for a lot of money to him.

[ten96lt]

And getting rid of him was the right thing to do, even though they're apparently on the hook for a lot of money to him.

Aren't there personal conduct clauses in NFL contracts that allow teams to not pay him for situations like this as their reason for dropping him?

[lilclyde54]

It always amazes me when people with dream lives just totally screw them up.

[silverscreenselect]

And getting rid of him was the right thing to do, even though they're apparently on the hook for a lot of money to him.

Aren't there personal conduct clauses in NFL contracts that allow teams to not pay him for situations like this as their reason for dropping him?

According to the first article, there are two components of Hernandez' salary. His base salary is guaranteed against injury or lack of skills (i.e., cut because he can't cut the mustard any more), but not against unbecoming conduct. Hernandez supposedly won't contest that. He's also owed over $3 million in deferred bonus money that he does plan to contest because he feels the money has technically already been earned.

There's also the matter of the salary cap. Like any NFL team, New England can only pay out so much in salaries, and everyone on the roster as of March 1 counts against that total (that's why teams cut a bunch of well known players just after the Super Bowl). According to the second article, Hernandez will count anywhere from $2.6 to $5 million against the salary cap (which is around $120 million per team). That will limit their ability to sign replacements at anything above the league's minimum salary figures. Hernandez may also count against next year's salary cap.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... hernandez/

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutd ... 44125.html

[Vandal]

We were in the N Attleboro area so we drove by the Hernandez house, yesterday. There was a CNN truck parked on the road and two guys sitting under a canopy watching the house from an empy lot across the street. What a fun job that must be.

I felt like pulling in the driveway just to turn around. It would have made their day.

[littlebeast13]

We were in the N Attleboro area so we drove by the Hernandez house, yesterday. There was a CNN truck parked on the road and two guys sitting under a canopy watching the house from an empy lot across the street. What a fun job that must be.

I felt like pulling in the driveway just to turn around. It would have made their day.

You probably could have gotten some free national publicity for your book....

lb13

[Vandal]

From Mike Reiss (http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-engl ... z-contract) via Sons of Sam Horn website :

For those asking what the salary cap charge would be in the event the Patriots ever decided to terminate the contract, the charge would be the acceleration of the $12.5 million signing bonus. If that happened in 2013, Hernandez would count $2.55 million against the salary cap, and then in 2014 would carry a cap charge of $7.5 million from the remaining proration on the signing bonus.

This would all seem to be bad news. However, this bit of language from the same Reiss article gives me some hope:

One other factor to consider: A club can recover bonus money and avoid a cap hit if a player violates one of the league's personal conduct policies or defaults on contract language.

And this from the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy:

Players shall not murder motherfuckers in spectacularly stupid fashion.

[Vandal]

Closing arguments for this case are happening right now.

Two high-level cases an hour's drive apart (the other is the Marathon bomber).


Tsarnaev and Hernandez will make excellent cellmates.

[Vandal]

Jury has now been deliberating for more than 23 hours over five days.

[Vandal]

Aaron Hernandez found guilty of first degree murder, automatic life sentence without possibility of parole.