WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for American Sports Story episode 8.

American Sports Story episode 8 “Odin” chronicles the murder of Odin Lloyd by former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez. 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. Lloyd was dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancée Shayanna Jenkins at the time of his death. Despite Hernandez and Lloyd being friends, prosecutors believed that Hernandez found a reason to lose his trust in Lloyd that involved the apartment and an incident at a Boston nightclub, which prompted the killing.

American Sports Story episode 8 makes several true story changes to the murder of Odin Lloyd. American Sports Story creates a clear motive for Aaron Hernadnez’s murder of Odin Lloyd that was not ascertained in real life. Lloyd did allegedly know about Hernandez’s second apartment in Franklin, Massachusetts due to a claim made by Hernandez’s babysitter. American Sports Story uses this information to portray it as the main cause of Hernandez’s murder of Lloyd. As depicted in ASS episode 8, Lloyd reveals to his girlfriend Shaena, Shayanna’s sister, that Hernandez has a secret second apartment, otherwise known as his flop house.

Aaron Hernandez Never Confirmed Why He Killed Odin Lloyd

A clear motive for his death was never determined or revealed by Hernandez

Despite the portrayal of the murder of Odin Lloyd in American Sports Story episode 8, a clear motive for Lloyd’s murder was never determined and Aaron never spoke about it. American Sports Story makes it seem like Hernandez and Lloyd had just met merely weeks before the murder. The series portrays Hernandez and Lloyd only hanging out occasionally before Hernandez took his potential in-law’s life. In reality, Hernandez and Lloyd had met at some point in the two years before the 2013 murder at a family get-together with Shayanna’s sister, Shaena. The series makes Hernandez’s motive to kill Lloyd more impulsive than it likely was.

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According to ESPN, Hernandez had hooked Lloyd up with several perks, including tickets to multiple New England Patriots games. Hernandez had also promised Lloyd that he would take him on a trip to California one day. Hernandez also rented Lloyd a black Chevy Suburban SUV days before his death, much like the one that Hernandez drives in American Sports Story episode 8. All signs and signals pointed to Hernandez and Lloyd being good friends for months and even years before Hernandez took his life. American Sports Story skips over these facts and ultimately presents Hernandez’s murder as a spontaneous act of paranoia and instability.

Prosecutors Believe Aaron Hernandez Killed Odin Lloyd Due To A Lack Of Trust

Hernandez sent a text message saying “You can’t trust anyone anymore” the night before Lloyd’s death

Prosecutors believed that Hernandez killed Lloyd once he determined that he could no longer trust him with sensitive information. This potentially yet unproven motive is consistent with what takes place in American Sports Story episode 8, although it was never revealed whether Shayanna Jenkins knew about Hernandez’s second apartment after authorities discovered it in June 2013. There is also speculation that Lloyd had gotten too close to the truth about Hernandez’s other alleged crimes, particularly an alleged double homicide in Boston. While the exact circumstances remain unclear, Hernandez went from being Lloyd’s close friend to his executioner.

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Lloyd’s body was found with a total of five bullet holes in what authorities determined to be an execution-style killing. It’s unclear why exactly the creators of American Sports Story decided to alter some details of Lloyd’s murder, such as Hernandez firing two bullets instead of five. The series already presented Hernandez’s alleged murders of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado and the alleged attempted murder of Alexander “Sherrod” Bradley as fact in previous episodes. American Sports Story episode 8 also omits a text message Hernandez sent to Carlos Ortiz and Ernest Wallace the night before Lloyd’s death that read, “You can’t trust anyone anymore” (via New York Post).

Some Believe Aaron Hernandez Killed Odin Lloyd Because He Knew He Was Gay

This is a popular yet unproven motive

A popular yet unconfirmed belief about Hernandez’s motive for killing Lloyd was that he discovered that he was closeted gay or bisexual. Despite the theory being popularized and plausible based on Hernandez’s confessions of his sexuality while incarcerated, it’s not a proven motive. The simple answer is that a clear motive was never determined, which is a frustrating result in any murder trial, particularly one as stunning and confusing as Hernandez’s murder of Lloyd. Hernandez was discovered to have advanced stage 3 CTE after his death by suicide in 2017, adding another mysterious layer to the complicated tragedy in American Sports Story.

Sources: ESPN, New York Post

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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