How Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick Reflected On Aaron Hernandez Saga

The sixth episode of “The Dynasty” docuseries provided a dark look at Aaron Hernandez’s Patriots career, as well as reflections from those who experienced the events of that period firsthand.

“The Dynasty” on Apple TV+ continued along Friday with the fifth episode providing a look at how New England managed without Tom Brady after he tore his ACL in the 2008 season.

Following the memories of Matt Cassel taking the Patriots to 11-5 without Brady, things took a haunting turn as the sixth episode features players like Deion Branch and Brandon Lloyd still carrying regret and vivid memories of Hernandez with the Super Bowl XXXIX MVP wishing he could have done more to prevent tragedy from striking.

There were clips of Robert Kraft praising the tight end after his $40 million extension, and the owner reflected on his relationship with Hernandez on “The Dynasty.”

“Aaron and I, we had a genuine feeling of connection — and love,” Kraft said on the Apple TV+ docuseries, per CBS Boston’s Michael Hurley. “Every time he’d see me, he would kiss me on the cheek. I mean, this is something I do with my sons. I think he viewed me, you know, sort of as a loving paternal figure. I remember when my sweet wife, Myra, passed away of ovarian cancer, Aaron handed me a check for $50,000 to the fund that we had set up in memory of Myra. I said Aaron, this is very sweet, you don’t need to do this, you’ve already got your contract. And he started getting tears in his eyes. ‘No,’ he said, ‘no, this is very important to me. I want to do it for you.’ It really touched me. I felt he was what we wanted as the perfect Patriot player.”

That sentiment changed in 2013 when Hernandez became a suspect in the Odin Lloyd murder. It was where Kraft seemed to express remorse over the situation.

“I said, ‘Aaron, tell me, did you do this. Because if you did, I know you must have had some good reason,” Kraft said. “I’m gonna get you the best defense lawyer we can get, and I’ll do it at my cost. And he looked me right in the eye, not blinking or anything, and said, ‘Mr. Kraft, I didn’t do that. I was in Rhode Island.’ Or something. And when he said it, I believed him. He actually changed my life and how I look at people, because it just — I, to this day, I can’t believe I got snookered like that.”

Later in the episode, Kraft admitted the Patriots “messed up” when it came to Hernandez and apologized to those who were affected.

Bill Belichick called it an “unfortunate situation” and said he “didn’t have “anything to add to it” when asked about Hernandez asking for a trade to the West Coast in 2013, per Hurley. Ernie Adams felt things could have been different if Hernandez was traded to a team like the Seattle Seahawks, a place away from his associates in his home state Connecticut.

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Jonathan Kraft was more blunt about Belichick’s response to Hernandez’s arrest.

“He didn’t want to have to lose an amazing football player,” Jonathan Kraft said in “The Dynasty,” per Hurley. “So Bill’s instinct would be play this f—ing thing out ’till the end. And I just knew we couldn’t play it out till the end. Not because of how it looked on us, but because we had to set a fu—– example. I mean like, it’s like, this guy’s a murderer!”

Kraft noted his father and Belichick during the arrest, so he had to act quickly to release Hernandez.

After his release, Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. Hernandez was also indicted for the 2012 double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado; he was acquitted after a 2017 trial. Hernandez was found dead in his cell after being acquitted, which was ruled a suicide. He was posthumously diagnosed with CTE. Hernandez was 27 years old.