"It's a story with a lot of factors, as I'm sure everybody with familiarity towards it knows," Josh Andrés Rivera, who plays Hernandez, told Deadline. "There's the mental health factor, the crime factor, the money, the fame, all of these things."
Indeed, the story of Hernandez's life and career is complex - as documented in The Boston Globe and Wondery podcast, Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football, Inc., on which American Sports Story is based.
Though he initially pleaded not guilty, Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison.
Later, according to The New York Times, a posthumous examination of Hernandez's brain revealed to researchers that he had severe chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
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