The Aaron Hernandez murder case involving the shooting death of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd has brought a dark cloud over the NFL and now that more information has come to light, NFL teams may start acting differently in the future when it comes to players with checkered backgrounds.
The teams in the league have always done extensive background checks on players before drafting them, but sometimes teams can't find everything and sometimes teams will still draft players knowing they have some character issues because they feel the player can help the team. Many franchises had issues with information on Hernandez heading into the draft in 2010 after reports of a shooting and fighting while at Florida, but that did not stop the Patriots from selecting him when he fell in the draft.
More information about issues he had in college and in high school have come out since the murder investigation began and now teams likely will be even more careful with how they evaluate players. According to the LA Times, the Patriots have had success in the past with troubled players like Randy Moss and Corey Dillon, which may have been one reason why they felt comfortable taking Hernandez. The tight end appeared to change his ways over the past two seasons and after signing a $40 million contract extension, but a closer look shows otherwise.
Obviously the murder was the main issue that brought incidents to light, but Hernandez also was recently over the past year or more, involved in domestic disturbance issues with his fiancé, a shooting in Florida of a friend, as well as a possible connection to a double murder in Boston. The death of Odin Lloyd has been tied to Hernandez and now the tight end is facing life in prison for the crimes, making his past and his background look worse as more information comes out.
The NFL is a results league and that is why teams take chances on players, but now all that could change, as teams may not want to responsible or associated with players when things go very wrong, as they did here with the Lloyd case. The Patriots looked smart at getting Hernandez at first, as he was one of the most versatile and explosive players at his position in the league, but now looking back, it clearly was a mistake.
Some think there will be big changes ahead in regards to teams taking and evaluating players, but one former coach in Tony Dungy said that Hernandez likely wouldn't change things. Dungy says that teams understand the risks and that sometimes they feel it is worth it to take that player because it could translate into wins.
"Without question, the owners are talking to their general managers as soon as this happened, saying, 'Let's make sure this doesn't happen to us,'" said former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson, who won two Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys with some troubled players on his roster. "It's almost the pendulum swings the other way in that there are probably going to be some players that are able to get on the straight and narrow who are going to be bypassed because people are going to be afraid of getting into a situation like this."
