The new Hulu/FX limited series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez depicts a violent confrontation between the titular protagonist and a South Florida man named Sherrod. The first two episodes of American Sports Story, which premiered on September 17, 2024, on FX, capture a basic understanding of Aaron Hernandez’s complicated upbringing, tumultuous family life, and accelerated path to becoming a Florida Gator and New England Patriot. American Sports Story portrays several NFL players and coaches in addition to Hernandez, including superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski, legendary Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, and the Patriots’ billionaire owner Robert Kraft.

Josh Rivera leads the American Sports Story cast as Hernandez, a former collegiate and NFL superstar tight end who was convicted of murdering semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd in 2015. Hernandez was found guilty of killing Lloyd, who was his girlfriend’s sister’s boyfriend, on June 17, 2013, just two months before the Patriots offered him a five-year $40 million contract. He was arrested on first-degree murder charges just days after Lloyd’s death due to an overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence against him. After receiving a lifetime prison sentence in 2015, he was put on trial again in 2017 for an unsolved double homicide case that took place in Boston in 2012.

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Aaron Hernandez Shoots Sherrod Because Of What Happened In Boston

Sherrod thought he knew all of Aaron’s darkest secrets

At the beginning of American Sports Story episode 1 “If It’s to Be”, Aaron is depicted inside a Florida strip club with a man named Sherrod. He doesn’t appear to be having a good time as he smokes weed and becomes paranoid about two men in the club who seem to be talking about him. He tells his friend at the time, Sherrod, that he thinks they’re Boston police officers spying on him, who finds that ridiculous. They leave the club and Sherrod tries to reassure Aaron, telling him “Nobody knows about Boston.” Sherrod also admits to knowing all of Aaron’s secrets, which doesn’t sit well with Aaron’s paranoid mindset in the dramatized series.

Aaron and Sherrod have known each other for a while, as evidenced by Sherrod saying he’s seen a lot of the things that Aaron has done without getting into details. He asks Aaron, “When have I ever said a f–king thing?“, trying to alleviate his stress. This seems to do the trick. However, once Sherrod falls asleep, Aaron’s demeanor completely changes. He drives to a vacant industrial location with Sherrod still asleep in the passenger seat and wakes him up with a gun in his face. Aaron shoots Sherrod in the face and leaves him for dead outside before driving away in cold blood.

What Happened To Aaron Hernandez In Boston In Real Life

Bradley testified that Hernandez murdered two men outside a Boston nightclub

The dramatized character Sherrod in American Sports Story referenced a real-life violent crime in which he and Aaron would be implicated years later. He and Aaron were involved in the double homicide case of two men in Boston named Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. The scene in American Sports Story was based on the real-life Sherrod’s witness testimony during Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado’s 2017 murder trial. The actual Sherrod, named Alexander S. Bradley, claimed that all it took for Aaron to decide to kill these two men was an accidentally spilled drink at a Boston nightclub (via CNN).

Alexander Bradley accused his former best friend Hernandez of killing Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in a drive-by shooting in Boston’s Theater District. After Hernandez became frustrated at de Abreu for spilling his drink on him, he and Bradley moved to another bar, where de Abreu and Furtado also showed up. Bradley claimed Hernandez was paranoid and believed they were following him. Hernandez went to his car, a Toyota 4Runner, to retrieve his gun. He had Bradley drive around circling the bar until Hernandez spotted the two men and had Bradley drive up to them. According to Bradley, Hernandez fired five shots into the vehicle, hitting one man in the chest and another in the head.

American Sports Story’s Sherrod Is Based On Alexander S. Bradley

Bradley and Aaron met around 2010 and became very close friends

Alexander S. Bradley became close friends with Aaron around 2010 right as Hernandez was finishing his collegiate career and about to enter the NFL. A native of Connecticut, Bradley used to bring Hernandez weed and the two would heavily smoke together on many occasions. Bradley was a tough individual who had access to guns and had previous run-ins with the law. Not only did he testify that Aaron’s gunshot made him blind in his right eye, but he was also granted immunity in the 2017 double homicide case to become the prosecution’s star witness.

As depicted in American Sports Story, Bradley aka Sherrod did not go immediately to the authorities after allegedly surviving Aaron’s near-fatal gunshot wound. Bradley wanted to enact his own revenge on Aaron, which is why his dramatized character called Aaron to tell him this issue was between the two of them and that Aaron was a dead man. Interstingly, American Sports Story plays this entire scenario out as fact when it was ultimately proven in the 2017 trial that Bradley may not have remembered who actually shot him that night in Florida.

Aaron Hernandez’s Charges & Verdict In The Boston Double Murder Trial Explained

Hernandez was found not guilty due to the reasonable potential of Bradley’s ulterior motive

Celebrity attorney Jose Baez, who successfully defended Casey Anthony in 2011, represented Hernandez in the 2017 double homicide trial. He brought forth evidence in the form of a text message sent by Bradley that heavily suggested he was being dishonest about Aaron shooting him in his testimony. The text message was sent by Bradley to his attorney and asked for assurance that he would not be charged with perjury if he came out after the trial had ended and revealed the truth that he did not remember who shot him.

This evidence greatly helped Hernandez’s defense and supported Baez’s case that Bradley knew Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado and killed them himself, enacting revenge for a drug deal gone wrong. Because Baez was able to drive doubt into the jury’s minds about Bradley’s credibility as the prosecution’s star witness, it was enough for Hernandez to be acquitted of the double homicide. Hernandez was tearful following the nonguilty verdict and hugged Baez in the courtroom. Baez later said he was planning to defend Hernandez in his appeal of the Odin Lloyd case but never got the chance as Hernandez took his own life just days after the 2017 trial. These events will likely be chronicled in future episodes of American Sports Story.

Source: CNN, Netflix