In the final installment of its six-part series on Aaron Hernandez, The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team examines chronic traumatic encephalopathy and its consequences.
An analysis of Hernandez’s brain following his suicide revealed the 27-year-old was suffering from the worst case of CTE ever seen in someone so young, according to Boston University researchers.
Though they declined to speak to The Globe for the piece, another brain specialist, Dr. Sam Gandy of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, would.
An expert on head trauma, Gandy described Hernandez’s brain as “ravaged” by CTE and said it was “undeniable” there was a connection between the degenerative brain condition and the former football player’s actions.
“It’s impossible for me to look at the severity of CTE and Mr. Hernandez’s brain and not think that that had a profound effect on his behavior,” Gandy said.
Still, while the condition might explain some of Hernandez’s behavior, it does not absolve him of it.
At least that’s how Doug Sheff, an attorney who settled a wrongful-death lawsuit with Hernandez’s estate following the killing of Odin Llyod, sees it.
“Absolutely nothing excuses Aaron Hernandez’s behavior. It’s egregious. It’s horrific. It’s inexcusable. It’s evil,” Sheff said. “But there are more than one type of evil in the world, and brain injury is one of them. Maybe brain injury is part of the answer.”
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