Twitter Reacts To Aaron Hernandez's 'Severe' CTE Diagnosis

Aaron Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins-Hernandez, and lawyer, Jose Baez, announced Thursday that they filed a lawsuit against the National Football League and the New England Patriots for failing to “disclose, treat or protect him from the dangers” of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma.

The 27-year-old star athlete died by suicide in April at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, where he was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. The suit, which was filed in a Massachusetts court on behalf of Hernandez’s daughter, Avielle Janelle Hernandez, claimed the NFL and the Patriots were aware that continuing to play football placed Hernandez at higher risk of developing brain degeneration.

During Thursday’s press conference, Baez said Hernandez had “the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron’s age.” The athlete was a top trend on Twitter following news of his diagnosis, with several users commenting on the issue.

Many specifically commented on what the revelation could mean for the future of the NFL.

“Aaron had stage 3 CTE usually seen in players with a median age of death of 67 years,” said the suit. “By the time Aaron entered the NFL, in 2010, [the Patriots and NFL] were fully aware of the damage that could be inflicted from repetitive impact injuries and failed to disclose treat, or protect him from the dangers of such damage.”

The lawsuit added that the Patriots and NFL “knew, or should have know, it was not safe for Aaron to continue playing football and that extending Aaron’s football career placed him at greater risk for neurological degeneration.”

Hernandez hanged himself from the cell bars of his prison cell on April 19. Just days prior, the Patriots star had been acquitted of the double homicide of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado outside a Boston nightclub in July 2012.

Baez said earlier this year that the athlete’s suicide came as a shock to Hernandez’s legal team and family, adding, “There were no conversations or correspondence from Aaron to his family or legal team that would have indicated anything like this was possible.”