They exchanged punches and insults, until one day Hernandez confronted Fletcher in the locker room. Fletcher, speaking for the first time publicly about their relationship, recalled Hernandez laughing at him “like the Joker in Batman’’ and reminding Fletcher how much he didn’t like him.
Fletcher cursed at him.
“But here’s the deal,” Fletcher quoted Hernandez as responding. “I respect you.’’
At that, Fletcher said, “I started laughing because for once he was the bigger man than me. That broke the shield between us.’’
As their friendship grew, Fletcher said, he saw flashes of Hernandez’s street life. He met some of Hernandez’s thug friends, watched detectives question him outside a bar in Boston for unknown reasons, and dropped him off at his Franklin apartment where Hernandez stored drugs and ammunition. Hernandez called it his “side place.’’
Fletcher said he was not alone among Patriots who saw Hernandez consorting with his ex-convict cronies from Bristol.
Hernandez kept close ties with friends back in Bristol, Conn., including some with long rap sheets. He hired at least two as paid assistants. (Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe)
“I knew they were trouble,’’ Fletcher said. “Everybody kind of did.’’
Belichick himself later told the State Police that he believed he saw Hernandez with an ex-convict from Bristol named Ernest “Bo’’ Wallace.
Cocky and crass, Hernandez also quickly developed a reputation as one of the most talented and hardest-working Patriots, among the first to arrive for practice and the last to leave. Former teammate Rob Ninkovich referred to Hernandez’s “gifted hands” and spectacular athleticism, though has wondered if his sudden wealth, especially so young, sped his downfall.
“It can warp your judgment,” he told the Globe. “There’s a false sense of reality.”
But Hernandez’s combustible temper became readily evident. In his first days in training camp, he threatened to “f— up’’ six-year veteran Wes Welker, after Welker teased him about needing help in the film room, according to individuals familiar with the incident.
Receiver Brandon Lloyd, offering his most detailed account of Hernandez’s troubling behavior, said Welker warned him.
“He is looking at me wide-eyed,’’ Lloyd recalled. “And he says, ‘I just want to warn you that [Hernandez] is going to talk about being bathed by his mother. He’s going to have his genitalia out in front of you while you’re sitting on your stool. He’s going to talk about gay sex. Just do your best to ignore it. Even walk away.’ ’’
But there was no avoiding Hernandez. Teammates described him as an attention-seeker who at times seemed unhinged.
Some former teammates describe Hernandez as emotionally volatile. Hernandez – shown here at a pre-game warm-up in 2011 – also delighted in provoking some teammates. (Barry Chin/Globe Staff)
“There would be swings where he’d be the most hyper-masculine, aggressive individual in the room, where he’d be ready to fight somebody in fits of rage,’’ Lloyd said. “Or he’d be the most sensitive person in the room, talking about cuddling with his mother. Or he’d ask me, ‘Do you think I’m good enough to play?’ ’’
Hernandez’s erratic behavior enraged Brady, the legendary team leader, one day when Hernandez was sitting out practice because of an injury. On the sidelines of the non-contact practice, called a “walkthrough,’’ Hernandez kept referring to Belichick as “daddy,’’
as he had all season.
“He was out at the walkthrough in flip-flops trying to run around,’’ Lloyd said. “He was laughing. He was loud. And Tom keeps it serious in the walkthrough. And Tom says, ‘Shut the f— up. Get the f— out of here.’ ’’
Lloyd recalled that Hernandez’s mood transformed instantly: “It was like he went from this child-like, laughing, disruptive behavior … and he storms off in a fit of rage.’’
