American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez attempts to tell the story of the former Florida Gators and New England Patriots tight end who shot and killed Odin Lloyd in 2013 and later died in his prison cell.

As discussed on last week’s episode of The Play By Play podcast, the FX show has offered a mixed bag so far, with some critics concerned with the way it portrays CTE and Hernandez’s reported homosexuality.

One thing that many football fans have enjoyed, or enjoyed making fun of, is seeing the way some of Hernandez’s most notable teammates and coaches are portrayed. Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Hernandez’s college teammate Tim Tebow, Tony Yazbeck plays Florida coach Urban Meyer and Norbert Leo Butz plays Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

I can’t handle this guy playing Urban Meyer in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. pic.twitter.com/DhPfHBw1aZ

— Justin A. Cohn (@SportsiCohn) September 24, 2024

One person who won’t have much to say in the show is Tom Brady, who was Hernandez’s New England teammate between the 2010 and 2012 NFL seasons.

Show producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and shared why Brady doesn’t make an appearance in the program.

“We felt like we had a lot of human drama, even if the people weren’t as well-known,” said Jacobson. “But we also felt a lot of pressure, knowing for sports fans and how they look at some of these more iconic figures, to either do it right or not at all. If there wasn’t going to be a big story with a Tom Brady character, we weren’t going to just throw in Tom Brady just for the sake of throwing in some Tom Brady.”

“Nina’s much more of an avid sports fan than I am, but I think for a lot of people, Bill Belichick and Urban Meyer are insanely famous,” added Simpson. “I think the real centerpiece of fame here is the teams themselves: The New England Patriots, the Florida Gators. These are massive institutions that gather insane crowds.”

It makes sense from a story point of view why Brady might not rise to the level of notable inclusion, especially if he’s not going to be a character that interacts with Hernandez often. The show seems more likely to focus on what happens off the field than on it.

All of that said, according to IMDB, Brady does appear in at least two episodes, portrayed by Ross Jirgl. We can presume he’ll be wearing a helmet or not close enough to the action to warrant much screen time.

For all its faults, at least ‘American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez’ gives us a more accurate portrayal of Urban Meyer than Netflix’s ‘Untold’ series seemed to.@BrendonKleen14 and @BenAxelrod discuss on the latest episode of The Play-By-Play🎙️ pic.twitter.com/hzdqm6uSMf

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 27, 2024

[THR]