New England Patriots team president Jonathan Kraft is angrily disputing growing reports management knew about at least some of former tight end Aaron Hernandez's wayward ways prior to his arrest on first-degree murder charges.
According to a recent Rolling Stone article, Hernandez told coach Bill Belichick he feared for his life in the days and weeks leading up to the June 17 killing of Odin Lloyd he is now charged for and jailed without bond in connection with.
The magazine reports Belichick's advice to the 23-year-old, whom the team had only recently signed to a five-year, $40 million extension, was to "get a safe house and lie low."
"I actually saw Bill--- I think I would've known if that had ever happened--- but I saw Bill today and I said, 'Bill, did Aaron ever tell you his life was in danger? And he's like, 'Absolutely not.' If a player had told Bill his life was in danger, Bill would say we're calling team director of security, we're calling the authorities," Kraft told ESPN.
The Rolling Stone article further asserts not only did the team know about some of Hernandez's transgressions, Belichick even threatened to cut him if his bad behaviour continued, including missing any more practices or arriving late for team meetings.
"If we had known what people seem to think we know about Aaron Hernandez, we would not have done that deal," Kraft told ESPN in raising the issue of the contract they had just inked him to."And Bill would never threaten a player with being cut 12 months down the road; it makes no sense, both in terms of how you're interacting with the player and in terms of the cap."
Among the other elements of the article that Kraft disputed was the number of offseason workouts Hernandez participated in, making him eligible for a now disputed $82,000 workout bonus the team refuses to pay out to him.
Kraft told ESPN Hernandez participated in 25 of 33 offseason workouts, which fall short of the 90 percent stipulated in his contract needed for the bonus.
"Here's the bottom line on the contract and everything else: In our history of owning this team, we have only signed two players who were drafted players after two years of playing," said Kraft. "So giving them an extension, a new deal, an extension beyond their rookie deal, effectively their first free-agent contract because we do not sign players early like that. One was Ron Gronkowski and one was Aaron Hernandez, and we commit a lot of money before we had to. Our family doesn't like to do that if we feel like we're not making a good decision. I can tell you that Bill Belichick doesn't like doing that, either. Those cap dollars are precious."
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