Dateline Aaron Hernandez: Heavy PCP Use Helped Destroy Former Star Tight End?

by Patrick H. Moore

The Aaron Hernandez case has been full of twists and turns. When it was first announced that he was a person of interest in the Odin Lloyd murder, I’m sure very few of us expected him to ultimately be charged not only with Lloyd’s murder, but to also be under suspicion of having committed an earlier double murder in Boston. Now today come new revelations of heavy PCP use based on a teaser from an upcoming Rolling Stone magazine article.

Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was allegedly a regular user of the hallucinogenic drug PCP, and had become so paranoid by heavy use that he had started carrying a gun wherever he went, according to a report due out this week in Rolling Stone magazine.

The story, written by magazine contributing editor Paul Solotaroff, also alleges that Hernandez’s college coach at the University of Florida, Urban Meyer, “may have helped cover up failed drug tests” by Hernandez, as well as an assault and a drive-by shooting outside a local bar in Gainesville, Fla.

Now it’s not at all surprising that A. Hernandez was on drugs; rather, it would be surprising if he wasn’t. But I didn’t anticipate PCP. Garbage dope for the truly mindless. A drug that makes you think you’re Superman driving 120 miles an hour in a closet.

Naturally, Hernandez’ former coach Urban Meyer, who is now sitting pretty at Ohio State University, has repeatedly denied accusations that he may have looked the other way with a wink wink nod nod while enabling lawless behavior by Hernandez when he was at Florida. Meyer recently texted The Columbus Dispatch that “Hernandez was held to the same drug testing policy as every other player. … “Our staff, myself and our families worked very hard to mentor and guide him.”

Going into this season, the native of Bristol, Conn. had signed a five-year contract extension with a guaranteed $12.5 million signing bonus that was due to kick in after this coming season. The Rolling Stone article alleges that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was so fed up with Hernandez missing practice and pulling what the preview describes as “thug-life stunts” that the tight end was one incident away from being cut from the team.

Prior to being drafted by the Patriots, Hernandez admitted to marijuana use. He had failed at least one drug test while at the University of Florida. But few, I’m sure, expected the PCP bombshell. In addition to producing hallucinations, perhaps reminiscent of dinosaur life, PCP can also create a sense of “depersonalization and derealization,” as if the whole world is reduced to living in a kind of hollow tube in which you literally experience extreme tunnel vision. Paranoia? Hell, yeah! Guns? A bloody necessity. I think actually committing murder while on PCP is probably fairy rare but, in theory, if one was to kill while under the influence of the drug, the sense of depersonalization one would be experiencing would seem to remove all sense of reality from the murderous act.

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The Rolling Stone article also alleges that Hernandez’s mother, Terri, cheated on her husband, Dennis, with a drug dealer named Jeffrey Cummings, whom she married after her husband’s death in 2006. If this is true, it would explain to some degree why A. Hernandez went off the rails so conclusively following his father’s death. The loss of a parent combined with your mother’s infidelity would be hard for any adolescent to handle. Now throw in PCP and guns — not to mention the endless cheap attention heaped upon the pampered sports star — and you have the perfect recipe for disaster.