WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for American Sports Story episode 6.

American Sports Story episode 6 “Herald Street” features Aaron Hernandez getting one of his most notable and potentially incriminating tattoos. Josh Rivera leads the American Sports Story cast as Aaron Hernandez, the former collegiate and NFL superstar tight end who was convicted of murdering semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd in 2015. The first two episodes of American Sports Story capture a basic understanding of Aaron Hernandez’s complicated upbringing and accelerated path to becoming a Florida Gator before joining the NFL’s New England Patriots in 2010. American Sports Story portrays several NFL players, including Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady, and Tim Tebow.

American Sports Story episode 3 chronicles Hernandez’s celebrity status at the University of Florida before he ultimately declared for the 2010 NFL Draft. American Sports Story episode 4 chronicles more of the details of Hernandez’s transition from being the 2010 John Mackey Award winner to having his draft stock plummet ahead of the NFL Draft due to off-the-field concerns. American Sports Story episode 5 chronicles Hernandez’s early days as a rookie on the New England Patriots and explores the influences of his new head coach Bill Belichick while episode 6 depicts a violent shooting Hernandez was allegedly involved in with his friend Sherrod.

Why Aaron Hernandez Got A “God Forgives” Tattoo: Meaning Explained

Hernandez got it just weeks before getting arrested for killing Odin Lloyd

American Sports Story episode 6 portrays Josh Rivera’s dramatized characterization of Aaron Hernandez getting a “God Forgives” tattoo on the center if his back. The tattoo is inverted which only makes it legible in a mirror, which is a notable feature that separates it from the real-life Hernadnez’s other tattoos. American Sports Story continuously depicts Hernandez’s habit of getting tattoos, which began when he was a standout tight end at the University of Florida. Some of Hernandez’s friends and love interests in the series point out his tattoos, including his high school teammate Dennis SanSocuie, who views them as a change in Hernandez’s character.

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While American Sports Story offers a fairly accurate recreation of Hernandez’s tattoos on Rivera’s body, the series places a specific emphasis on his “God Forgives” one. In the series, Hernandez gets the tattoo soon after the alleged murder of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a drive-by shooting in Boston’s Theater District. The series portrays Hernandez bizarrely killing two men who spilled a drink on him at a nightclub, which is what the real-life Hernandez was accused of doing in 2017. Prosecutors presented Hernandez’s “God Forgives” tattoo and other images of guns and shell casings as evidence that Hernandez was guilty of the double homicide.

Aaron Hernadez’s Tattoos Have Connections To His Other Crimes

Two tattoos of guns point to two separate shootings

While not all of Hernandez’s tattoos were believed to be incriminating evidence, prosecutors certainly believed that some of them were essentially admittances of guilt for various violent acts. They believed that one of Hernandez’s tattoos on his arm depicts the chamber of a revolver with five bullets encased, which aligns with the prosecution’s theory that Hernandez shot Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado with five bullets. While American Sports Story does not show Hernandez getting tattoos of guns and bullets on screen, the “God Forgives” tattoo is meant to encapsulate Hernandez’s potentially incriminating ones.

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The alleged killings of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado, which Hernandez was found not guilty of in 2017, occurred in July 2012 before Hernandez received a 5-year, $40 million contract extension from the New England Patriots and just five months after Hernandez and the Patriots played in Super Bowl XLVI. The case was considered unsolved until after Hernandez was arrested and charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd in June 2013, which raised suspicions of his involvement after he and Avery S. Bradley, or Sherrod in ASS, were seen at the Boston same nightclub as de Abreu and Furtado the night they were killed. Hernandez also had another tattoo of a pistol and shell-casing, which prosecutors claimed was evidence that he shot Bradley in the face in Florida.

American Sports Story Gets The Location Of Aaron Hernandez’s “God Forgives” Tattoo Wrong

The series moves it from his arm to the center of his back

American Sports Story intentionally misplaced Hernandez’s “God Forgives” tattoo in episode 6, relocating it from his right arm to the center of his back in the series. The most obvious reason for doing this is for dramatic effect, although the series makes it seem like Hernandez was guilty of the double homicide when he was, in reality, acquitted of both charges. American Sports Story producers have spoken out about their belief that Hernandez did actually kill de Abreu and Furtado in cold blood and that the jury got it wrong. This would explain why they changed the size, shape, and location of Hernandez’s “God Forgives” tattoo and framed it as a direct admission of guilt in American Sports Story.

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

Seasons

1

Directors

Paris Barclay , Carl Franklin