New England Patriots on Paper: Hired Geeks

"It was Sunday, and Sunday is a good day for revenge. That was all I cared about, nothing more. Football was in my blood. I am a slave to it."

And....yes.  Aren't we all.

It's no secret that the works of Hunter S. Thompson have been an inspiration to me pretty much my entire life, and the fact that his books are categorized in most libraries in the social sciences section speaks of the reverence that people smarter than me have for his razor sharp insights of the social condition, if not for his style.

He wrote of this condition - from mainstream America to the hippie scene in the Bay area, and just about everything in between.  He hung out with people like Ken Kesey, Allister Crowley and the Hells Angels - and for one brief span in the summer of 1973, with the Oakland Raiders.

An insatiable football fan, Thompson wrote of the culture of the game.  The win-loss records and scores of the games rarely found their way into his columns - his primary focus on the human element, and he told stories of the experience, the atmosphere, the faces in the crowd, the sights and smells, the grace, the power - because he figured that there were enough hired geeks and beat writers to recite numbers....

...and he didn't write about football often - but he did enough of it that I'm certain he would be humored by the media spectacle that is Tim Tebow - particularly now that Tebow is a member of the New England Patriots - and that he would focus on the culture and the experience and bring a bit of responsibility to the media, whose main purpose for living in the offseason seems to be to stir the fan population with a big stick.

So when news of the signing of Tebow by New England broke on Monday and polarized fans and media alike, mouth pieces from every media outlet in the civilized world and Maine had an opinion, to the point that even normally friendly social media chats became contentious as Patriots' fans armed with the opinions of these hired geeks battled with supporters of the signing like circa early 70's anti-war protesters and riot cops.

It's a Renaissance of the dark and dirty days of Thompson's prime, when he would hang out on the Oakland Raiders' practice field and jabbered incessantly at John Madden and drew the ire of Al Davis on more than a few occasions.  Davis was a polarizing presence himself, and there was no middle ground - either you loved him or you hated him.

Except Thompson, who thought he was human scum, but got a kick out of the way he would pace the sidelines during practice and get in the players' faces and make Ken Stabler and his receivers work on patterns for hours after practice had ended, which is what caused Thompson to develop a love/hate relationship with Davis.

Thompson was clearly comfortable hanging out with the Raiders but Davis was not comfortable with him, so the Doctor's experiment with the Raiders lasted about two and half weeks - plenty of time for a football mind like Thompson's to learn everything he needed to know.  Davis was the boss of the Raiders, and he didn't spend one second of his life worrying about what people thought of him or his decisions.

Would Thompson think of Belichick as human scum?  For certain Belichick would loathe the good doctor simply because he was a reporter - and Belichick is a lot like Davis in many respects, and also because he has an intense desire to control his environment, and if he wanted to bring in Tim Tebow and take a look, by God he's going to do it - because he's the Boss of the Patriots.

But maybe we can take the words of the dead scribe, from lessons that he learned from being around the Raiders, being around professional football and being around the scene in Berkeley and Altamont and dealing with more street freaks and genuinely dangerous people in one day than any of us will in a year to understand the mind-set of this situation.

Trying to report on the culture of Oakland and it's suburbs was hard dollar, but he was the kind of writer that, by nature of his self-proclaimed style of "Gonzo Journalism", absolutely had to be right in the middle of it.  He got arrested, tossed out of Raiders' headquarters and nearly stomped to death by the Angels, but he kept going back.

Why?  He was fascinated by the people.  He didn't care about their politics, per se, he cared more about their methods - and this is where we are mired now, in this rainy late spring in New England and at each other's throats - but if we take the time to let his words soak into our brainwashed minds, perhaps we can learn a 40 year old lesson as it relates to Tim Tebow and Bill Belichick - because he had seen enough of these personalities to know.

"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright" Dr. Thompson begins, "Or maybe "stupid" is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me."

This story is much about the base for Tebow's charisma and enormous aura, his outspoken nature and deep faith either alienating or edifying sections of the masses, rarely unifying - there seems to be no middle ground, and as Thompson continues, he presents a pretty strong case for fans trying to find a happy median:

"In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone." he concludes, "They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I... And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."

High spots for the New England Patriots are otherwise known as Super Bowl championships, but even those don't bring personal peace and happiness to anyone because once they are won, the euphoria eventually dulls to pleasant memory, and then it's on to the task of winning another. 

It hasn't happened in these parts for nearly a decade now, even though the Patriots consistently have one of the best teams in the NFL year in and year out, and it always seems like they're one play or player short of nirvana - and who's to say who that player could be, that one guy that could make that play to get to the next high spot?

Bill Belichick, that's who.

He's the Boss of the Patriots, and if he chooses to bring in Tim Tebow and pay him many dollars, that's his choice but he, as well as Tebow, will have to learn to live with the idea that they may never find peace and happiness until Belichick wins another trophy and Tebow realizes that what he covets may not be possible, which will make the tabloidal journalism go away...

...but together, they are going to give it a shot - and if it works, great.  If not, well, that's ok, too.  The Patriots are still an elite team and Tebow was looking for a job when he found this one, so nothing would have changed except the fans at each other's throats will continue to divide Patriots' Nation, until it's too late to pretend that it never happened.

Because, after all, football is in our blood, and we are slaves to it - but if we let this episode in Patriots history define us as a fan base, we will have become slaves to something more sinister than football could ever be: Hired geeks.

Hernandez charged with murder; held without bail

A stoic Aaron Hernandez faced a judge for the first time on Wednesday afternoon, just hours after being taken from his home in handcuffs - the proceedings convened to lodge formal charges against the now infamous professional football player...

...the State of Massachusetts charging former New England Patriots' tight end Aaron Hernandez with six crimes, the most serious of which is first degree Murder.

Hernandez was released from his contract with the Patriots on Wednesday morning in response to being arrested, the team and the NFL releasing short statements telling of their disappointment with his alleged role in the homicide, and also expressing their sorrow to the grieving family of the slain man.

Prosecutors laid out in chilling detail the execution of 27 year old Odin Lloyd, the trail of video surveillance footage and cell phone text communications painting a brutal and damning connection between Hernandez and the man whom he considered a friend...

...so castigating the presentation that the Judge ordered Hernandez held without bail, the first of what could be a savage string of losses for the former Patriot and his high-priced legal team.

If one were inclined to follow the elaborately itemized chronology presented by the district attorney - the clarity of detail such that it seemed like something right out of the movie Enemy of the State - it paints Hernandez as nothing but a street thug with a vendetta.

The arraignment at the Attleboro District Court also saw Hernandez charged with possessing a firearm without a license, possessing a large capacity firearm and a firearm without an ID card.

Hernandez plead not guilty to all charges.

As Bristol County assistant district attorney William McCauley presented the synopsis of the State's evidence against Hernandez, the mother of the victim fled the packed courtroom in tears - Hernandez, standing with his attorney and handcuffs adorning his tattooed wrists stood glaring at McCauley, occasionally breaking his focus and peering into the seated crowd.

McCauley concluded his soliloquy by accusing Hernandez of orchestrating Lloyd's "Execution", contacting accomplices and putting into action a plan that would end Lloyd's life - while defense attorney Michael Fee called the prosecution's argument "Circumstantial" and "not a strong case", then addressing the bail portion of the hearing by arguing that his client should be treated as any other member of society and given the opportunity for bail so that he "can return home to his eight month old daughter"...

...an argument that held little weight given the evidence against Hernandez, Judge Daniel O'Shea ordering Hernandez to be held without bail despite the defenses argument that Hernandez had proven that he was not a flight risk.

Part of his decision probably based on the fact that the murder weapon is as yet unrecovered and Hernandez's proclivity for destroying evidence as outlined by McCauley.

Hernandez's legal team promised to appeal the bail decision, but in the interim his next court appearance has been set for July 24th.

New England Patriots on Paper: Hernandez arrested, released from contract

Being arrested and charged with a felony has a tendency to change a persons life for the worse - and Aaron Hernandez is finding out all about that on Wednesday morning.

Hernandez was released from his $40 million contract with the New England Patriots, the team invoking standard language in his contract that voids the deal should a player violate terms of the NFL's personal conduct policy - and being escorted by seven police officers out his posh digs in an exclusive neighborhood just south of Gillette stadium is a good indication that a violation has occurred.

Hernandez has been the focus of a murder investigation since the body of Odin Lloyd was found early last week and a vehicle attached to Hernandez by rental history was connected to the crime scene, and his behavior patter since the start of the investigation has strongly suggested damage control and covering tracks, swaying public opinion and making the talented pass catcher the subject of ridicule.

So on Wednesday morning, the Patriots released the embattled tight end, also releasing a corresponding statement to the media - not an explanation, rather, a tome rife with righteous indignation:

"A young man was murdered last week and we extend our sympathies to the family and friends who mourn his loss. Words cannot express the disappointment we feel knowing that one of our players was arrested as a result of this investigation. We realize that law enforcement investigations into this matter are ongoing. We support their efforts and respect the process. At this time, we believe this transaction is simply the right thing to do."

Indeed, the right thing to do - and while many around the country are dancing on the metaphoric grave of the Patriot Way, it is important to remember that the actions the team has taken when faced with this grave situation is in line with the very definition of that creed.

They held off with any action against Hernandez out of respect for both the player that they had invested so much in, of law enforcement and the investigative process and of their own legal responsibilities, the language of which states that the team could have released Hernandez the moment that they had confirmation that he was being investigated by police in connection with the homicide:

“If at any time, in the sole judgment of Club, Player’s skill or performance has been unsatisfactory as compared with that of other players competing for positions on Club’s roster, or if Player has engaged in personal conduct reasonably judged by Club to adversely affect or reflect on Club, then Club may terminate this contract.”

But once it became clear on Wednesday morning that Hernandez was in police custody and about to face an arraignment on some sort of felony charge - be it Obstruction of Justice or even Murder - the team had no choice but to invoke this clause and part ways with the troubled tight end.

Now the team's responsibility to the rest of the players on the roster and preparing for the upcoming season can move forward, a game plan in place without the services of Hernandez, which clears a muddled situation and frees up just over $4 million in cap money from his contract for the team to use as it wishes.

How much of the $16 million in actual guaranteed money the team will be able to either recoup or renege on is unclear at this point, given the legal wrangling that is sure to occur, but the cap hit numbers could ultimately prove to be a boon in the Patriots' favor, since the language contained in the CBA affords cap relief should a team release a player under the auspices of the personal conduct clause.

The team will likely attempt to keep the $3.25 million bonus payment due to Hernandez in March of next year as well as his base salaries for both this season and next - all part of the money guaranteed on his contract extension.

But these things will be sorted out in time.  For the moment, the facts are that Aaron Hernandez is in some very hot water.  How deep it gets is the only intrigue left for a fan base that is resigned to the fact that an incredible athlete that was counted on to produce greatly on the field for the next six years will instead likely spend that time under the watchful eyes of prison guards.

The Fall of the House of....

"my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder - there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters - and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the 'House of Usher .' "

The ending of Edgar Allen Poe's greatest prose finds the death of two siblings, mad from anxiety and hypochondria, their senses heightened by such as to foster torment - mad from what they believe their lives to be, mad because they are compelled to be mad, their family history suggesting no other recourse.

Self-fulfilling prophesy is a common theme in Poe's works, and apparently with some of the more volatile of the sometimes cold New England sports media - using the New England Patriots' recent string of personnel hiccups to justify their beliefs that the so-called Patriot Way is dead or, according to many journalists, never existed at all...

...claiming that the "gullible" public had been fleeced by an illusion of integrity created by Robert Kraft and fostered by success unmatched in the decade and a half that Kraft has had Bill Belichick in charge of his personnel - their eyes veiled by the allure and lustre of three shiny trophies - these scribes choosing to narrate the fall of the house of Kraft as if fulfilling their own dark desires to see and end to their own means.

In The Fall of the House of Usher, the protagonist tells the story of trying to comfort an old friend, a friend whom he had not seen in decades, a friend who had become mentally ill through the anxiety that comes with being repressed by things beyond his control.

A friend who asked him to help entomb his sister after she fell into a cataleptic state - knowing full well that she was still alive, witnessing like-episodes in the past - the sister, now quite unhinged and murderous from being buried alive, appears in the friend's bedroom doorway and exacts her revenge upon her brother, given the strength of panic she strangles him in a rage...

...the narrator escaping the terrifying scene just in time, riding away from the house as quickly as a horse could pull his chariot, a flash of light beckoning him to look back to the house, which splits in two and disappears into the stale water of a pond that surrounded the house.

There are no heroes in Poe's classic tale, nor in the filthy drama currently unfolding in an affluent neighborhood just south of Gillette Stadium - only a short list of ne'er do wells and a litany of victims not unlike what you will find every single time that you open that monument to human ugliness called newspapers...

...yet many fans and Boston area journalists are distancing themselves from the New England Patriots in the wake of the Hernandez saga, and while the homicide investigation is ongoing, both fans and writers alike are preparing their lists of indiscretions, fulfilling their own prophesy of being users and fixers and plagiarists.

The Patriot Way is in itself a self-fulfilling prophesy, a set of standards and clichés conceived by the media to explain how a franchise that had been downtrodden and the doormat of the NFL for many years suddenly became the organization to which all other organizations were compared...

...a set of coattails created for fans and journalists to ride as far as the good times last, and then a springboard from which to jump as far overboard as they can when they perceive the ship is about to sink.

A standard that the Kraft family embraced, though not in so many words - as you will seldom hear anyone in the organization use them - an impromptu and unofficial mission statement that they never tried to do anything but culture and to edify, doing the best that they could to uphold a standard that they knew could never be reached, given the ambiguity of human nature - because they really had no choice.

Because in the end, football is a business and, not unlike any other business, the boss will sermonize to their charges that, as an employee, they represent the company, their family and their core values.  Nobody wants to hire lazy people.  Nobody wants to hire selfish people who have only their own best interest in mind.

Nobody wants to hire someone who may or may not eventually have something to do with the death of another human being, yet it happens every single day in this country - but you seldom open your newspaper to read the type of derogatory swill that the New England media is laying on the Patriots in the light of the Patriots' summer of misery.

In the history of business, there are many corporations in many different fields that have hired people that have ended up committing crimes, that have ended up being fired for incompetence or can not escape their painful past - yet these corporations are not viewed to have strayed from their mission statement.

The United States Postal Service have endured many strange and violent periods, yet the mantra "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" still resonates - and we still get our mail.

Print publications are not immune to hiring people who have had brushes with the law - nor have journalists always followed the canons of ethics like truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability - yet our newspapers are still at the front door every morning.

The New England Patriots are in the business of winning football games.  They hire people talented in their field of endeavor, many college graduates, but with the same unfamiliarity as any other person.  Some businesses take on employees with troubled pasts or with a history of injury in hopes that the past will be left behind and a change in venue will help the person be all they can be.

Taking chances are part of business.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose - and sometimes you take a series of hard knocks that can be construed into a losing streak, but winners never give up - and that is the true meaning of the recently emasculated credo.

The Patriots may have just been doing the same things as everyone else in the Kraft era, as suggested by more than one writer, but also have doing it consistently better and for longer than any other team in the league.

Why?  Because the Patriots Way does exist.

The Patriots Way doesn't mean perfection.  The Patriots way means doing your best, striving to realize the zenith of their profession - along the way affording opportunity to players who may have lost their way - if it doesn't work, then it didn't work.  Not every idea does, but every once in a while a gem emerges as a result of the given opportunity that no other team could absorb without falling apart...

...their want and desire to be better than everyone else a creed that has existed in human nature since the beginning of time, and is essential to the success of any business endeavor - the Patriot Way is strong and it will survive, because to people with souls and consciences it means so much more than something created to be destroyed.

It is at times like these that I wonder why I ever dreamed of being a sports writer, as it seems that people who do actually make it in the world of journalism tend to lose their passion and integrity along the way - but then I stop and think that if someone were to give me the opportunity that I could be different, that there would be no way that I could ever lose my passion for the game and for my teams but, just like any other human, I would be prone to putting my soul up for sale to achieve my goals...

...so I understand how writers corrupt their sense of objectivity, but will never understand how people can ride the coattails of whatever entity took them where they were going, then criticize the manner in which the people wearing the coattails got them to their destination.

The Patriot Way bandwagon is being abandoned like rats fleeing a sinking ship - the Patriots' ship is not sinking, but the perception of the Patriot Way being dead has droves of fickle fans and media criticizing and scrutinizing their every move - which is curious, because since the Patriot Way is a product of people who can't stand upon their skill and merit alone, they are only criticizing themselves...

...so on second thought, please continue.  You are quite good at it.

"Never create anything, it will be misinterpreted, it will chain you and follow you for the rest of your life.”

Dr. Hunter S, Thompson

Victims; aren't we all....except punks

Anger.

Since the beginning of the Patriots' dynastic run with Bill Belichick, football has witnessed all manner of bad behavior, from drunk driving to murder to suicide, the spectrum of malfeasance is so broad that it threatened to take entire teams down into the gutter with it.

And there we were up in the 6 weird little states that comprise New England, Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft with a stern hand on the wheel, not a care in the world as our beloved team stomped everyone in their path - on the football field, that is - shut out from the horrors that enveloped other franchises...

...and then, yes.

Anger.  I am angry.  Perhaps I have no right to be - but as a fan of football, a fan of the Patriots and, most importantly, a fan of humanity and truth, I am angry that on an early Monday morning, a young man that I never knew, a big man, a linebacker for a semi-pro football team was in a situation in which he was powerless to use his strength and his heft, then someone fired a bullet into his brain.

I am angry that someone had such hate in his own brain and heart that he would stand behind this powerful yet powerless man and purposely end his life.

I am frightened.  Frightened that this young man who is considerably younger, bigger and stronger than I was overwhelmed and executed.  How many men did it take to do the job?  One? Two?  More? Did he die immediately or was he left to bleed out in that lonely patch of weeds? 

The details, we don't need to know.  That is for a jury to hear, see and live with for the rest of their lives.  All we need to know is that a young man is dead, and someone killed him.

Was that someone Aaron Hernandez, one of his friends or someone else altogether?  Regardless, 27 year old Odin Lloyd will be laid to rest soon, leaving many family and friends with a huge void in their lives and hearts.

Everyone assumes that they know Hernandez to a certain extent, the "Rainmaker" who wears tattoos all over his body as badges of honor, of courage, and as tributes to his late father - either the fans that know him as a skilled pass catcher and count on him to deliver on the football field, or the close friends who know him in his personal life, the ones who call him "Chico"...

...but who knows Odin Lloyd?  To most of us, he's some dude that turned up dead in some weeds near an industrial park, a bullet fired into the back of his head, execution style - and the guy that got Hernandez in hot water.

This is wrong.

Lloyd didn't ask someone to put a bullet in his brain, he didn't force someone to stand behind him and end his life.  Whoever is found to be responsible for the death of the man, should and will be punished, and if it turns out to be Hernandez, then the pro bowl quality tight end will have to trade in his Patriots' silver and blue for whatever garb is appropriate for prison wear these days.

Whoever did this got themselves in the hot water.

Odin Lloyd played on high school football fields for the Boston Bandits, a semi-pro football league where players have to pay for the right to play, in essence - some in hopes of being noticed by some lower level scout and given a chance to play for pay in the Arena League or maybe even in Canada.

Most are just regular guys, trying to get by and not ready to give up on the game they loved as kids.

"Firefighters, dentists, accountants. These guys play for the love of the game and for the actual physical contact." says Tom Torrisi, the CEO of the well-established New England Football League, of which the Bandits are a charter member.

"Things are hunky dory, well and good, and this ruins everything," Torrisi continued, "The sting is devastating. This isn't the NFL; we're not equipped for this."

Nobody is equipped to deal with something like this - not even the murderers, who don't stop to think that they are taking someone's son, father, brother from them, not until it's too late - if they did stop for a split second to ponder this notion, perhaps it wouldn't have happened - but it did, and in the end all that anyone can hope for is that the killers are caught, though that won't ever bring back the dead.

Same for the people who know about the murder and try to cover it up.  That's a crime as well.  Obstruction of justice, accessory after the fact, what have you.  If Hernandez was involved, he needs to pay the price.  If not, then we'll still cheer for him on Sundays...

...but it needs to be remembered that Hernandez is not a victim here - not in any way, shape or form.  He may not have pulled the trigger, but he knows something about how it happened and, thus far, he isn't saying.  But it bears repeating - Even if it turns out that Hernandez is being set up, as some Patriots' fans are speculating, he still is not a victim.

Victims don't choose to put their careers, friends and newborn daughters on the line, choosing the plaudits of punk friends over the love of their family or the adoration of their fans.  They don't hand over the spoils of their charmed lives for the violence of the streets of their youth.  Victims don't choose handguns and iron bars over touchdowns and millions of dollars.

Victims die in fields.  Victims get a knock on the door in the early morning hours to be told that their son had been murdered.

Victims lie on a cold stainless steel table down at the coroner's office while their families and friends shed tears of grief - victims sit in courtrooms and watch helplessly as the man or men that they thought they knew and loved are sentenced to prison for the better parts of their lives - because when someone commits a murder, it ruins lives on both ends of the gun...

...and whoever killed Lloyd is a punk and a cold-blooded murderer.  If that turns out to be the Patriots' star tight end, then I suppose no one really knew Hernandez - and at least one person wishes he'd have never met him.

If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.

Odin Lloyd, dead at 27.

Aaron Hernandez: Patriot's Way gives way to can of worms

It's called a can of worms, and it's label reads "81"

According to the Urban Dictionary, to say that one has opened a can of worms for themselves means that they have gotten themselves in a tricky situation which will require a great deal of effort to resolve.

With this being true, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez may want to hide any and all can openers, because there appears to be more than one can in his cupboard...

For the second day in a row, police showed up at the Hernandez residence in North Attleboro, this time as part of an effort to recover the weapon used to kill 27 year old Odin Lloyd, an associate of the Patriots' star tight end, who was found less than a mile from the home with a bullet hole in his head.

Search parties combed the woods and front yards of homes between the crime scene and Hernandez's home - which yielded a gun not believed to be the sought after firearm, which is disturbing enough in itself, but nothing compared to the fact that the search went no further than Hernadez's front door...

...coupled with the news that Hernandez was being sued by another associate for February shooting in which the alleged victim reportedly lost an eye and the use of his right arm when Hernandez pointed a gun that he didn't have a permit for and discharged it into the man's arm after the two men left a Florida strip club, reportedly in a midst of a heated argument suggests a disturbing, at the very least.

Human nature dictates that trust is a most difficult concept for many, and things like this is why.  But in 2010 when Bill Belichick told us that his 4th round draft pick was a steal for the team, and the fact that he was a pot head didn't make any difference in the grand scheme, we believed him...

...and why not?  Bill brought us shiny trophies, and it turned out ok, right?  Good enough for Robert Kraft to offer a historic contract extension for the New England native - which deepened our trust, because Kraft insists on players of good conscience and proper behavior regardless of talent level, and don't we all trust him implicitly?

So how disappointed did Kraft have to be when les flics decended on Hernandez's posh crib not far from Kraft's offices at Gillette Stadium armed with search warrants and tales of dark malfeasance - hoping to explain why a young aquaintence of Hernandez was found not a mile from his home with a bullet in his brain?

How discouraged did Bill Belichick have to be that his not so secret weapon was responsible for a rental car that was somehow a key piece of evidence in a murder investigation, and now instead of playing football on Sundays may instead be entertaining visitors in the prison commons?

How mortified were they both when they found out that the man that they trusted and invested $40 million in to secure his services and were expecting pro bowl quality performance from his enormous potential, is in fact a multiple felon with a gun fetish?

And how disheatened are the fans who counted on Hernandez being on the field, eventually teaming with bookend Rob Gronkowski to form the most formidable two tight end attack in the NFL - and instead may become no more than a bitterly disappointing trivia question?  Not even taking into account how the recent events impact his immediate family?

Hernandez's sudden and shocking fall from grace in the perception of the public has been so abrupt that not even adrenalin junkies can make sense of it - but that's where this thing sits at the moment, leaving much in a capricious state...

...but one thing is certain: Hernandez's actions, whether he is innocent or guilty of the heinous crime, has let down his boss, his coach, his team and his fans, and has every other fan base from coast to coast - and every media outlet in the country trashing the image of the Patriot way.

And not just for the events of the past couple of days, but for anything that comes from the incident in Florida - and it would surprise no one if Hernandez would have to answer questions regarding consealed weapons and lack of proper permits to carry such, not to mention discharging the thing in his friend's face.

It really doesn't matter if he was involved in the killing.  Public perception has convicted him already, because just the fact that every filthy path leads back to his front door, and his reported non-cooperative attitude with the investigation along with the fact that things are being carried out of his house in big boxes marked "evidence" has to give even the most ardent of Patriots' followers pause.

And with the news breaking that he apparently has a history with settling arguments with hot lead, the media and public already have an orange jumpsuit picked out for him, Massachusetts Inmate number 00000081...

New England Patriots: Gronk laid up, Hernandez embroiled in homicide investigation

The New England Patriots offseason of horrors for their stable of talented tight ends has taken another turn, this one right up an alley into the surreal.

While the "Batman" of their dynamic duo lies recovering in a Los Angeles hospital after undergoing back surgery Tuesday morning, "Robin", aka Aaron Hernandez, has become the media focus of a criminal investigation in Massachusetts.

Somewhere in Gotham, the Joker is smiling.

Attempts at injecting humor aside, the grim news out of North Attleboro has Patriots Nation asking how much more the team can absorb without losing their season before it begins.

The news out of Los Angeles is encouraging, sources telling the NFL Network that Rob Gronkowski's back procedure went very well, and he should be ready for contact toward the end of preseason.

The same can not be said for the investigation of a suspected homicide, the body of a man that was discovered by a jogger on Monday evening in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez's home linked to the Patriots' tight end as possibly an "associate of number 81".

Of course, Hernandez wears 81 for the Patriots.

Several major news outlets have reported that police sought and were granted a search warrant for Hernandez home in connection with the investigation, and that two men that were in Hernandez' home when police arrived attempted to leave but were detained by officers.

Though authorities are claiming that Hernandez is not a suspect, the fact that a search warrant was issued and people detained in his home does not bode well for the new father and suddenly wealthy University of Florida product.  If it turns out that either of the men had anything to do with the alleged murder, the consequences to Hernandez could be far reaching.

At issue is a rented 2013 Chevrolet Suburban with Rhode Island license plates being a "vehicle of interest" in the case. It is reported that the vehicle is registered to Enterprise, and that Hernandez's name is tied to the rental vehicle, though the police are releasing few details at this time.

Though rumor and speculation are running rampant, there are confirmed reports that Hernandez has been uncooperative with police, which could mean anything from refusing to speak without an attorney present to not allowing authorities into his house without a warrant.

SI.com, ABCNews.com and USA Today are reporting sources.