Ryan Murphy‘s new anthology series, American Sports Story, tackles the rise and fall of Aaron Hernandez in its debut season.

Joining its predecessors American Horror Story and American Crime Story, Murphy’s latest creation, which premiered Sept. 17, focuses on Hernandez, who first rose to fame as a talented tight end for the New England Patriots from 2010 to 2012.

But Hernandez was plagued by a dark side and a violent past, which came to a head in 2013 when he was charged with murder in the shooting death of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez — who also faced two additional murder charges in 2014 — was eventually convicted for Lloyd’s death and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was acquitted of the 2014 murder charges but faced an additional sentence for illegal possession of a handgun.

In 2017, the disgraced former NFL star died by suicide in prison. He was 27 years old.

“He was constantly struggling against his demons, and no one could help him no matter how hard we tried,” a former teammate of Hernandez told PEOPLE in 2020. “He was just too angry and too self-destructive. It was sad.”

American Sports Story, which debuted with a two-part premiere on FX on Sept. 17 and began streaming a day later on Hulu, stars Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes actor Josh Andrés Rivera as Hernandez. Joining Rivera are Patrick Schwarzenegger as Tim Tebow (Hernandez’s teammate at the University of Florida) and Lindsay Mendez as Tanya Singleton (Hernandez’s cousin).

Here’s a closer look at the true story of Aaron Hernandez — from his once-promising football career to his violent crimes and tragic death.

Who was Aaron Hernandez?

Hernandez was a professional football player with the New England Patriots from 2010 to 2012. On the Patriots, Hernandez was one-half of a talented tight end duo with Rob Gronkowski — the pair broke multiple NFL records during the 2011 season, according to ESPN.

As a result, Hernandez earned a 5-year, $40-million contract extension with the Patriots in 2012. The contract extension included a $12.5 million signing bonus, the largest ever given to a tight end in the NFL at the time.

Prior to the NFL, Hernandez played football at the University of Florida, where he won a national championship in 2008 and the John Mackey Award (given to the best tight end in the country) in 2009. Despite his success on the football field, Hernandez struggled to keep his temper in check and was involved in two separate violent incidents during his freshman year, a bar fight and a shooting. The former was settled out of court and the latter never resulted in charges.

“Everything about Aaron was a struggle,” a college teammate of Hernandez’s told PEOPLE in 2020. “He had these really angry outbursts a lot, over insignificant things. And when he started, he couldn’t stop.”

Off the football field, Hernandez became engaged to Shayanna Jenkins in November 2012, the same month they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Avielle Janelle Hernandez.

“One thing I know is that it definitely changed my life,” Hernandez told the media about becoming a father.

What did Aaron Hernandez do?

In June 2013, Hernandez was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, along with five gun-related charges, for allegedly killing Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player who was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée.

Prosecutors alleged that Hernandez and two other men, Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace, picked up Lloyd in the early morning hours of June 17, 2013, and drove him to a secluded industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass. — where he was shot six times and killed. Though it was not clear who pulled the trigger, prosecutors accused Hernandez of orchestrating the murder because he was “unhappy with the victim.”

In May 2014, while awaiting trial for Lloyd’s murder, Hernandez was indicted on more murder charges — this time, in connection with a 2012 double homicide. The disgraced NFL star was accused of murdering Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a drive-by shooting that occurred outside of a Boston nightclub in July 2012.

Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder and additional firearm charges in April 2015 for the killing of Lloyd. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Two years later, in April 2017, Hernandez was found not guilty in the double murder of Abreu and Furtado after 37 hours of jury deliberation.

What happened to Aaron Hernandez after his 2013 arrest?

Hernandez’s once-promising NFL career was over after his arrest for Lloyd’s murder in 2013. He was immediately dropped from the Patriots’ roster, his endorsement deals with Puma and Muscle Milk were terminated and his likeness was removed from EA Sports video games.

Following his conviction for Lloyd’s murder, Hernandez began serving his life sentence at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum security prison about 40 miles west of Boston. He spent four years behind bars before he died by suicide on April 19, 2017 — just five days after he was acquitted in the drive-by shooting of Abreu and Furtado. Hernandez was 27 years old.

Following his suicide, Hernandez’s murder conviction was voided because of an obscure Massachusetts law. Since Hernandez was in the process of appealing his conviction and died before that appeal could be resolved, the case returned to its initial phase — essentially erasing his guilty verdict.

“It’s as if the trial has never happened, and it’s as if the indictment has never happened,” Martin Healy, then the chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Bar Association, told PEOPLE in May 2017.

“Under the eyes of the law, Hernandez has died an innocent man,” Healy added. Two years later, after an appeal by Lloyd’s family, the state’s Supreme Court rolled back the law and Hernandez’s conviction was reinstated with a note that the appeal was never decided upon.

Why did Aaron Hernandez kill Odin Lloyd?

Following Hernandez’s death, several theories emerged about what contributed to the NFL star’s tragic fall from grace — including his alleged traumatic childhood, rumored struggles with his sexuality and a CTE diagnosis.

In 2018, the football player’s brother Jonathan alleged that Hernandez suffered from physical, emotional and sexual abuse as a child. According to Jonathan’s account, as written in his book The Truth About Aaron: My Journey to Understand My Brother, Hernandez was molested by an older boy as a child and was physically abused by his father, who died in 2006.

“I wanted to tell his story so that people could understand who my brother was,” Jonathan told PEOPLE in 2018. “They don’t know all the struggles he faced.”

Rumors that Hernandez was conflicted over his sexuality also surfaced after his death, with alleged former boyfriends from both high school and prison speaking out about their supposed relationships with the ex-athlete. Hernandez’s older brother Jonathan also revealed that he may have told his mother about his sexuality prior to his suicide.

Additionally, an autopsy after Hernandez’s death revealed that he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease that has been found in hundreds of former NFL players. His family believed that the CTE diagnosis explained “a lot of things that Aaron did, including his supposed suicide,” his attorney, Jose Baez, told PEOPLE. As a result, the Hernandez family sued the NFL for $20 million, but a judge dismissed the lawsuit in 2019.

What have Aaron Hernandez’s former teammates said about him?

Tom Brady and Hernandez were teammates for two years on the New England Patriots, but the legendary quarterback’s connection with the tight end did not extend beyond the field. “I don’t think about him very often,” Brady said on WEEI in 2017 about his former teammate.

“It’s just very tragic, for everyone involved,” Brady continued. “To have a teammate who we were all in the huddle with, played some great games with. For everybody involved, it’s just a horrible thing. I don’t know what to make of it. It’s just very, very, very sad.”

Brady spoke about Hernandez once again during his Netflix live special, The Greatest Roast of All Time: Tom Brady, which premiered in May 2024.

“The bar for a Patriots tight end was pretty low back then — block, catch, don’t murder,” Brady joked, referencing Hernandez’s murder conviction. However, Hernandez’s former fiancée, Shayanna, found Brady’s jokes during the roast to be in poor taste.

“It’s sad that I’m trying to raise my children in such a cruel world,” Jenkins told TMZ after the roast.

Hernandez also played alongside Gronkowski on the Patriots. In 2021, the tight end reflected on his reaction to the news of his former teammate’s arrest and conviction.

“Aaron was a great player,” Gronkowski said on the 10 Questions with Kyle Brandt podcast. “He was a great football player … I was definitely shook when I heard everything about it. Because being his teammate and everything and you just, you really don’t see that.”

In 2020, another former teammate told PEOPLE about his relationship with Hernandez and his legacy.

“I look at the things Aaron did and they make me sad,” he said. “He did a lot of things that should not be celebrated in any way. But he was a man who many people loved, and on that level, he should be remembered. Everyone can learn from his mistakes; that’s the way to make sure that his life wasn’t in vain.”

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.