The Aaron Hernandez murder case got an interesting piece of press this week with a Rolling Stone article titled "The Gangster in the Huddle" by Paul Solotaroff and now that the article has come out, some have wondered whether Hernandez could play in the NFL again at some point if he is acquitted of murder.
According to Yahoo Sports, Solotaroff spoke with people in the media and was on the radio and said that since the case might be hard to pin on Hernandez based on the evidence, it's conceivable that since he is just 23, he could serve time for his gun charges before getting out of jail and playing in the NFL again, much like Plaxico Burress and Michael Vick. The article says that while the evidence in the case is damning, it's very circumstantial and could result in him getting off, which is one reason why the gun charges came in seriously and Solotaroff says that it is likely that he will serve time for those crimes no matter what.
Hernandez is technically innocent despite the evidence against him since he has not yet been to trial and Solotaroff speculates that the case could fall apart, since there is no murder weapon, no eye witness and plenty of circumstantial evidence, meaning that a jury may not convict him. The gun crimes seem clear cut, but since he is a "first time" offender, the judge may not give him such a serious sentence.
Ray Lewis got off of his murder charge after people thought that was open and shut and people involved in this case say it is no sure thing. Hernandez is tied to the case from a rental car, shell casings, video surveillance and text messages, but none of that means he directly was the killer of Lloyd and if he was, it's still on the state to prove it. If the jury is not fully convinced, there could be a problem and while many think his career is over, Solotaroff said that sources he spoke to said that if he got out, he would have teams looking to sign him.
"I think [the case] is not only beatable, I think he will be back in the NFL within three or four years," Solotaroff said on the Doug Gottlieb Show. "I think they've grossly overcharged him based on the case they're building - no direct eye witness, no murder weapon, no plausible motive."
"But as crazy as it sounds, this is a guy with no priors. So asking a judge to sentence Hernandez to consecutive prison bids - rather than contemporary ones - is going to be a very hard sell for the prosecution. And if in fact he winds up doing three years behind [bars for] those gun charges - which would be a lot in this case - he's 26, 27, with very low mileage on those legs of his and a lot of time to heal up. My sources tell me there will be more than one NFL team pursuing him hotly when he walks out of jail in four years."
