American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez is a ten-episode season that the FX and Hulu network brought out on September 17, 2024. The show tells the real story of the ex-player of the New England Patriots Aaron Hernandez. The storyline unfolds Aaron’s life from his glittering career to his downfall and the cold-blooded crime he committed. Aaron Hernandez was convicted in 2013 for murdering Odin Lloyd.

This Hulu/FX series American Sports Story goes inside the early life and death of Dennis Hernandez, Aaron Hernandez’s father. It peels back the layers of Aaron’s chaotic childhood, dysfunctional family life, and meteoric rise to become a Florida Gator and New England Patriot, and places the crucial influence of his father as his life changed dramatically after Dennis’s death.

American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez takes a revealing look at the relationship between Aaron Hernandez and his father, Dennis. Under his father’s guidance, Aaron blossomed into a football phenomenon that his father couldn’t achieve.

American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez: How did Aaron Hernandez’s dad Dennis die?

As shown in, American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Aaron Hernandez’s father Dennis never saw him play at college or professional levels even though he trained him since childhood.

As highlighted in American Sports Story, Aaron was supposed to follow in the footsteps of his father and brother at UConn and would have been a starter at freshman level. Aaron’s life however took an immediate turn when his father died following a routine surgery to mend an old football injury.

The surgery revealed an infection, and Dennis passed away at 49 when Aaron was still in high school in Bristol, Connecticut. In his community, Dennis was known as “King.” He is the type of dad that families, friends, and Aaron’s teammates want him to be. Publicly, Dennis was the greatest dad, but privately, he was very demanding and abusive towards Aaron and his brother D.J.

Was Dennis exactly how people described in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez?

As shown in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, Dennis Hernandez played a huge role in shaping Aaron Hernandez and his brother DJ Hernandez’s football careers. Drawing from his experience playing for the University of Connecticut, their father taught them the fundamentals of the sport and the value of discipline.

According to Brandon Beam, who faced Aaron on the field, Dennis was the ideal father, attending every scrimmage and waking his kids up at dawn for workouts.

In Bristol, Connecticut, the Hernandez family’s community thought Dennis was a great dad. But things were very different behind the scenes. DJ said that he and his brother were extremely scared of their father’s regular and brutal beatings. DJ wrote in a memoir.

“Our father would hit us for anything from a bad grade to disrespectful behavior to sheer clumsiness.”

How did Dennis’s death affect Aaron in American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez

Dennis Hernandez died suddenly in January 2006, at age 49, when Aaron was 16. The cause was complications from routine hernia surgery, he developed an infection and was moved to intensive care.

Dennis’s death had a huge impact on Aaron. His mom, Terri Valentine-Hernandez, mentioned that he reacted so hard that he started rebelling against authority figures as a way to cope. His brother Jonathan said that Aaron was devastated by the event and everything changed afterward for him.

To know more about American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez stream the show available on FX and Hulu.