Football star Aaron Hernandez went from the bright lights of the Super Bowl to a convicted murderer in a few years. The Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, best known for its investigation of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Catholic Church, takes a hard look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez’s life and terrible crimes.
From Wondery, the podcast team that brought you Dr. Death, Spotlight asks: Did a brain badly damaged by football contribute to Hernandez’s violent behavior? Did he keep secrets about his sexuality that collided with a hyper-masculine football culture? Did elite coaches and teams look the other way as Hernandez was spiraling out of control?
Spotlight uncovered new documents, audio, and interviews to go deep into the story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez, and what it means for those of us who cheer on a violent game.
Date | Title & Description | Contributors |
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2024-11-12 | Patty Wen goes behind the scenes with the creators of FX’s American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. Showrunner Stuart Zicherman shares his process of translating the Gladiator podcast for television, including the exhilaration of bringing the Patriots’ ... | |
2024-10-08 | Actors Thomas Sadoski and Norbert Leo Butz join Patty Wen to talk about the new FX series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez. Sadoski, who plays Hernandez’s agent Brian Murphy, and Butz, who plays Patriots' coach Bill Belichick, discuss how they br... | |
2024-09-17 |
Josh Rivera on Becoming Aaron Hernandez in FX’s American Sports Story Patty Wen is joined by actor Josh Rivera, the star of the new FX series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez, adapted from the podcast Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc. from Wondery and The Boston Globe. They talk about his preparation to ... |
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2024-09-07 | Join NFL Insider and social media breakout star, Annie Agar, as she tackles the world of fantasy football, odds, props and parlays in “The Offensive Line.” Each week, Annie will break down the NFL’s juiciest and trendiest matchups and drama in her sign... | |
2023-12-08 | 1989 Boston. The crack epidemic is raging, the murder rate soaring, and white flight has taken hold. Charles Stuart and his pregnant wife, Carol, are carjacked, drawn deep into a dangerous “inner city” neighborhood, and allegedly shot by a Black man. A... | |
2021-08-26 | In the early 2000s, the Paralympics were headlined by star sprinters Marlon Shirley and Brian Frasure, when suddenly a new challenger emerged –– a teenager from South Africa named Oscar Pistorius. He immediately began dominating the sport, winning meda... | |
2021-08-16 | Paolo is a smart and handsome surgeon, renowned for his ability to perform surgeries that transform his patients’ lives. When television producer Benita covers him for a story, he’ll transform her life too, but not in the ways she expects. As Benita cr... | |
2021-01-19 | If you could call a number and say you’re sorry, and no one would know…what would you apologize for? For fifteen years, you could call a number in Manhattan and do just that. This is the story of the line, and the man at the other end who became consum... | |
2019-01-29 | The New England Patriots are in the Super Bowl again, and many current NFL players are feeling the physical toll the season has taken. Aaron Hernandez spoke to his former teammates nearly every day from prison: about the injuries they endured, and the ... | |
2018-11-20 | Aaron Hernandez died in 2017 but his life still raises questions. On this special episode Liz Dolan, host of “Safe For Work” and “Satellite Sisters,” speaks with Bob Hohler of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team about the making of Gladiator, and the one... |