Ex-Jets star opens up about chilling Aaron Hernandez joke that turned out to be true
During his playing days, Bart Scott was never shy about expressing himself.
That “call ’em as I see ’em” attitude helped land Scott a job in broadcasting. The former linebacker is now part of “The Afternoon Drive with Carlin, Maggie and Bart” on WFAN radio in New York.
His role on the show is to be outspoken, and he certainly did that last week.
Scott told an eery story about the Jets and how they taunted former Patriot Aaron Hernandez, before the troubled tight end’s background was fully exposed.
“Let me tell you what the running joke was with Hernandez,” Scott told listeners. “As players, we used to always mess with Hernandez when we were on the field and say, ‘Hey man, I heard they found the body.’ We thought it was a joke, because we knew something had happened in Florida.
“So the whole running joke was ‘I heard they found the body.’ We all knew he was a bad guy. There had been stories floating with this guy for years.”
Hernandez, of course, was later found guilty of murder, and went to prison, where he killed himself last year.
Scott said the taunting was well before Hernandez’ legal issues were uncovered.
“This was years (earlier),” Scott said. “This was when he was playing and thriving. No, we used to say, ‘We heard he found the body.’ It was a running joke. We didn’t think it was serious. We knew he was a bad guy.”
Again, never being shy for an opinion, the former Pro Bowler theorized that Hernandez’s gang history was a major part of his downfall.
“We knew he was in a gang. A lot of players are in gangs. A lot of us grow up in gangs, and what happens is, it’s hard to remove yourself,” Scott explained. “But what happens is you’re removed by distance. The people in my neighborhood are 10 hours away.
“The hardest thing for Hernandez is they are right there. You can’t mature and distance yourself from them because they were there Day 1. Day 1 they’re at the party, so you’re not hanging with your teammates, you’re hanging with them.”
New England drafted Hernandez in 2010, despite his history of violent behavior at the University of Florida.
Hernandez was arrested in June 2013, and convicted in the murder of Odin Lloyd in April 2015.
He committed suicide last April at the age of 27.
After his death, doctors examined his brain, and determined the former player suffered from CTE, likely caused by trauma from playing football.
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