In the new issue of
Rolling Stone, contributing editor Paul Solotaroff delivers a detailed investigation into Aaron Hernandez's life, tracing his path from affable high school football star to deeply troubled NFL player to murder suspect. Solotaroff conducted interviews with family friends, high school teammates and NFL sources to help explain why the potential NFL great was ensnared by drugs, guns and a life of violence. Here are five revelations about Hernandez from "The Gangster in the Huddle":
Five Sports Stars Accused of Murder
• Hernandez was a heavy user of angel dust, and had become so paranoid over the last year that he carried a gun wherever he went.
• He surrounded himself with a cohort of gangsters, and cut himself off from his family and teammates.
• Hernandez had so infuriated his head coach, Bill Belichick, with missed practices and thug-life stunts, that he was one misstep from being cut.
• Both his parents, Dennis and Terri, had criminal records, as did much of his extended family.
• Terri allegedly cheated on Dennis before his death with a violent drug dealer named Jeffrey Cummings, then married Cummings after Dennis died and moved him into the house she shared with Aaron.
• In college his coach (then-University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer) may have helped cover up failed drug tests, along with two violent incidents — an assault and a drive-by shootout outside a local bar.