The murder case involving former Patriots star Aaron Hernandez has put tons of attention on the tight end, but who was the man he is accused of killing in Odin Lloyd?
The 27-year-old victim was a semi-pro football player who was a star athlete in high school and also was a class clown, as some friends remembered in a USA Today story. Lloyd played for the Boston Bandits, which is the oldest semi-pro team in the city and strangely enough, he is the sixth player to die since 2002, according to Yahoo. One player died in a murder, while the others died of other causes, one in a fire, one in a car accident and another in his sleep.
Lloyd was dating Hernandez's fiancé's sister Shanea Jenkins and that is how the two are believed to have met. According to some reports, the murder occurred after Lloyd spoke to the wrong people at a nightclub, sparking thought of disrespect in Hernandez. Lloyd also may have known some information about a possible double murder that Hernandez is currently being investigated for. Lloyd sent text messages the night of the shooting and Hernandez is reportedly seen on camera with a gun, saying he can't trust people anymore.
Bandits coach Olivier Bustin heard the news in a text message and he said that he never had a problem with Lloyd and that he was liked by the team around him. The Bandits are preparing for the start of the season in July and had practice on Tuesday and they plan to honor him later when they play their first game. Bustin said Lloyd looked great in a scrimmage last week and that the last contact with him was about a helmet he left at the facility, which he had to pay for himself.
The local pro league is a tight knit group of men who enjoy playing the game and each player has to pay for his own equipment sometimes, as Lloyd did with the helmet. The Bandits have dealt with tragedy before and they plan on playing football as normal, which Bustin said Lloyd would have wanted. Lloyd was originally from Dorchester and also worked in landscaping while playing semi-pro football.
Hernandez and Lloyd became friends through their significant others and while the club incident appears to be the breaking point, it is unclear if anything was fractured before that. At Hernandez's bail hearing, text messages from Lloyd were portraying him as scared, mentioning I'm with "NFL" and "just so you know". Hernandez is now behind bars and Lloyd is sadly dead and a trial may take a year to start.