What’s Up With Aaron Hernandez’s Twitter Account And Where Did It Go?

As far as we know, you’re not allowed to tweet from jail. So it makes sense that former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez’s account has been silent since June 18, 2013 — the day police entered his home with a search warrant.

Hernandez was arrested and charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd based on evidence found during that search just eight days later and convicted of that crime last April, but his Twitter account (@AaronHernandez) recently mysteriously disappeared.

If you visit the convicted murderer’s former Twitter handle, it takes you to an account with just 90 tweets and 75 followers — both far less than the former NFL star’s account had accumulated. Scrolling back reveals several Patriots-related items, and one interesting note: The first tweet came Nov. 20, 2015.

But it appears someone running Hernandez’s actual account logged in and changed his information. The account used to feature a picture of Hernandez in his Patriots uniform celebrating a touchdown, with a bio that read “TE for the New England Patriots” and a location set as “Foxboro, MA” — the home of Gillette Stadium, where the team plays its home games. The verified account still was filled out in this manner until at least two days before Hernandez’s April conviction, as noted by Vice Sports.

Now the handle has been changed to “@MakingMoves72” and the name has been changed to “BossUp”. The account no longer is verified, does not feature any photos of Hernandez, and the infamous “good morning” tweet that came hours after police entered his home with the search warrant has been deleted.

But this seemingly innocent account still has 158,000 followers, including several notable Boston-area journalists and former Patriots teammates Wes Welker, Ras-I Dowling and Julian Edelman, as of Sunday night, which implies that it is, in fact, Hernandez’s old account with a new makeover.

Twitter does have guidelines about inactive accounts and warns that “accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity,” which it defines as six months. So it would make sense if the person who now owns the “@aaronhernandez” handle specifically requested it based on those guidelines, and Twitter obliged.

Except Hernandez’s inactive account wasn’t deleted, as the guidelines note, but seemingly just changed. If that’s the case, it begs the questions: Why now? And what, exactly, does Hernandez (or whoever changed things for him) mean by “making moves” and “boss up”?

“Making moves” is a term used to describe making progress, and “boss up” generally is used to tell someone to stop being afraid or being a wimp. Is Hernandez, or someone in his camp, sending a message?

We don’t know, and we doubt we ever will. We also could be reading way too far into something so simple. But it’s quite curious nonetheless.

Thumbnail photo via The Sun Chronicle (Pool Photo)/USA TODAY Sports Images