WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for American Sports Story’s finale.

The finale of FX’s American Sports Story includes a scene of Boston-based reporter Michele McPhee’s controversial comments about Aaron Herandnez’s alleged sexuality. From the first two episodes of American Sports Story, the life and NFL career of Aaron Hernandez were headed toward a tragic and frightening endpoint that resulted in the former New England Patriot and star tight end receiving a lifetime prison sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd. Starting with his emergence as an offensive weapon on Urban Meyer’s legendary yet controversial Florida Gators team and receiving the coveted John Mackey Award, American Sports Story episode 10 ends with Hernandez behind bars in federal prison.

American Sports Story episode 10, “Who Killed Aaron Hernandez?” chronicles Hernandez’s second murder trial and death by suicide in 2017 after being represented by celebrity attorney Jose Baez. By the end of the American Sports Story finale, Hernandez takes his own life in his prison cell just days after being acquitted of two additional murder charges for a 2012 double homicide in Boston. American Sports Story highlights the various forces working against Hernandez, including his father Dennis’s physical abuse and toxic masculinity, alleged sexual abuse as a child, chronic cannabis and substance abuse, closeted and repressed sexuality, and Hernandez’s postmortem advanced stage 3 CTE diagnosis.

Michele McPhee Did Discuss Aaron Hernandez’s Sexuality On The Kirk & Callahan Show

She appeared on the show on April 17, 2017

As depicted in the American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez finale, Boston-based sports reporter Michele McPhee, along with show hosts Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan, made crude and careless jokes about Hernandez’s alleged gayness live on a popular sports radio show. The banner logo hanging on the wall in the series that reads “WEEI 93.7 FM” is accurate and the sports radio station remains widely listened to in the Boston area. “The Kirk & Callahan Show” ran on the air from August 2016 until September 2018. McPhee began her journalism career with The Boston Globe in 1993 and was also a writer on Showtime’s City on a Hill.

McPhee appeared on “The Kirk & Callahan Show” on April 17, 2017, two days after Hernandez was acquitted of the double homicide and two days before his death by suicide. McPhee and the radio hosts’ dialogue in American Sports Story is nearly verbatim to what was actually said about Hernandez on the air. McPhee opened the door of discussion on the hot topic issue, saying, “Let’s tease away.” She went on to support the host’s claim that Hernandez was a “tight end on and off the field,” and “he became a wide receiver.” McPhee added that Hernandez kicked “with both feet” (via The New Yorker).

Michele McPhee Published The First National News Story About Aaron Hernandez’s Sexuality

McPhee broke the news that authorities interviewed Hernandez’s high school teammate, Dennis SanSoucie

Two days after Hernandez’s death, McPhee wasted no time in publishing the first national news story that revealed Hernandez’s alleged closeted gayness, titled “Aaron Hernandez’s Sex Life Probed as Murder Motive, Police Source Says” (via Newsweek). In it, she describes the final acts of Hernandez’s life and the circumstances around his death. She reported that one of three suicide notes left by Hernandez was written to his “prison boyfriend,” an unnamed inmate at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts. The alleged lover, Kyle Kennedy, came forward in 2020 (via People).

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McPhee also noted in her groundbreaking article, “Hernandez’s sexuality would, of course, not be relevant save for the fact that an intimate relationship he allegedly had with a male former high school classmate was at the center of the investigation into Lloyd’s murder.” McPhee raises evidence that Hernandez’s gayness was already suspected by authorities, implying that she was not the first person to discuss it. “Hernandez’s alleged longtime male lover, the high school friend, was interviewed extensively by authorities after Lloyd’s murder, and was forced to testify in front of a grand jury.” She was, however, the first person to call attention to it on a popular Boston sports radio show.

Michele McPhee Does Not Believe She Outed Aaron Hernadez’s Sexuality

She wrote a 2020 Newsweek piece defending her stance against the stark backlash

McPhee expressed regret for making those comments about Hernandez but refuted blame that she played any role in Hernandez’s death by suicide. “What I said was really inelegant of me, and it’s not something I would have done if I wasn’t on a sports radio show. It’s not a laughing matter, in any way, shape, or form” (via The New Yorker).

McPhee addressed the issue once again following the release of Netflix’s 2020 docuseries Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez and revealed the misguided and threatening hate mail she had received after Hernandez’s death. She wrote, “Do I regret that Aaron Hernandez killed himself? Of course. I wouldn’t wish death on any human being. That being said: I didn’t kill Aaron Hernandez” (via Newsweek). American Sports Story includes a portrayal of McPhee that avoids framing her entirely but does extend the narrative that Hernandez was deeply affected by her public comments.

Sources: The New Yorker, Newsweek, People

American Sports Story is a TV show from Stu Zicherman and executive produced by Ryan Murphy. The series stars Josh Andrés Rivera as Aaron Hernandez and Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow. The sports anthology series serves as the fourth installment in Murphy’s “American Story” franchise.

Cast

Josh Andrés Rivera , Patrick Schwarzenegger

Character(s)

Shaneah Jenkins , Shayanna Jenkins , Aaron Hernandez , Tanya Singleton , Terri Hernandez , ‘Chris’ , Dennis Hernandez , Urban Meyer , Tim Tebow , Carlos ‘Charlie Boy’ Ortiz , Alexander Sherrod , Ernest ‘Bo’ Wallace , Steve Addazio , Dennis Sansoucie , Jeff Cummings , Sports Reporter , Mr. Marzigalli , Coach Morgan , Uncle Bobby , DJ Hernandez (Age 4) , Emcee , Basketball Player , Trainer , Principal Seligman , Pastor

Release Date

September 17, 2024

Seasons

1

Writers

Ryan Farley , Liz Tuccillo , Tracey Scott Wilson

Directors

Paris Barclay , Carl Franklin

Producers

Brad Simpson , Scott Robertson , Nellie Reed , Lee Edward Colston , Todd Nenninger , Tanase Popa , Hernan Lopez , Eric Kovtun , Hadi Nicholas Deeb , Gail Barringer , Ira Napoliello , Matthew Hodgson , Carl Franklin , Sara Stelwagen , Nina Jacobson , Marshall Lewy , David Woods , Alexis Martin Woodall , Tyson Bidner , Stuart Zicherman , Ryan Murphy , Monica Levinson , Lou Eyrich

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